NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center will be conducting a series of research flights on Thursday morning, Oct. 14, and Saturday morning, Oct. 16, that could result in multiple sonic booms being heard in the local Edwards Air Force Base area.
Portions of the flights, being flown by NASA F/A-18 aircraft in restricted airspace over Edwards, would be at supersonic speeds. The first series of up to a dozen sonic booms on Oct. 14 will occur over a half-hour period between 9:30 and 10 a.m. The second series of flights on Oct. 16 are slated for about 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Perceived intensity or loudness of the booms will vary, and depend greatly on local atmospheric conditions at the time of the flights.
These flights are part of NASA’s continuing Sonic Booms On Big Structures effort to reduce the intensity of sonic booms. They are a follow-up to a similar series of sonic-boom suppression research flights in June and September 2009.
Friday, Oct. 15 is a backup flight date if Thursday’s flights cannot be completed on Oct. 14, and Saturday, Oct. 23 is the backup flight date for those planned for Oct. 16.
For more on NASA’s Sonic Booms on Big Structures research studies, visit:
www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/Features/sonic_bobs_tests.html
For more about NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, visit:
www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden
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Alan Brown
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
(661) 276-2665
alan.brown@nasa.gov