Supersonic aircraft Supersonic aircraft A supersonic aircraft is an aircraft able to fly faster than the speed of sound (Mach number 1). Supersonic aircraft were developed in the second half of the twentieth century and have been used almost entirely for research and military purposes. Only two, Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144, ever entered service for civil use as airliners. Fighter jets are the most common example of supersonic aircraft. The aerodynamics of supersonic flight is called compressible flow because of the compression (physics) associated with the shock waves or "sonic boom" created by any object travelling faster than sound. Aircraft flying
Speed of sound mph); (about 35 times as fast as in air) which is around the maximum speed that sound will travel under normal conditions. Sound waves in solids are composed of compression waves (just as in gases and liquids), and a different type of sound wave called a shear wave, which occurs only in solids. Shear waves in solids usually travel at different speeds, as exhibited in seismology. The speed of compression waves in solids is determined by the medium's compressibility, shear modulus and density. The speed of shear waves is determined only by the solid material's shear modulus and density. In