A NASA Dryden Flight Research Center SR-71 aircraft will be flying supersonic July 12, 1996. Residents in Beatty, Nevada, may also experience a sonic boom. Sonic booms are created when air molecules are pushed aside by an aircraft traveling supersonic, or faster than the speed of sound.
Shock waves are formed, much like a boat creates a bow wave.
The shock wave forms a cone of pressurized air, which moves outward and downward, spreading across the landscape along the aircraft s flight path. This rapid increase in air pressure is heard as the sonic boom. The strength of sonic booms, which sound like thunder claps, are governed by factors such as the size, weight, and speed of the aircraft creating them. Aircraft altitude, attitude, flight path, and atmospheric conditions may also vary the intensity of sonic booms.