Coondoggie writes to tell us that NASA and JAXA (the Japan Aerospace scrutiny Agency) have announced a chumminess to study the sonic boom. Hoping to find the key to the next generation of supersonic aircraft, the study will include a look at JAXA's "Silent Supersonic technical knowledge Demonstration Program." "The change in air weight customer's broker with a sonic boom is only a few pounds per square foot -- about the same burden change practiced riding an escalator down two or three floors. It is the rate of change, the sudden onset of the squeeze change, that makes the sonic boom audible, NASA said. All aircraft generate two cones, at the nose and at the tail. They are usually of similar strength and the time interval between the two as they reach the ground is generally dependent on the size of the aircraft and its altitude. Most people on the ground cannot distinguish between the two and they are usually heard as a single sonic boom. Sonic booms created by vehicles the size and mass of the space shuttle are very distinguishable and two distinct booms are easily heard."

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