From April 25 to May 6, the Eurofighter pilots of the Austrian Armed Forces will once again be training supersonic interception maneuvers. Two supersonic flights are scheduled per day between 8.00 am and 4.00 pm.
“This training is an indispensable part of a functioning Austrian airspace surveillance system. Safe flight operations must also be guaranteed for operations in the supersonic range and flight safety has the highest priority. The pilots train under real physical stress, which cannot be simulated in a simulator. The close and extremely time-critical coordination between military pilots, radar control officers and military and civilian air traffic control is also an essential purpose of the training,” says Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner. Flights are conducted over almost the entire federal territory with the exception of conurbations and the federal states of Tyrol and Vorarlberg. The flight areas are determined in cooperation with civil air traffic control. In order to keep the noise level as low as possible, flights are flown at high altitudes. The following measures are taken by the Austrian Armed Forces to reduce the propagation of noise close to the ground:
- The acceleration phases of the Eurofighter are kept as short as possible.
- The sound distribution is continuously documented in order to minimize multiple sound exposure in the same rooms.
- The conurbations around the state capitals and the federal capital are excluded from supersonic flights. However, flights in the subsonic range can take place over these areas at any time.
- There are no training flights at supersonic speed between 12:00 and 13:00 and at weekends.
- The flights are performed above an altitude of 12,500 meters to minimize the sonic boom on the ground.
Supersonic speed
The supersonic speed starts at approx. 1,200 km/h. If a Eurofighter approaches this speed, shock waves are generated on the aircraft. These shock waves can be heard on the ground as a sonic boom. The (loud) strength of the sonic boom depends on the flight altitude, the terrain structure and the weather conditions, among other things.
