Sonic Boom Minimization Seminar with Christine Darden

Christine Darden, the “Hidden Figure” you don’t know about, will give a seminar at Hunt Library on Thursday, August 17th.

2:15 pm – 3:30 pm | Hunt Library | Room 4106

Abstract

Sonic Boom Minimization

During the late 1960s, the United States, France and England, and the Soviet Union had independent plans to build a commercial supersonic airplane. Flight tests of military supersonic airplanes in the U.S. over Chicago and Oklahoma City resulted in so many public complaints because of the accompanying sonic booms that the U.S. cancelled its plans to build the aircraft and passed a law that outlawed commercial supersonic flight over the continental United States. Similar laws were passed around the globe in other countries. In response to the U.S. actions, NASA began its sonic boom minimization program in an attempt to have the law reversed. The public wanted faster flight.

This lecture will review the NASA sonic boom minimization program and its current status.