Jay481985 Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 A few years ago we were watching the late news 10 pm and about halfway through they said the Shuttle was going to land back in Florida and if it was on schedule they would show the landing on the news broadcast. Next they said it will be passing over our area in the next few minutes and you will be able to see it. We told the kids let's go out in the front drive way and see if we could see it ? We were standing out there for about 5 minutes and thought we missed it, we were expecting something kind of small like a shooting star or a little bigger, they didn't say how close or how big it should look . About 2 minutes later we seen a small glow in the sky to the West heading toward us, Christy said that must be it, and it was. What happened next left us all standing there looking like this [:|]. When it flew past which only took maby 10 seconds from start to finish it was UNBELIAVEABLE. It was much closer than we expected, which made it look much bigger. Something we didn't expect was it had sparks and fire with a long trailing tail of sparks, that's what it looked like at least ! I didn't expect it to have sparks and a leave a trail of smoke after it was out of site ! I had no idea that reentry lasted that long and at that low of an altitude ? After it passed we went back inside to see the news and just a couple minutes later they showed the landing in Florida ! It went from the New Orleans / south Mississippi area to Florida in a couple of minutes ! It was amazing and something everyone should have a chance to see. Ever since that night whenever I hear the Shuttle is going to land I look to see if it's going to pass over us again ! I have never seen it again, although next time I will take some pics or a movie, I will never forget it ! dtel, the space shuttle upon reentry goes about 13000 mph the burning is actually air molecules since its going that fast and hits the air, think of a person jumping off a tall building and landing in water but doing a belly flop..... the space shuttle does a big bellow flop on the way down. (that is why the space shuttle is black on the bottom cause all the heat tiles are on the bottom.) if god forbid the shuttle entered the wrong way, it would burn up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 You'd be surprised as to how much sound the Shuttle makes when it's just gliding. I always expected to hear 'nothing', but it's not that way at all....Sounds like a distant jet. The Shuttle, emits twin sonic booms in quick succession, like a double barrel shotgun going off nearby, but EVERYTHING rattles. Even if you're prepared for it, it still scares the hell out of you. It's worse when you forget about the landing and you're backing your truck up in a parkling lot. Talking about crapping in your pants.....[:|] Its just like your car, have you ever gone past 100 mph hear all the engine noise..... Try next time in a safe place go 100 mph and then put your engine in neutral and hear how much wind noise there is even compared to 80 mph, 65 mph etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brac Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 That must have been way cool, I used to live in FL and got to see a few launches[] we even flew over the launch site once. Flying a Cesna, long story but after yelling at us for a few minutes they told us to stay straight and level or else!!!! Never got to see a landing. now that were in Maine it isn't likely to fly over.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscarsear Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Here's a dumb question. If we get this sound evoked when the barrier is broken do we get again, or anything similar when the object decelerates back though the same barrier? The sonic boom is caused by a pressure wave produced when the aircraft reaches Mach 1 (the speed of sound). It's a continuous sound that trails the aircraft like a bow wave from a boat. A listener on the ground hears it as a boom when it passes by, but the sound is travelling at the same speed as the aircraft producing it. The sound starts when the aircraft reaches Mach 1 and continues as long as it travels at speeds in excess of Mach 1. That's how I understand it, at least. This begs the question as to what acceleration does to the sound of breaking the barrier. Does the same jet breaking the barrier at one speed produce the same sound that it would at twice the speed? Does the sound following a jet remain the same if that jet continues to accelerate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oscarsear Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Here's a dumb question. If we get this sound evoked when the barrier is broken do we get again, or anything similar when the object decelerates back though the same barrier? The sonic boom is caused by a pressure wave produced when the aircraft reaches Mach 1 (the speed of sound). It's a continuous sound that trails the aircraft like a bow wave from a boat. A listener on the ground hears it as a boom when it passes by, but the sound is travelling at the same speed as the aircraft producing it. The sound starts when the aircraft reaches Mach 1 and continues as long as it travels at speeds in excess of Mach 1. That's how I understand it, at least. This begs the question as to what acceleration does to the sound of breaking the barrier. Does the same jet breaking the barrier at one speed produce the same sound that it would at twice the speed? Does the sound following a jet remain the same if that jet continues to accelerate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockets Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 RE; Does the sound following a jet remain the same if that jet continues to accelerate? The Doppler effect says no, but then again at super sonic speeds you'd never hear it coming, only it's passing...or maybe I'm not reading you right. I think once you break the sound barrier, it doesn't matter how fast you continue to accelerate, the sound would be the same...but I could be wrong.. Subsonically, unless the plane is within a few thousand feet you'd probably never hear the difference. Just recently we had an airshow nearby. The difference in sound between an F-16 vs. an F-18 vs. the new F-22 were all night and day. The aircraft all passed within 1500 ft, and directly overhead. I have to say the F-18 was absolutely the loudest, and the F-22 was far more directional...no doubt due to it's vectored nozzles and one hell of a turning radius. