Sonic boom mitigation by means of incident flow heating

The level of the sonic boom arising due to local heating of the air flow ahead of a slender body flying at a supersonic velocity in the thermal wake behind the heating regions is calculated. The Mach number of the cold air flow is 2. The calculations are performed by a combined method of “phantom bodies.” It is demonstrated that consecutive local heating of the incident flow in two regions ahead of the body ensures reduction of the sonic boom level by more than 30% as compared to the sonic boom generated by the body in the cold flow.