Why are aircrafts more stable traveling faster than sound than at the speed of sound?
In: Physics
when the plane is moving subsonic, the energy the plane is putting into the air (by slamming into it) is thrown out ahead of the plane. as the plane gets closer and closer to the speed of sound, this is still being thrown forward, but it cant get as far from the plane. so it stacks up. getting to and then beyond the speed of sound means pushing through that wall of energy the airplane itself has created. once it gets past that, the airplane is moving so fast that the energy can’t pile up like that.
this is further complicated by the fact that air doesn’t move over the plane at 1 speed. when you’re near the speed of sound, some of the air behaves like you’re moving supersonic and some of it doesn’t. where these regions are and how they behave is very chaotic.
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