Mach number a small area around the object's leading edge. (Fig.1b) Fig. 1. "Mach number in transonic airflow around an airfoil; M < 1 (a) and M > 1 (b)." When an aircraft exceeds Mach 1 (i.e. the sound barrier), a large pressure difference is created just in front of the aircraft. This abrupt pressure difference, called a shock wave, spreads backward and outward from the aircraft in a cone shape (a so-called Mach cone). It is this shock wave that causes the sonic boom heard as a fast moving aircraft travels overhead. A person inside the aircraft will not hear this.
GNU Mach GNU Mach GNU Mach is an implementation of the Mach microkernel. It is the default microkernel in the GNU Hurd. GNU Mach runs on IA-32 machines. GNU Mach is maintained by developers on the GNU project. It is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). Early versions of the Hurd were developed on top of CMU's Mach 3.0. In 1994, CMU stopped working on Mach, and the GNU Project switched to the University of Utah's Mach 4. The kernel known as "GNU Mach" was derived from Mach 4 once Utah stopped development. The first ChangeLog entry