Scientists try to take 'BOOM' out of supersonic flight: "The sonic boom is a menace to flight. It tips off enemies to fighter jets flying miles above. It prevented the Concorde from making cross-continental flights. It's one reason it takes so long to fly from New York to Los Angeles.

"NASA Langley Research Center is trying to change all that, thanks to a sonic boom partnership with Northrop Grumman and the Defense Advance Projects Research Agency, which falls under the Department of Defense."

"To make a sonic boom quieter, you have to change the shape of the sound waves created by a plane moving at supersonic speeds. To do that, you change the shape of the plane."