Supersonic F-16 makes big boom over North Texas

Posted Thursday, May. 07, 2009 Comments   (0) Print Share Share Reprints
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By CHRIS VAUGHN

cvaughn@star-telegram.com

An F-16 that went supersonic during a Lockheed Martin test flight Thursday afternoon in North Texas rattled a few people on the ground.

The sheriff's departments in Tarrant and Wise counties reported that citizens called about a possible explosion in the early afternoon Thursday. The noise was actually a sonic boom caused by the fighter jet flying faster than the speed of sound waves, which is about 700 mph.

Lockheed Martin test pilots go supersonic fairly regularly in a corridor that runs roughly from Alliance Airport to southern Oklahoma.

"All of the aircraft we deliver have to prove they can fly supersonically," said Norman Robbins, a spokesman for the F-16 plant. "They're normally done at high altitude" and aren't generally noticed by people.

But Thursday's humidity is suspected as the cause for the especially loud noise.

"The humidity makes the air thicker and accentuates the boom," Robbins said.

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