Civil, Supersonic Over Flight, Sonic Boom (Noise) Standards Development

Project Number: 007   COMPLETE
Category: Noise

For the future civil supersonic aircraft, the obstacle of overcoming sonic boom remains among the chief technological challenges for environmental compliance. Aircraft industry manufacturers hold a widespread belief that advances in small business jets are the next technological “stepping-stone” in an overall strategy for advancing civil supersonic aeronautics and global transport. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) supports the research and development of technologies that would enable supersonic commercial flight. With the expectations of achieving a “low-boom” aircraft through the design and the application of mitigation technologies for sonic boom, noise heard at ground during supersonic flight can be demonstrated to be acceptable in order to protect the public.

This project will advance the understanding of the perception of sonic boom noise, over a range of sonic boom levels and supports the development of noise certification standards. To date, investigations have included the following studies:

• The assessment of low boom acoustic signatures and the causes of variability,
• The evaluation of the appropriateness of metrics for use in noise certification, as assessed for wide range of sonic boom signatures,
• An exploratory review of social media monitoring as potential supplemental means to gauge the overall community reaction to a community noise test.

Last Updated 3/31/2020

Annual Reports

• 2015 Annual Report
• 2016 Annual Report 

Final Report