Hypersonic Flight and Sonic Booms

How long did Orville Wright's first successful flight last?

• 1 minute

• 12 seconds

• 30 seconds

• 5 minutes

What term describes an object traveling faster than the speed of sound?

• Subsonic

• Hypersonic

• Supersonic

• Transonic

What can happen to a plane when it tries to overcome the sound barrier?

• It can become too cold

• It can be torn apart

• It can run out of fuel

• It can become invisible

What causes a sonic boom?

• The plane's engines overheating

• The build-up of compressed sound waves

• The plane changing direction rapidly

• The plane's landing gear deploying

When a plane flies faster than the speed of sound, what causes the loud "boom" that people on the ground might hear?

• The plane's engines making a very loud noise.

• Air waves piling up and spreading out in a cone shape.

• The plane breaking apart from the high speed.

• The sound of the plane's wings moving quickly through the air.

What is a significant problem for planes designed to fly at hypersonic speeds (Mach 5 or faster)?

• The plane's parts becoming too cold to function.

• The fuel freezing due to high altitude.

• Extreme heat from air friction, which can weaken or melt the plane's materials.

• The difficulty of controlling the plane at such high speeds.

Why are ramjet engines not effective for planes flying at hypersonic speeds?

• They consume too much fuel too quickly.

• The air rushes through the engine too fast for the fuel to burn completely.

• They are too heavy to allow the plane to reach hypersonic speeds.

• They create too much drag, slowing the plane down.

How does the X-43A, an experimental plane with a scramjet engine, get enough speed to start its engine?

• It takes off from a special runway using powerful rockets.

• It is launched from a large ground-based catapult.

• It is carried high into the sky by another plane and then released with a booster rocket.

• It uses a combination of jet engines and scramjet engines from the start.