A plane spike to cut sonic boom

Back in 2004, NASA engineers worked with DARPA to reduce the sonic boom intensity in order to develop silent supersonic planes. Now, they’re teaming with Gulfstream Aerospace on a project named Quiet Spike to reduce sonic booms. They’ve put a 24-foot-long lance-like spike weighing 470 pounds on the nose of an F-15B aircraft. And engineers are now testing the modified aircraft. The first flights of a series of about 20 took place in August. If all the tests are successful, Gulfstream could build a supersonic business jet in the future.

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