Supersonic Jousting
Gulfstream Aerospace and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center have attached a retractable, 24-foot-long lance-like spike on the nose of NASA Dryden's F-15B to investigate the suppression of sonic booms.
The aircraft took to the air first time on 10 Aug. and several more flights have been conducted to test out the system's structural integrity at subsonic speeds. Over the next two weeks, the project plans to push up to speeds of about Mach 1.8.
Gulfstream's Quiet Spike technology has three conical fairings along its length that are designed to produce three parallel shocks that head Earthward independently - rather than folding into a two large shocks like a normal supersonic boom.
These test won't actually 'quiet' the F-15's sonic boom as the islets are not modified to quiet the aircraft. The aim is to how that the spike's design is capable of supersonic flight.
Sources
Supersonic Jousting
Quiet Spike - Photo Gallery
NASA jet bears nose that grows for sonic boom tests
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