Flight Demonstration Of Low Overpressure N-Wave Sonic Booms And Evanescent Waves
Abstract
The recent flight demonstration of shaped sonic booms shows the potential for quiet overland supersonic flight, which could revolutionize air transport. To successfully design quiet supersonic aircraft, the upper limit of an acceptable noise level must be determined through quantitative recording and subjective human response measurements. Past efforts have concentrated on the use of sonic boom simulators to assess human response, but simulators often cannot reproduce a realistic sonic boom sound. Until now, molecular relaxation effects on low overpressure rise time had never been compared with flight data. Supersonic flight slower than the cutoff Mach number, which generates evanescent waves, also prevents loud sonic booms from impacting the ground. The loudness of these evanescent waves can be computed, but flight measurement validation is needed. A novel flight demonstration technique that generates low overpressure N-waves using conventional military aircraft is outlined, in addition to initial quantitative flight data. As part of this demonstration, evanescent waves also will be recorded.
- Publication:
-
Innovations in Nonlinear Acoustics
- Pub Date:
- May 2006
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.2210436
- Bibcode:
- 2006AIPC..838..647H
- Keywords:
-
- 43.28.Mw;
- 43.28.Gq;
- 43.50.Rq;
- 43.50.Lj;
- Shock and blast waves sonic boom;
- Outdoor sound propagation and scattering in a turbulent atmosphere and in non-uniform flow fields;
- Environmental noise measurement analysis statistical characteristics;
- Transportation noise sources: air road rail and marine vehicles