Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!veritas!amdcad!amdcad!military
From: Tony_Buckland@mtsg.ubc.ca
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Aircraft shock waves
Message-ID: <1991Apr22.071716.24851@amd.com>
Date: 19 Apr 91 16:38:40 GMT
Sender: military@amd.com
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Lines: 13
Approved: military@amd.com


From: Tony_Buckland@mtsg.ubc.ca


A recent posting about a mercifully unrealized plan for a hypersonic
nuclear-engined cruise missile reminded me of a long-time puzzlement.
Fiction and some fact literature talks about the ground and shipboard
damage that can be caused by supersonic or hypersonic aircraft at low
altitudes.  But where is all the energy coming from?  The plane only
has the chemical energy in its fuel tanks to both complete its mission
and do all this desired or undesired damage.  Is this energy really
sufficient to leave a trail of destruction across hundreds or thousands
of km of the Earth's surface?