The shockwave was compressed air rather than the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) created by nuclear weapons and solar flares.
Last week at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, in Dahlgren, VA, a seven-pound bullet emerged from a truck-sized contraption at seven times the speed of sound and sent a visible shockwave through the air before crashing into a metal bunker filled with sand.
Based on the corresponding data, he told the people around him that the shockwave that hit the air to blast the papers out was from a force of roughly about 10 kilotons of TNT exploding.
So the car's designers have shaped the car's cockpit to create a series of shockwaves that slow the air down to 600mph (9600mph).
The roof of the cockpit – and the front of the car – have been designed to create a series of shockwaves that will slow the air down and channel it into the Eurojet engine (airflow of 1,000mph would damage the engine).
As the device detonated, we were treated to the gruesome pay-off: the city uprooted in a single monstrous shockwave, its inhabitants sprayed into the air en masse.
The History Channel distributed a documentary named Shockwave; a portion of Episode 7 (originally aired January 25 , 2008 detailed the events of the crash.
At that point, shockwaves develop on the wings, interrupting the flow of air and reducing lift.
The air expands violently away from this sudden increase in temperature, resulting in a shockwave we hear as thunder.
The usual race engineer's expression of sympathy applies: "Of course it's hot in there, now get in and stop complaining". The air flowing over the top of the cockpit will create some huge shockwaves at 1,000mph (nearly 1.4 times the speed of sound), which is the main reason it's going to be so noisy in my "1,000mph office".
By contrast, our predictions show that Bloodhound SSC will run slightly faster in cooler air, as the increase in power from the EJ200 jet engine power outweighs the increased shockwave drag.
