

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF SUPERSONIC PASSENGER TRAVEL - AND SONIC BOOMS? In 2021, a sonic boom from F-15 fighter jets caused widespread concern that there was an earthquake on the Oregon coast. In 2003, British Airways and Air France both stopped Concorde service. Only 20 were built 14 of which were used for passenger service. The plane’s economics were challenging, and its sonic booms led it to be banned on many overland routes. East Coast to Europe from eight hours to three and a half hours. And it promised to revolutionize long-distance travel by cutting flying time from the U.S. It could fly at twice the speed of sound. In the U.S., the plane flew mainly over the Atlantic to New York and Washington. However, its ear-rattling sonic booms irritated people on the ground and led to restrictions on where the jet could fly. The Concorde, an Anglo-French supersonic jetliner, saw success for a number of years after making its first commercial flights in 1976.

In 1973, the Federal Aviation Administration prohibited supersonic flights over land, “based on the expectation that such flights would cause a sonic boom to reach the ground,” the Congressional Research Service wrote. It found that people who experienced them were not happy with the loud sounds, describing them as “annoying,” “irritating” and “startling.” The program was terminated in 1971.ĭuring the 1960s, NASA was tasked with helping to develop commercial supersonic aircraft and researched the effects of sonic booms. But serious problems soon surfaced, including massive development costs and doubts about financial viability. government announced a major program to develop a supersonic passenger aircraft. But a fatal crash at the 1973 Paris Air Show ended that ambition. But it grew to include supersonic civil aircraft in the 1960s.įor example, the Soviet Union became the first country in 1968 to fly a supersonic passenger plane, the Tupolev TU-144. Interest in supersonic flight initially focused mostly on military planes, according to the Congressional Research Service. In the movie, someone on the ground asks, “What's that sound?” as Yeager's plane flies above the Mojave Desert and breaks the sound barrier. His exploits were told in Tom Wolfe’s book “The Right Stuff,” and in the 1983 film it inspired. In 1947, test pilot Charles “Chuck” Yeager became the first person to fly faster than sound in an orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane. WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF SUPERSONIC TRAVEL - AND BOOMS? The F-16 Fighting Falcon can fly 1,500 mph or twice the speed of sound, known as Mach 2, according to the Air Force. The F-16s flying over Washington on Sunday were “probably trying to go as fast it could to catch up” with the wayward Cessna airplane, said Anthony Brickhouse, an associate professor of applied aviation sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

"It will help countries to deal with immediate external financing pressures, but is insufficient to alleviate broader debt service challenges," Fitch wrote in a note to clients.īritain's finance ministry said extra SDRs would help poorer countries "pay for crucial needs such as vaccines and food imports, and improve the buffers of emerging markets and low-income countries."Īnti-poverty groups welcomed the move but said more needed to be done for richer nations to share their unused SDRs with poorer ones.“When this line of shock wave passes by, listeners on the ground hear a very loud noise," according to an explanation from Australia's University of New South Wales. He added that China would get $41 billion from a $650 billion allocation, while Russia would get $17 billion, adding, and should say no."Īny expansion of SDRs will also need to be agreed with countries outside the G7, including China and other G20 member states, before the IMF's spring meeting in April.Ĭredit ratings agency Fitch said an increase in SDRs to $500 billion would be equivalent to 0.5% of global annual economic output and represent 3.5% of global financial reserves. Hill was not persuaded, saying in a tweet: "Appreciate Treasury's response to my letter, but SDRs not the way to go." "In the longer run, SDRs serve as a stable reserve asset that provides advantages over borrowed assets as countries' financing needs in response to the crisis over the coming years will continue to be high," wrote Angel Nigaglioni, a deputy assistant secretary in Treasury's Office of Legislative Affairs. Treasury did not issue a statement about the G7 meeting, but in a response letter to Hill on Friday, the Treasury said its staff are working with the IMF to determine the extent of the long term reserve needs of low-income countries that could be met by an SDR allocation.
