Supersonic jets may be able to break the speed of sound, but they can't seem to shake a sonic boom when they do it. But now, NASA, applying the "Aeronautics" in its name, is developing a plane that can quietly sneak past the sound barrier, inching supersonic passenger flights back into reality.
At this point, most of the experiments are dealing with ways to reduce the noise level overall. That involves aeronautics testing of certain design shapes, as well as doing sonic testing to find roughly where the effects of supersonic flight bother human passengers. This involves subjecting rooms of test subjects to simulated supersonic rattles, shakes, and hums.
The hope is to have a working model by 2025, one that will pave the way for the return of supersonic flight by ending one large legal hurdle: that they can't, technically, fly over populated areas because of the sonic boom. The sonic tests dissassemble and reconfigure the plane piece-by-piece to root out the problem.