Supersonic aircraft 5 is often referred to as hypersonic. In this region the problems of drag and heating are even more acute. It is difficult to make materials which can stand the forces and temperatures generated by air resistance at these speeds, and hypersonic flight for any significant length of time has not yet been achieved. A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created whenever an object traveling through the air travels faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate significant amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to the human ear.
Speed of sound Speed of sound The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. At , the speed of sound in air is about 343 meters per second (1,234.8 km/h; 1,125 ft/s; 767 mph; 667 kn), or a kilometre in or a mile in . It depends strongly on temperature, but also varies by several meters per second due to which gases are present. The speed of sound in an ideal gas depends only on its temperature and composition. The speed has a weak dependence on frequency and pressure