Supersonic Plane

THE STORY OF SUPERSONIC PLANE A supersonic aircraft is an aircraft capable of supersonic flight that is flying faster than speed of sound (Mach no. 1) . Supersonic aircraft were developed in the second half of the twentieth century. Supersonic aircraft have been used for research and military purposes but only two supersonic aircrafts were there in history , The tupolev Tu-144 ( first flown on December 31,1968) and the Concorde ( first flown on March 2,1969) ever entered service for civil use as airlines, fighter jets and most common example of supersonic aircraft. In history the first aircraft to fly supersonic in level flight was the American Bell x-1 experimental plane which was powered by liquid oxygen and ethyl alcohol Most supersonic aircraft have been military or experimental aircraft. On August 21,1961 a Douglas DC-8-43 exceeded Mach 1 in a controlled dive during a test flight at Edward airforce base. The crew were William magrude (pilot), Paul patten (copilot), Joseph Tomich (flight engineer) and Richard H.edwards (flight test engineer). This was the first supersonic flight by a civilian airliner other than Concorder or TU-144 . The supersonic aircrafts were failed by their noisy and extremely expensive to operate, which restricted flight availability