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. and their potential future.įor example, the Soviet Union became the first country in 1968 to fly a supersonic passenger plane, the Tupolev TU-144.
The business jet eventually crashed in rural Virginia, killing the pilot and three passengers.īelow is an explanation of what sonic booms are, their history in the U.S. The result was a thunderous rumble that resonated across a metropolitan area that's home to more than six million people. The Air Force gave the F-16s permission to fly faster than the speed of sound - something civilian aircraft rarely get to do - as the jets scrambled to catch up with the Cessna Citation. military dispatched six fighter jets to intercept an unresponsive business plane flying over restricted airspace. People living in and around the nation's capital experienced a rare, if startling, sound: A sonic boom. People living in and around the nation's capital experienced a rare, if startling, sound: A sonic boom.
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