The skies of Oklahoma City roared for six months in 1964 as military aircraft intentionally rattled the population below with a daily barrage of thunderous sonic booms. It was a controversial test — the consequences of which have lingered to this day.
Two approaches in the works could revolutionize air travel by making future supersonic passenger planes compliant with the FAA’s new noise rules: Colorado-based company Boom Supersonic, which is specifically mentioned in the FAA proposal, plans to use physics to prevent sonic booms from ever reaching the ground, regardless of plane design. NASA, on the other hand, is flying an experimental plane called X-59 that is specifically designed to reduce the intensity of the boom.
There are people who DGAF, and there are people who don’t mind flying at a higher altitude, where the air is thinner and the resistance is less.
Oh, about the fuel thing… I go fishing with my Uncle, he’s got a little V8 inboard, probably spends $10 per day to go out and catch our licensed limits of fish. He’s got a friend who won the lottery and bought a big 1200hp outboard open fisherman, he’ll go blow $1000 in fuel in the same time to catch half as many fish, but he does get to go farther, faster.