# What would happen if I flew through a city at Mach 3? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896 "2025-07-15T23:07:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/1 "2025-07-15T23:07:03Z")
Assume I’m Superman-ish. Would there be massive building damage? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/2 "2025-07-15T23:31:15Z")
See Matrix III. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/3 "2025-07-16T00:44:03Z")
“Through”… at what altitude? Ground level? Rooftop? Low airplane? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/4 "2025-07-16T09:14:30Z")
Just above streetlight level. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/5 "2025-07-16T10:32:53Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Would there be massive building damage? Lots of broken glass. No real structural damage though (unless you actually hit a building). ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/6 "2025-07-16T10:35:59Z")
You’d hurt a lot of people though. Mostly hearing-related injuries apart from all the falling glass-related stuff or to fragile folks, but you’d definitely score big damage on a collective scale. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/7 "2025-07-16T11:37:53Z")
Mach 10? Mach 100? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/8 "2025-07-16T12:02:41Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Assume I’m Superman-ish. Would there be massive building damage? > [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Just above streetlight level. You’d break pretty much every window or easily shattered object you passed. You could cause both hearing damage/injuries and injuries from people being knocked down, into buildings, etc. At least in the US you’d break a bunch of FAA regs and laws about exceeding Mach 1 in US airspace without prior permission (which would not be given for flying through a city at streetlight-level at Mach 3 anyway). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/9 "2025-07-16T13:25:37Z")
Supersonic planes definitely break windows, but size matters. A whip cracking doesn’t break windows. Would a human-sized projectile make an intense-enough sonic boom to break windows? At what range? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/10 "2025-07-16T13:53:37Z")
> What would happen if I flew through a city at Mach 3? I did that, once. Speeding ticket. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/11 "2025-07-16T14:07:38Z")
Mythbusters tested this with a supersonic jet (though at less than mach 3). Surprisingly even at very low altitude at supersonic speeds it was very hard to break any glass… > Jamie set up a test area filled with various glass items and products while Adam performed a flyby in an F/A-18 going supersonic. However, at flybys of 8,000, 2,000, and 500 feet (2,400, 610, and 150 m), the jet failed to break any of the glass. They then performed a series of low-altitude flybys at 200 feet (61 m), but they managed to break only a single window. Since the majority of the glass was still intact, the MythBusters declared the myth busted. > **[MythBusters (2009 season)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2009_season))** > > The cast of the television series MythBusters perform experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives' tales, and the like. This is a list of the various myths tested on the show as well as the results of the experiments (the myth is busted, plausible, or confirmed). > > This episode was an 87-minute-long special. The vehicles that were demolished during the episode all received an end credit in the form of an in memoriam (spelled in memorium onscreen). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/12 "2025-07-16T14:12:47Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Supersonic planes definitely break windows, but size matters. A whip cracking doesn’t break windows. Would a human-sized projectile make an intense-enough sonic boom to break windows? At what range? 'Zactly my question. There’s only the energy embedded in WAG 200# of person traveling at Mach 3 to impart to the passing air. Not 20,000# or 50,000# of jet. Likewise the frontal area of air that needs to be displaced is quite different between a WAG 1’x2’ human and a fighter-sized jet, or worse yet a B-1A. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/13 "2025-07-16T14:17:10Z")
Make sure you plot your course ahead of time, otherwise you might get clotheslined by any number of random wires! At that speed I imagine you’d look like Wile E Coyote being diced by a fence while on skis. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/14 "2025-07-16T14:26:49Z")
I was going to ask the same thing, but with a bullet instead of a bullwhip. Sadly, we have regular examples of that in some city neighborhoods. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/15 "2025-07-16T14:35:32Z")
Using Whitham’s equation for peak overpressure, an avg adult flying Mach 3 at a few meters above sea level, I came up with a peak overpressure of about 1.3 Pa and a loudness of about 100dB. So, not much damage and a pretty loud pop, but nothing crazy. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/16 "2025-07-16T15:06:39Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Mythbusters tested this with a supersonic jet (though at less than mach 3). Surprisingly even at very low altitude at supersonic speeds it was very hard to break any glass… > > > Jamie set up a test area filled with various glass items and products while Adam performed a flyby in an F/A-18 going supersonic. However, at flybys of 8,000, 2,000, and 500 feet (2,400, 610, and 150 m), the jet failed to break any of the glass. They then performed a series of low-altitude flybys at 200 feet (61 m), but they managed to break only a single window. Since the majority of the glass was still intact, the MythBusters declared the myth busted. …then, since they caused insufficient damage to be entertaining-- they set off a bunch of high-powered explosives and blew everything up real good. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/17 "2025-07-16T15:45:00Z")
> [@solost](#): > > …then, since they caused insufficient damage to be entertaining-- they set off a bunch of high-powered explosives and blew everything up real good. & the problem with that is??? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/18 "2025-07-16T15:52:22Z")
Did I _ **say** _ there was a problem?!? 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/19 "2025-07-16T15:55:08Z")
Can you imagine the amount of mach 3 swerving that would have to be done? BTW, what _does_ happen when you have to make a very sharp turn at that speed? ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896/20 "2025-07-16T15:57:06Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > BTW, what _does_ happen when you have to make a very sharp turn at that speed? You either hit the brakes…or you hit the breaks! 😵 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-i-flew-through-a-city-at-mach-3/1020896.md?page=2)