3 ms·

Is the speed of sound barrier higher too?

• Scramblejams 7y ago
  The speed of sound decreases as altitude goes up, unfortunately.
  • stefanix 7y ago
    Sometimes. Speed of sound decreases with temperature. At any flight level above 300 speed of sound stays the same and the increases with altitude.
    • Scramblejams 7y ago
      Good to know, thanks for the correction.
• t0mas88 7y ago
  No, it's lower, speed of sound is 38.94 * sqrt(temperature) with the speed in knots and the temperature in Kelvin. Every airliner notices this when climbing, you get closer to the Mmo speed (maximum Mach number for operating) while at the same time the IAS decreases and you get closer to a stall due to decreasing airdensity. At some point you cannot go faster due to maximum Mach while you also cannot go slower due to minimum IAS to avoid a stall. At that point you cannot climb higher even if your engines have the power.