I was trying to explain to someone how a sonic boom works when a jet breaks the sound barrier. Usually when I do that once, I like to document it here on the blog. In this case, I actually found a great video that lays it all out!

When an object passes through the air, it creates a series of pressure waves in front of it and behind it, similar to the bow and stern waves created by a boat. These waves travel at the speed of sound, and as the speed of the object increases, the waves are forced together, or compressed, because they cannot “get out of the way” of each other, eventually merging into a single shock wave at the speed of sound. This critical speed is known as Mach 1 and is approximately 1,225 kilometers per hour (761 mph) at sea level.

Now, if you want to make your own sonic boom, just go to a western store and pick up a bull whip. When you crack the whip you’re actually putting enough energy into the tip that it travels faster than the speed of sound. In fact, he whip was the first human invention to break the sound barrier.
Read the rest of this entry »

So, after a stressful last few days of watching the stock market, I thought it might be fun to take a look at something really, really stressful. Like how about trying to land an airplane on an aircraft carrier!

So, the next time you’re feeling like you’re having a tough day, just remember what it would be like to try and spot a boat in the middle of the Pacific and then maneuver your tiny little plane to land on it while it’s in motion.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not really sure what to call these other than AWESOME! Apparently some Swiss aviator has developed a set of jet powered wings because jumping out of a plane with a parachute was just too boring.

It’s hard to say exactly how fast he’s traveling, but considering that he’s traveling at the same speed as the airplanes he’s flying with I’m going to guess that it’s at least 150-200 MPH.
Read the rest of this entry »

FBOWeb.com has created a very cool real-time flight tracking feature for Google Earth. Obviously, in order to try this out you’re going to need Google Earth (if you don’t yet have it, you can learn about and download it here.)

Essentially, FBOWeb’s servers update the status of all the aircraft coming into the following airports (they are constantly adding new ones, so check their site if you’re reading this more than a few weeks after publishing):
Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Birthday Bruce! This post is especially for you!

This link will take you to the US Air Force’s online photo gallery. They have some of the coolest airplane photos I’ve ever seen, and I’d say they must have pictures of every military aircraft ever flown.

For those of you that stumble upon this page that happen to be pilots like Bruce, be sure to check out his web page at NNumbers.com to buy all your aircraft registration lettering!
Read the rest of this entry »

For the relatively minuscule price of $4,000,000, you’ll soon be able to park one of these babies in your personal driveway. Well, maybe if your drive way is about 1/4 of a mile long and has a hangar at the end of it. But that’s not the point… Honda is getting into the airplane business and they are doing it by launching the new HondaJet subsidiary.
Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t mean for this to sound insensitive, but… Great! Now every moron that decides to scribble a bomb threat on a napkin and leave it on a plane can ensure that the aviation industry cowers to their prank.
Read the rest of this entry »