NASA: Supersonic Flight Campaign Continues at Kennedy Space Center

By  //  August 28, 2017

ABOVE VIDEO: NASA is expecting to fly the F-18 two-to-three times per day over Brevard, starting Monday, Aug. 21 and will conclude the end of the month or early September, focusing on collecting data on a targeted minimum of 33 sonic booms.

BREVARD COUNTY • KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA (NASA) – A NASA F-18 jet takes off from the agency’s Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 23.

The F-18 jets fly at supersonic speeds off the eastern coast of Florida, while agency researchers measure the effects of low-altitude turbulence caused by sonic booms.

The F-18’s flightpath is positioned in efforts to keep the strongest-sounding sonic booms away from residential areas, while still producing them over the Kennedy Space Center.

The flights are part of NASA’s Sonic Booms in Atmospheric Turbulence, or SonicBAT II Program, partnering Kennedy with Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, Langley Research Center in Virginia, and Space Florida.

They are a key initiative in validating tools and models that will be used for the development of future quiet supersonic aircraft, which will produce a soft “thump” in place of the louder sonic boom.

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