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A little info on mach speed


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So I mostly fly in the F-22 Raptor and so I fly at an unrealistic cruise speed of mach 2.35 at the capable in real life 50,000 feet. The jet can reach 65,000 feet, but I seldom venture up that high. So one day I wanted to know just how far one could hear a sonic boom. A little Googling told me that you can hear a sonic boom 1 mile for every thousand miles in altitude. So if you're at 30,000 feet and are mach 1 you can hear the sonic boom for 30 miles. Consequently, if you're at 30,000 feet and are at mach 2 you can hear two sonic booms for 30 miles. Keep in mind this is in all directions of the aircraft for 30 miles.

 

I got the opportunity to hear two consecutive sonic booms myself. While living in Riverside, California my dad took me to Edwards Air Force Base (KEDW) to watch the space shuttle land. All of a sudden using binoculars you can see this little white dot way up there doing circles and then two sonic booms bounced off the desert dry lake bed. It was pretty cool. The place reminded me of how it must be like if one were to be at Area-51 which turns out that KEDW is an extension of Area-51 (KXTA). Now the ICAO more than likely didn't give "Area-51" that airport code, but I've read that's what it may be. Perhaps in documentation or something. I don't know.

 

Where have I been in my F-22? Around the world four times to many, many, many countries up to and including out in the middle of nowhere Mongolia, and touched all seven continents. :D And did I care if I broke the sound barrier over land? Nope! LOL :pilot:

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