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The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, these effects were seen as constituting a barrier, making faster speeds very difficult or impossible.
At 0 °C (32 °F), the speed of sound in dry air (sea level 14.7 psi) is about 331 m/s (1,086 ft/s; 1,192 km/h; 740 mph; 643 kn). [ 1 ] The speed of sound in an ideal gas depends only on its temperature and composition.
Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level , this speed is approximately 343.2 m/s (1,126 ft/s; 768 mph; 667.1 kn; 1,236 km/h).
At a speed of about 767 miles per hour, depending on temperature and humidity, a moving object will break the sound barrier. It was not until World War II, when aircraft started to reach the ...
Under standard atmospheric conditions, air temperature decreases with increased altitude. For example, when the sea-level temperature is 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 °C), the temperature at 30,000 feet (9,100 m) drops to minus 49 degrees Fahrenheit (−45 °C). This temperature gradient helps bend the sound waves upward.
After getting to altitude, Brandenburg opened up the test plane's throttles, accelerating to Mach 1.1, or about 845 mph (1,360 kph) -- faster than the speed at which sound travels.
The sound barrier was first broken on Oct. 14, 1947, according to the U.S. Air Force. That's when Capt. Chuck Yeager and the Bell X-1 rocket-propelled aircraft broke the sound barrier.
Transonic (or transsonic) flow is air flowing around an object at a speed that generates regions of both subsonic and supersonic airflow around that object. [1] The exact range of speeds depends on the object's critical Mach number, but transonic flow is seen at flight speeds close to the speed of sound (343 m/s at sea level), typically between Mach 0.8 and 1.2.