4.

2 Mach Number
Refer to Figure 2.
The Mach number M is a dimensionless number named after the Austrian physicist Ernst Mach
who studied gas dynamics at the end of the 18th century. The Mach number defines the relation
between the speed of an object and the speed of sound in the surrounding air.
High-speed flight is measured in terms of the Mach number by using a Mach meter. Mach
meters in the cockpit automatically compensate airspeed for the air temperature and show the
pilot the Mach number at which the aircraft is flying.
Example: An aircraft flying at a speed of Mach 1 at sea level is flying at the speed of sound
which is 661.7 knots. When it is flying at Mach 0.75 it is flying at 75% of the speed of sound at
the existing air temperature corresponding to 496.3 knots of true airspeed (TAS).
Critical Mach Number
If air flowing over an aircraft reaches the speed of sound at certain areas of the wing and
fuselage whilst the aircraft itself is still flying at a speed below the speed of sound, this is
referred to as having reached the critical Mach number Mcrit.
Aircraft not designed for high-speed flight will experience instability, buffeting and loss of control
when exceeding the critical Mach number.
During WW II, high-performance aircraft such as the Lockheed Lightning were able to reach
such high speeds in a dive. But as they approached the speed of sound the controls lost their
effectiveness and in some instances developed flutter and vibrations that caused the aircraft to
come apart in the air. The critical Mach number for these aircraft was approx. M 0.7 whereas
modern business jets can have a Mcrit of Mach 0.9.
Refer to Figure 3.
Initially there was thought to be an insurmountable sound barrier that would prevent aircraft from
flying faster than the speed of sound. But on 14th October 1947, Chuck Yeager flying the Bell
X1 flew faster than the speed of sound and proved to the world that there was no such thing like
a sound barrier.