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 shockwaves are produced by the supersonic speed but the strength is directly proportional to the speed of the craft Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted November 12, 2007 Moderators Share Posted November 12, 2007 A few years ago we were watching the late news 10 pm and about halfway through they said the Shuttle was going to land back in Florida and if it was on schedule they would show the landing on the news broadcast. Next they said it will be passing over our area in the next few minutes and you will be able to see it. We told the kids let's go out in the front drive way and see if we could see it ? We were standing out there for about 5 minutes and thought we missed it, we were expecting something kind of small like a shooting star or a little bigger, they didn't say how close or how big it should look . About 2 minutes later we seen a small glow in the sky to the West heading toward us, Christy said that must be it, and it was. What happened next left us all standing there looking like this [:|]. When it flew past which only took maby 10 seconds from start to finish it was UNBELIAVEABLE. It was much closer than we expected, which made it look much bigger. Something we didn't expect was it had sparks and fire with a long trailing tail of sparks, that's what it looked like at least ! I didn't expect it to have sparks and a leave a trail of smoke after it was out of site ! I had no idea that reentry lasted that long and at that low of an altitude ? After it passed we went back inside to see the news and just a couple minutes later they showed the landing in Florida ! It went from the New Orleans / south Mississippi area to Florida in a couple of minutes ! It was amazing and something everyone should have a chance to see. Ever since that night whenever I hear the Shuttle is going to land I look to see if it's going to pass over us again ! I have never seen it again, although next time I will take some pics or a movie, I will never forget it ! dtel, the space shuttle upon reentry goes about 13000 mph the burning is actually air molecules since its going that fast and hits the air, think of a person jumping off a tall building and landing in water but doing a belly flop..... the space shuttle does a big bellow flop on the way down. (that is why the space shuttle is black on the bottom cause all the heat tiles are on the bottom.) if god forbid the shuttle entered the wrong way, it would burn up. I just didn't expect it to be still be" what looked like it was on fire" when it got to that low of an altitude. I also thought it would have slowed down enough to stop that much heat build up by then. But I was definitely wrong, it was amazing ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Adams Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 Here's some interesting reading related to sonic boom and what my company is working on. http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/061011_techwed_sonicboom.html http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/10/04/217632/gulfstream-develops-low-boom-supersonic-nozzle-for-ssbj.html Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 Here's a dumb question. If we get this sound evoked when the barrier is broken do we get again, or anything similar when the object decelerates back though the same barrier? The sonic boom is caused by a pressure wave produced when the aircraft reaches Mach 1 (the speed of sound). It's a continuous sound that trails the aircraft like a bow wave from a boat. A listener on the ground hears it as a boom when it passes by, but the sound is travelling at the same speed as the aircraft producing it. The sound starts when the aircraft reaches Mach 1 and continues as long as it travels at speeds in excess of Mach 1. That's how I understand it, at least. Correct. The airplane "drags" the boom (pressure wave) along the ground. There is one pressure wave from the leading edge and another from the trailing edges. Thus, Ba-Boom. Since the airplane is likely at 30,000 feet+/-, the Ba-Boom is many miles behind it nd attenuated by the distance. The F-22 was flight tested over SE TN for several years. I loved to hear the boom, every Saturday and several times during the week at work. I guess too many people complained. It was not that loud and was just too cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizRotus Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 If a Plymouth Satellite were approaching the speed of sound on a conveyor belt what sounds would the keyboards make as forum members debate the take off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 "Inannagoddadavida Babeeeeeeee......" as the factory installed 8 track playing Iron Butterfly passes by...[:|] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flannj Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 If a Plymouth Satellite were approaching the speed of sound on a conveyor belt what sounds would the keyboards make as forum members debate the take off? It would sound like the B-52's of course. She came from Planet Claire I knew she came from there She drove a Plymouth Satellite Faster than the speed of light Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2007/11/19/sr-71-now-that-was-some-airplane/ pretty good article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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