An explanation of what sonic booms are and their history in the U.S.
NORFOLK, Va. — People living in and around the nation's capital on Sunday experienced a rare, if startling, sound: A sonic boom.
"When this line of shock wave passes by, listeners on the ground hear a very loud noise," according to an explanation from Australia's University of New South Wales. The F-16 Fighting Falcon can fly 1,500 mph or twice the speed of sound, known as Mach 2, according to the Air Force. Interest in supersonic flight initially focused mostly on military planes, according to the Congressional Research Service. But it grew to include supersonic civil aircraft in the 1960s.
In 1973, the Federal Aviation Administration prohibited supersonic flights over land,"based on the expectation that such flights would cause a sonic boom to reach the ground," the Congressional Research Service wrote.
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