This week, NASA started launching supersonic research flights off the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston to test how the community responds to the noise from aircraft that travel faster than the speed of sound. Their research could eventually cut cross-country commercial flight times in half.

According to a NASA press release published October 30, aircrafts flying at supersonic speeds generate a sonic boom, a sound similar to a thunderclap which is associated with the shock waves produced whenever an object moving through the air travels faster than the speed of sound. Most commercial supersonic flights are currently banned in the US by the Federal Aviation Administration.

​However, this week, NASA pilots began flying an F/A-18 supersonic research aircraft, which reportedly only generates a quiet "thump" as opposed to a disruptive "boom." The purpose of the Quiet Supersonic Flights 2018 (QSF18) campaign, as NASA's experiment is called, is to determine how people and sensors on the ground react to the sound.