NASA will be conducting supersonic jet noise tests over Galveston, Texas, which will test the public’s perception of the noise generated by supersonic flights. In addition, audio sensors will be placed throughout the city.
The agency has recruited around 500 volunteers for the tests, who will subsequently submit their feedback on the noise levels they experienced via a website NASA has set up. Of course, the assumption would be that they would have nothing much to give feedback on, considering the plane is supposed to be silent.
The tests aim to see how well the public manages to notice softer sounds, unlike the usual ones generated by supersonic flights, which produce shockwaves that result in booming noises once they pass Mach 1 speeds.
Alexandra Loubeau, NASA’s team lead for the sonic boom community response, said that:
“We’ll never know exactly what everyone heard. We won’t have a noise monitor on their shoulder inside their home. But we’d like to at least have an estimate of the range of noise levels that they actually heard,”
The shining star to this entire thing is supposed to be Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ X-59 “QueSST”, which is designed to produce sonic thumps rather than the booming sounds other jet fighters usually give out.
Until now, NASA says the plane had simply been called the X-plane and that it has a shape that prevents the shockwaves to come together, which is what produces that dreaded booming sound.
It was thanks to that particular sound that the government banned supersonic flights over communities and cities years ago.
The tests are expected to start in 2023.
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