343m/s rocket flight

[Superluminaut]

What exactly happens to a rocket when it crosses the sound barrier?

Or more specifically, what forces act on a rocket as it crosses into super sonic flight?

[zekes]

It creates a shockwave, but not nearly as big as an airplanes, as it is far better streamlined....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_barrier

[arkie87]

What exactly happens to a rocket when it crosses the sound barrier?

Or more specifically, what forces act on a rocket as it crosses into super sonic flight?

Drag coefficient increases sharply as objects approach the sound barrier making it very hard to push through it. For this reason, before supersonic flight was achieved in aeroplanes, some aerospace engineers thought that controlled supersonic flight was impossible (it's obviously not). After Mach 1, drag coefficient drops

Edited May 7, 2015 by arkie87

[Hcube]

Drag coefficient increases sharply as objects approach the sound barrier making it very hard to push through it. For this reason, before supersonic flight was achieved in aeroplanes, some aerospace engineers thought that controlled supersonic flight was impossible (it's obviously not). After Mach 1, drag coefficient drops

http://www.nennstiel-ruprecht.de/bullfly/dragcoeff.gif

That's very interesting ! Thanks for sharing.

[magnemoe]

Drag coefficient increases sharply as objects approach the sound barrier making it very hard to push through it. For this reason, before supersonic flight was achieved in aeroplanes, some aerospace engineers thought that controlled supersonic flight was impossible (it's obviously not). After Mach 1, drag coefficient drops

http://www.nennstiel-ruprecht.de/bullfly/dragcoeff.gif

Well the V2 missile did controlled supersonic flight during WW2 making that engineers sound pretty clueless, no we did not know if an supersonic plane was practical before we tried either.

I don't think sound barrier is so important for rockets because low drag and high TWR.