sound barrier

noun

1. Also called sonic barrier, (not in technical use) a hypothetical barrier to flight beyond the speed of sound, so postulated because aircraft undergo an abruptly increasing drag force induced by compression of the surrounding air when traveling near the speed of sound.

sound barrier

noun

1. not in technical usage a hypothetical barrier to flight at or above the speed of sound, when a sudden large increase in drag occurs Also calledsonic barriertransonic barrier

Word History and Origins

Origin of sound barrier¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. break the sound barrier, to travel faster than the speed of sound.

Example Sentences

At the time, nobody knew if challenging the sound barrier meant that the sound barrier would slap back, ripping to pieces any plane that tried to defy it.

From Time

The pilot is Chuck Yeager, once again cracking the sound barrier, 50 years to the minute after he became the first man to do so.

From Popular-Science

This excursion, his ninth powered flight in the plane, would mark the moment that wrote the test pilot into the history books as the first person to break the sound barrier.

From Popular-Science

When the recently late daredevil Chuck Yeager became the first human to break the sound barrier in 1947, observers knew it from the thunderous boom that rang out over the Mojave Desert, marking the feat.

From Fortune

It was called, rather dramatically, breaking the sound barrier.

From The Daily Beast

Pawel Szaniawski talks to the extreme athlete about the stunt, its purpose, and what it will feel like to break the sound barrier.

From The Daily Beast

You have heard the sound barrier, of a plane breaking the sound barrier, bang, bang?

From Project Gutenberg

Again, I am going to refer to it as like a plane going through a sound barrier; bang, bang.

From Project Gutenberg

Even in this era of sophisticated flight there have been those who said the sound barrier would never be broken.

From Project Gutenberg