Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: dxb105@csc.anu.oz
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: What does a pilot hear/feel when the aircraft goes supersonic?
Message-ID: <1990Jun4.165220.22471@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 4 Jun 90 16:52:20 GMT
References: <16020@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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Organization: Theoretical Physics, R.S.Phys.S., A.N.U.
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From: dxb105@csc.anu.oz
In article <16020@cbnews.ATT.COM>, doug@mathel.ncsu.edu (Doug James) writes:
> In modern jet aircraft [...], the transition to supersonic is so smooth that
> you have to know what to look for to even notice it has occurred. 

When Australia had its first F/A-18s delivered they gave the then defence
minister, Kim Beazley, a fly in one. The conversation went something like this:

Pilot:	And now, sir, would you like to go through the sound barrier?
KB:	No, thankyou.
Pilot:	As you prefer sir. Would you just push that lever forward, please?
KB:	(doing so) What does that do?
Pilot:	Puts us through the sound barrier, sir.

This isn't _quite_ an urban myth; it was in the Sydney Morning Herald...
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David Bofinger	ACSNet:	dxb105@phys.anu.oz (from outside Australia, add .au)
                Snail:	Dept. of Theoretical Physics, RSPhysS, ANU, ACT, 2601
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"It is the logic of our times
 No subject for immortal verse
 That we, who lived by honest dreams
 Defend the bad against the worse."  -- C.D. Lewis, `Where are the War Poets?'