Critical Mach number Critical Mach number In aerodynamics, the critical Mach number (Mcr or M* ) of an aircraft is the lowest Mach number at which the airflow over some point of the aircraft reaches the speed of sound, but does not exceed it. At the lower critical Mach number, airflow around the entire aircraft is subsonic. At the upper critical Mach number, airflow around the entire aircraft is supersonic. For an aircraft in flight, the speed of the airflow around the aircraft differs considerably in places from the airspeed of the aircraft; this is due to the airflow having to speed up
.17 Mach IV .17 Mach IV The .17 Mach IV is a wildcat centerfire rifle cartridge, based on the .221 Remington Fireball case, necked down to fire a .172 bullet. The cartridge was introduced in 1962 by Vern O’Brien. The cartridge offered an easy case conversion and good ballistics, but could not compete against the .17 Remington. The name, Mach IV, comes from the claim that the bullets can reach 4,000 ft/s. Due to the relatively small case capacity, even small variations in powder of can lead to the difference between a safe and dangerously over pressure load. The .17 Mach IV became