#Mach 4 crack crack#

Interestingly enough here is a table of causes: If you are interested, there is an old paper you can find here that covers windshield failures and lists the Concorde as the #2 aircraft for it (747 comes in at #1) over the years the paper covers. For what it's worth the Concorde flew at about 50,000ft when it was supersonic this is well above most weather systems. The bigger problem in the Concorde was heat: the nose had to have fuel pumped through it just to keep it cool enough. It can be assumed that this outer windshield could also withstand any pressure exerted during supersonic flight. This outer windshield was made of special heat resistant glass that was also tinted. For supersonic flight the Concorde would raise its drop nose which also contained an outer windshield that would cover the inner windows. During subsonic flight (mainly take off and landing) the nose was drooped and the inner windshield was exposed. The Concorde had 2 discrete windshields for different stages of flight. If the material has any microscopic holes, cracks, or bumps, those jets can strike them and create new cracks or widen existing ones. In addition to the direct downward pressure, the water jetting sideways can cause damage, too.

#Mach 4 crack crack#

The sharp pulse from the shockwave can crack glass.

These jets of water can move even faster than the original (already supersonic) droplet, and even faster than the shockwaves we mentioned. The water is squeezed between the incoming drop and the glass surface, which makes it squirt sideways in all directions. However, at high impact speeds, this shockwave actually moves substantially faster than the speed of sound in water. Normally, this shockwave would move at the speed of sound within the liquid-about 1300 m/s, four times faster than in air. When the droplet makes contact with the surface, a shockwave travels back up through the droplet. Here's what happens when a raindrop hits a glass surface at high speed: I figured I'd post it for those who are Too Lazy™ to go read the article. ** Here's a block quote of all the pertinent text in the post from Munroe. So, what is done to a super sonic aircraft's windshield to keep it from shattering when flying through precipitation? And while I'm sure it's true that automobile glass would shatter if rain hit it at super sonic speeds, it's pretty clear to me that the glass on supersonic aircraft is not shattering when it flies through precipitation. The article, unfortunately, is only talking about automobile glass. In the post he mentions that water hitting a windshield at supersonic speeds has the potential to shatter the glass.** Randall Munroe (author of XKCD and What If), once wrote a What If about how fast one would have to drive a car in order to have rain water shatter the windshield.