What is supersonic air travel? Supersonic means something is faster than the speed of sound, or traveling faster than 768mph. Currently only military fighter jets have the ability to travel at supersonic speeds.

When an airplane hits 768mph, a loud sonic boom occurs. Second Lieutenant and an F-16 Flight Test Engineer, Timothy Boersig says, “The boom shakes buildings and sets off car alarms.”

According to CNN, NASA has received a grant for $20 million from the U.S. Government to try to build and design a supersonic airplane with a quiet boom. Many people believe this is impossible to achieve.

Boersig mentions, “They may just have to indicate certain areas in the airspace that you can enter supersonic flight where the boom will occur.” He believes quieting the boom is, in fact, impossible.

In a survey taken at Williston, only 45% of students said they would be scared to fly on a supersonic jet. The main reason was that were scared for their safety.

According to the survey, 62% of the students said they did not know that supersonic air travel will likely be available to the public in less than ten years.

Sophomore, Anabelle Farnham mentions, “Flying itself is already scary to me and it seems that it would be easier to get out of control at such a high speed.”

Boersig notes, “Traveling supersonic is uneventful. The only way you know it’s occurring is by looking down at your Mach indicator.”

Supersonic travel is not what many people believe it is. A lot of people think of Star Wars when they think of supersonic travel according to CNN. Traveling faster than sound is a lot different than traveling faster than light.

Looking into the future, Boersig comments, “I would guess that within the next decade we will see headway towards supersonic travel.”