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Supersonic flight returning to US after half-century ban

forbes.com

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Re: Supersonic flight returning to US after half-century ban

#51

Post by foobarqux »

gedy wrote: post #18
foobarqux wrote: post #8

0.11 pound per square foot is what is being proposed. That's 108 decibels. Which is between standing next to a lawn mower and standing next to a car horn. I don't see how anyone will tolerate that in practice. https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/db

Because it's not continuous sound in one spot like a leaf blower is.

There is a substantial noise beyond the initial boom which is very loud even relative to the main boom. But even just a half second of a car horn going off right next to you every so often is intolerable.

Re: Supersonic flight returning to US after half-century ban

#52

Post by vlovich123 »

idle_zealot wrote: post #30
vlovich123 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it the noise pollution stuff is due to really old tech. The new stuff should be much better performing to basically eliminate the sonic boom and the regulatory changes are reflecting that. On a site like HN this kind of progress should be praised not denigrated as antisocial.

It's reflective of the gradual dawning that while technology is amazing and exciting and can help people, under current systems it's more likely to be used to benefit the thousand or so richest people in the world and fuck everyone else over. Could we make supersonic jets more quiet and less disruptive? Yeah, probably. But why would a single cent be spent on that? The people flying in them don't give a single shit. T…

Because it’s not up to them. Look at Tesla: started with an overpriced roadster to sell to rich people and ended up with a budget electric car.

Starting with the high end where there’s demand and revenues to justify R&D generally eventually filters out to enrich everyone because that’s fundamentally a larger market to go after. There’s a million problems these supersonic aircraft will have to solve so even if supersonic travel never becomes affordable, other inventions still move things forward. Case in point: the space race and race to the moon - so many technology booms in the 60s-90s because of fundamental R&D done in service of tech that had nothing to do with daily life.

Re: Supersonic flight returning to US after half-century ban

#53

Post by foobarqux »

imglorp wrote: post #19
foobarqux wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The proposed limit is around the level of standing right next to a leaf blower.

That's fine. The occasional boom, assuming business success this time, will last a few seconds. Leaf blowers last for hours in some neighborhoods. It's not the hearing damage, it's the psychological stress.

The initial boom is less than a second but it's like standing right next to the leafblower (not across the street) and is accompanied a lasting thundering-noise which is also extremely loud.

Re: Supersonic flight returning to US after half-century ban

#54

Post by jauntywundrkind »

vlovich123 wrote: post #21
yulker wrote: post #6

[flagged]

As I understand it the noise pollution stuff is due to really old tech. The new stuff should be much better performing to basically eliminate the sonic boom and the regulatory changes are reflecting that. On a site like HN this kind of progress should be praised not denigrated as antisocial.

I'm just very very skeptical I'm going to be able to sit inside or sit on the porch and not know it's going overhead. Which I can do with most planes today. I've only heard a couple supersonic booms in my life & they are incredible & ridiculously disruptive events, in a whole body sort of way that is without compare, even if I'm deep inside a heavy massive brick building.

This definitely feels like a Time Machine Morlock/Eloi, Battle Angle Alita Tiphares, Neuromancer Freeside situation, of the extreme rich untouchably far far overhead dumping endless waste noise pollution and din down onto the earth.

This administration in particular seems to absolutely not give a rat about anyone but the ultra-rich or the brownshirted anti-social and I have no confidence they are doing this based on any form of reasoned or sensible approach. This is an administration whose modus operandi is to roll coal, drill everything, cancel every green energy project (by spending billions if they have to buy out the already underway installations), go to war against vaccines/mRNA, etc etc. There's no baseline upon which to expect reasonable or smart or safe.

Re: Supersonic flight returning to US after half-century ban

#55

Post by anjel »

mattas wrote: post #2

Not sure how this does anything to alter the laws of physics. But I guess it's a step in the right direction.

I lived in the area where boom did their flight tests and the local news would announce days when they were testing. FWIW, I think they used scaled down aircraft so production aircraft may vary, but the boom was more of a thump. It comes on quick though, so some potential for startling, not on account of volume so much as sonic attack.

Re: Supersonic flight returning to US after half-century ban

#56

Post by jauntywundrkind »

The people speaking against this seem to be being flagged. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48742093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48742078

I do think this is ridiculously anti-social. Sonic booms are incredibly disruptive. This might be better, perhaps, but all odds are on this still shaking your house pretty significantly when it goes overhead.

Re: Supersonic flight returning to US after half-century ban

#58

Post by HlessClaudesman »

foobarqux wrote: post #51
gedy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's not continuous sound in one spot like a leaf blower is.

There is a substantial noise beyond the initial boom which is very loud even relative to the main boom. But even just a half second of a car horn going off right next to you every so often is intolerable.

People finding a way to tolerate what was previously considered intolerable is pretty much the story of civilization.

Re: Supersonic flight returning to US after half-century ban

#59

Post by vlovich123 »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #56

The people speaking against this seem to be being flagged. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48742093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48742078 I do think this is ridiculously anti-social. Sonic booms are incredibly disruptive. This might be better, perhaps, but all odds are on this still shaking your house pretty significantly when it goes overhead.

> This might be better, perhaps, but all odds are on this still shaking your house pretty significantly when it goes overhead.

Source? Here’s anectodal evidence from someone who experienced this first hand and describes it very differently from “omg so antisocial, it’ll be so loud”: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48741654#48742029

Re: Supersonic flight returning to US after half-century ban

#60

Post by auntienomen »

HlessClaudesman wrote: post #58
foobarqux wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a substantial noise beyond the initial boom which is very loud even relative to the main boom. But even just a half second of a car horn going off right next to you every so often is intolerable.

People finding a way to tolerate what was previously considered intolerable is pretty much the story of civilization.

I'd argue that civilization is the story of people finding ways to overcome what they previously had to tolerate.
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