> Does that mean you'll see a plane flying overhead, hear the normal drone associated with it, but at one particular moment here a distinctly louder but shorter noise?
Not really. Supersonic means faster than sound. Meaning that the plane flies faster than the sound. Even its own sound. So you would hear nothing before the sonic boom reaches you. Because the sound didn't have time to get to your ears yet.
> I think a supersonic aircraft is constantly "dragging" a boom behind it.
You can see the dark airplane looking shape. That's the model of the airplane in the wind tunnel. And then you can see that V shaped shadow edge starting from the tip of the nose. That's the sonic boom. It is a sudden step change in pressure. In this visualisation it appears as two lines, but in reality it is a cone centered on the tip of the nose (or other protrusions.)
Where and when your ear crosses that cone surface that's where you experience a sonic boom.
> How do you make the sonic boom go away?
If I understand it correctly their plan is not to make it not happen, but to fly such that the pressure wave is bent upwards away from the ground. Which sounds like a weather dependent trick. I recommend the video in the article which shows the idea.
Not really. Supersonic means faster than sound. Meaning that the plane flies faster than the sound. Even its own sound. So you would hear nothing before the sonic boom reaches you. Because the sound didn't have time to get to your ears yet.
> I think a supersonic aircraft is constantly "dragging" a boom behind it.
What was really revealing to me is to look at shadowgraph images of supersonic wind tunnel test. Like this one: https://media.sciencephoto.com/image/s3300054/800wm/S3300054...
You can see the dark airplane looking shape. That's the model of the airplane in the wind tunnel. And then you can see that V shaped shadow edge starting from the tip of the nose. That's the sonic boom. It is a sudden step change in pressure. In this visualisation it appears as two lines, but in reality it is a cone centered on the tip of the nose (or other protrusions.)
Where and when your ear crosses that cone surface that's where you experience a sonic boom.
> How do you make the sonic boom go away?
If I understand it correctly their plan is not to make it not happen, but to fly such that the pressure wave is bent upwards away from the ground. Which sounds like a weather dependent trick. I recommend the video in the article which shows the idea.