I'll probably get the details wrong, but it's a massive shock wave created by going supersonic. The air can no longer get out of the way fast enough, it gets compressed to the point that it's visible.
Something I’ve wondered is if you are super sonic can you hear yourself talking. I finally was able to ask a pilot that’s gone super sonic if he could hear himself talk and he said he could. The more you know I guess
Is the poop trail behind you also supersonic? What speed are they flying to break the barrier? Is breaking the barrier on the ground the same speed? I thought I remember the Blue Flame breaking it and the speed was over 700mph.
Actually, don't quote me this but I don't think you need to hear yourself through sounds coming out of your mouth. It's the vibrations in your skull that you hear as you produce the sound. Or something. Or maybe I totally imagined hearing something like that.
Well, the air inside the cabin is motionless relative to use so I'm guessing it doesn't matter how fast the airplane is traveling. And as I'm writing this, I'm remembering that there was something called the Concorde and I never heard any stories about delays in conversations between passengers, so we are even discussing this?
Not necessarily. What you see is the moisture in the atmosphere. And you don't have to be supersonic for you to see this. Have you guys seen the pictures of the contrails of the air coming off the wing of a formula 1 car? That picture above shows shock waves, but may or may not be supersonic.
And yes, even if you are supersonic, you can hear yourself talk in the cockpit. All that air in the cockpit is going 0 mph relative to yourself.
