on 6/19/02 1:09 AM, Jon Glass at jonglass_at_mac.com wrote:
> on 6/18/02 9:32 PM, Eric L. Strobel at fyzycyst_at_comcast.net wrote:
>
>> I think the areas where supersonic flight is allowed are defined by some
>> maximum allowable overpressure on the ground. (I guess to keep from
>> frightening small children and livestock... :-) )
>
> ...and busting windows...
Nah, I think you gotta be going pretty low and fast to do that. When I was
in grade school (gulp, back in the mid-60s) there was a local guy that was a
Navy pilot and he'd occasionally fly up over our school at recess time. And
he'd sometimes announce himself with a sonic boom. Not all the time, but
about half the time. All the kids thought it was great and it was a bit of
free PR for the military. Whatever altitude or conditions he did it under,
it was loud, but never enough to crack windows.
>
>> Pensacola, huh? Have you heard a shuttle's boom? If so, how do the two
>> compare?
> Cape Canaveral is about an 8 hour's drive from P'cola. But I did watch the
> shuttle once--from about 20 miles away. It was powerful. The ground shook in
> Melbourne, where we were watching it. And the fire from the engines was so
> bright that it was difficult to look at directly. I was amazed that we could
> be that far away, and still experience it so viscerally. If there was a
> sonic boom, I'm sure it was overpowered by the engines. :-)
No, I mean the boom when they're coming in for a landing. I know that on
some orbital tracks the path brings them down across the Panhandle and over
the Gulf and then a curving path over central Fla. to land at the Cape. And
over the Panhandle they'd be actually somewhat lower (I think) than the
Aurora allegedly flies. Anyway, there's a characteristic double boom (don't
recall off hand the exact reason why it's double).
>
>> Hey, maybe he was ordered to go intercept a UFO or something... :-)
>
> Or trying to get back in time for tea? ;-)
I hardly think they're going fast enough to go back in time... :-)
- Eric.
--Eric Strobel (fyzycyst_at_NOSPAM^mailaps.org)
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