Posted on 02/20/2019 1:34:02 AM PST by C19fan
Rod Serling was here.
So the sound barrier changes depending on how fast the airstream blows?
So, this plane, to break the sound barrier, would’ve had to have been going 230 mph faster?
Interesting, I didn’t know that!
They needed a flying tail like the bell X1 Yeager flew.
We were on a flight Feb 16 from San Diego to Atlanta that got into that same tail wind and hit 700mph, 3 hours cross country to Atlanta on a Delta 767-300.
Just as important, was determining the size of the “cone” of the sonic wave around the whole airplane - starting at the nose (pitot tube) and extending further back. The control surface (the all-moving horizontal stabilizer you mention) also needed to be lifted up and away from the fuselage so it was out in clean, undisturbed air.
We hit two violent downdrafts somewhere around 10K feet. Everything inside the plane went zero-G’s. The patient was straining at his restraining straps. Then we slammed - and I mean SLAMMED - to a stop. I grabbed my seat belt and yanked it tighter and another even more violent downdraft hit us. I was pulled upwards with such force that I hit my head on the cabin ceiling even though I’d just tightened my seat belt. Again, we slammed to a stop. That’s when the pilot dove the plane to the deck. I thought for sure we were going in but thanks to his skill we did not. This all happened within about 30 seconds so there was no time to get sick. Thank God my bladder was empty!
There was another PA on that flight with me who was a USAF vet. He was a light-skinned black guy named Jim. He was seated just behind the cockpit bulkhead in a sideways facing jump seat. After we landed we looked at each other and I said “Jim, you’re white!” His response: “I know.”
The First Commercial Jet to Break the Sound Barrier Was Not the ...
mentalfloss.com/article/.../first-commercial-jet-break-sound-barrier-was-not-concorde
Aug 21, 2014 - It wasn’t the famous Concorde, which wouldn’t break the sound barrier ... or the Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-144, but rather a humble DC-8
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