NASA reveals secret supersonic airplane that quiets the sonic boom to a thump

Reminds me of this

Saw a program where one of the engineers was describing how they came to choose this shape, as the earlier designs and models all made a big boom when passing through tunnels at speed, and if the driver went too fast, they’d shatter windows with a really loud one.

They understood it was ripples, and one noticed that kingfishers were able to enter still water with barely a splash or ripple. So the design of the front of the train is the same as a kingfisher’s head… and so, noticeably is this plane.

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