sound barrier
nounDefinition of sound barrier
: a sudden large increase in aerodynamic drag that occurs as the speed of an aircraft approaches the speed of sound
Examples of sound barrier in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Crews recently built sound barriers, painted the lanes and began testing new digital signs between Commercial Boulevard and Southwest 10th Street. — Brooke Baitinger, sun-sentinel.com, "It looks like the I-95 express lanes are ready to open. They’re not.," 19 Aug. 2019 The studies could also look at sound-mitigation techniques, including sound barriers, noise-canceling speakers and limiting the number of sound permits per area, Pruett said. — Lila Seidman, Glendale News-Press, "Downtown Glendale could get its groove on longer, as city officials consider extending music hours," 2 Aug. 2019 In 2021, Lockheed and NASA will put the aircraft through the motions over Edwards Air Force Base, home to 70 years of historic flight tests including Chuck Yeager's X-1 that broke the sound barrier and the hypersonic X-15 spaceplane. — Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, "Quiet Boom: Meet the NASA Test Pilot Who'll Fly the Next Supersonic X-Plane," 15 Aug. 2018 The project was started by Richard Noble, who set a land-speed record in 1982 with Thrust 2 and then spearheaded the Thrust SSC car that broke that record (and the sound barrier on land) in 1997 with RAF Wing Commander Andy Green behind the wheel. — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, "Bloodhound LSR, the 1,000mph car, starts high-speed tests in October," 9 July 2019 One of them was Robert Gilruth, head of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston and inventor of the movable horizontal tail used in the X-1, the jet that broke the sound barrier. — Sig Christenson, ExpressNews.com, "San Antonio engineer’s ‘Flying Bedstead’ helped put man on the moon," 19 July 2019 Further Reading Breaking the sound barrier by air, by land, and in free fall The present-day record attempt will be attempted in a smaller jet: the Gulfstream G650ER aircraft has a range of more than 7,500 miles before needing to be refueled. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, "Around the world in 48 hours? Former astronaut to attempt global speed record," 1 July 2019 The cows were among 19 being transported through Cobb County May 17 when the driver of the tractor-trailer drifted into another lane and overcorrected, sending the rig into a sound barrier at the end of a guardrail. — Chelsea Prince, ajc, "PETA makes good on promise of billboard to honor 10 cows killed in I-75 crash," 20 June 2018 Current laws prohibit supersonic planes from breaking the sound barrier over land. — Sam Blum, Popular Mechanics, "Lockheed Martin Has Started Building NASA's X-59 Experimental Supersonic Jet," 20 Nov. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sound barrier.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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