Someone on another forum said that last year at the Edwards AFB airshow the B-1B did a supersonic flyby and set off “about 10,000 car alarms.”
I told him I didn’t think the Bone could break the sound barrier at low altitude as it’s max speed is Mach 1.2 and that is at altitude.
Am I wrong?
It’s my understanding that the B-1B is subsonic by smidgen. It does push one heck of a pressure wave in front of it, and it’s engines are VERY loud, could be that combo set off car alarms. IF car alarms really were set off…that smells like an urban legend.
There are stories about Blackbirds creating similar havoc in their day (OK, there weren’t many car alarms, if any, during the 1960’s and 1970’s…). Perhaps Darwin (yardbird78) can pipe in.
The Bone could go M1 but at an airshow they usually just do a low altitude flyby at4-500 mph which in anyairplane is fast enough(at low altitude) but combine that with the sound esp. from a Bone, Well just say more than an alarm should go off!! Anyone who has ever sat at the end of Plant 42s runway or been driving by on the Sierra Highway when a Bone or SR flew over knows what I’m talking about! Eddies sita at approx 2500 above sea level so it would be possible for a B-1 to do it, but I wasn’t there BUT at Maxwell in March they were fast and low and did set off quite a few alarms, So M1 plus would really set some off. Good Hunting, G.W.
As originally conceived and built, the B-1A was supersonic. As far as I know, all were converted to subsonic aircraft.
Nice to “see” you again, Mike!
It’s not the sonic boom that sets off the alarms, but the noise and vibration of the engines. Case in point - a Georgia Air Guard B-1B did a full burner take-off at Charlotte-Douglas IAP a few years back on Family Day / Open House. They rotated about 20-30 degrees nose up and slow rolled right about 60 degrees with wings full forward and gear down. Car alarms were going off like mad when they came over the Guard club parking lot. A very powerful machine.
E
Boeing’s web site says it’s max speed is 900 MPH plus (Mach 1.2 at sea level).
No way that plane could reach Mach 1.2 at sea level.
The F-15C would struggle to do that!
Don’t forget that in many cases, an aircraft that is classified as
“subsonic” can still achieve supersonic speed with a dive.
Many folks don’t know it, but the sound barrier was actually first
broken by George Welch in an F-86 about 2 weeks before Chuck
Yeager managed it in the X-1. Welch accomplished this by
performing a dive.
And dont forget the only place a sonic boom is alowed is out at sea. If a plane where to go supersonic it would literaly blow windows out any building or house.
^— yup.
I remember seeing a video of a Bone departure that was full afterburner and you could hear hundreds of car alarms going off as it pulled away. I would have to guess that it was the sonic vibration that set them off. As a young lad, I witnessed the effects of a low level (around 2-3 M feet) supersonic fly-by in an F-106, if memory serves; it blew out windows all over the place! The pilot (A.F. major) was reportedly a 2nd Lt. when he landed, but I suspect that is also urban legend!
Brian [C):-)]
Supersonic flight is permitted over land in certain “high speed corridors”. These are located over remote, sparsely populated areas where damage from sonic booms would be minimal. The boom from an aircraft at low level would be very destructive if done over a densely populated area. The boom becomes less destructive as altitude increases. The boom from an SR-71 at Mach 3 at 80,000 is barely noticeable. The SR-71 created a boom problem when it first went supersonic at 30 to 35,000 feet after refueling and beginning it’s climb back to altitude. I talked to a B-1 WSO at a recent airshow and he mentioned the plane was capable of Mach 1.2 and I specifically asked him if it could do that at low level. He said that it could and was a routine procedure during low level training flights.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
When I was living in Dayton Oh, they host an airshow every year at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and one time a B-1B did several fly-bys and I was there. The fastest it went was 450 MPH and let me tell you, it was LOUD!!! When it fly pass, the sound from it engine was so loud if feels as if it’s riping your lungs out of your chest! It was a hammering experience to say the least and that was at subsonic speeds. One of the pilots I talked to said turning on the afterburners on the four GE engines is like turning on 4 earthquake making machines because they are so powerful and loud. The noise this thing makes when it fly by on afterburner left me no doubt that it can set off car alarms or any other thing in the vicinity! During airshows or near airbases, The Bone and any other supersonic aircraft are not ALLOWED to go supersonic because that would cause too many property distruction, including blowing out every single windows in a 20 block radius! But stil, the noise a Bone makes even at subsonic speeds, especially when using afterburner is enough to wake the dead!
The BONE will go supersonic at sea level but is limited to .95 Mach per the Tech. Order. Also the top speed of 1.2 Mach is again a Tech. Order restriction but the BONE can and has gone faster. As for the plane going supersonic at an airshow this is unlikely. High speed flyby’s at airshows are usually limited to .9 Mach or slower. Occasionally they will get clearance for .95 Mach flyby but this is rare.
When did Wright-Patt have airshows? I went to the very first Dayton Air Fair (1975 I believe) as a young child, my big brother took me every year until 1987…I made the Dayton Air Show sporadically after that. I would love to have seen an air show at WPAFB.
Mitch
I worked for a short time as an acquisitions officer in the B-1 SPO at Tinker AFB. While the a/c is capable of supersonic dash, it would not do so at an airshow. There are regulations that prohibit supersonic flight over or near populated areas. What most likely set off those alarms, as previously mentioned, was the sound of the engines. Those four GE F101’s are incredibly loud especially when afterburner is engaged.
I work right next to an active Air Force Base. We use their runways, but have our own hangers and taxiways. They got rid of them a few years ago, but they used to have B-1B’s stationed there. They’d set off car alarms all the time on takeoff, no sonic boom required.
Edwards does have it’s own supersonic flight airspace, and according to the Edwards AFB archives, the 2003 air show did include a sonic boom demonstration.
Man the Air Force goes supersonic at ED all the time.
But Edwards AFB is out in the boonies.
Are you guys sure about this. At the cleveland airshow the blue angles and thunderbirds single ship demos do a “super sonic pass” every year. Last year a f-15 did both a min airspeed pass and high speed pass, and it sure sounded like it went supersonic? or is this just to make the crowd happy?
I fly high power rockets and have had them go supersonic many times in a farmers field no less. You need a FAA waiver to do so but have never had any problems with it. I have also seen high power rockets at large launches like LDRS and BALLS go well over mach 1 and they did no damage to cars, people, or building. Does the size of the object have a effect on the size or better yet the destructive power of the shock wave it creates?
I know very little about supersonic flight so I could be way off here. But I am interested to see where this goes.
Ya and Eddies used to have signs posted at all the gates/entry points stating Beware low flying supersonic aircraft! I don’t know if they are still there but I guess they are. I also reread a review of the 05 eddies show and there was a Supersonic pass by an F-16 with Chuck Yeager flying in P-51, sort of commeration of his record flight. Good Hunting, G.W.