Stuart

Would it be possible to design an object, such as a missile/bullet/aircraft etc. that could exceed the speed of sound inside the atmosphere without a sonic boom?

I understand it would make no sound in a vacuum, but I'm talking about within an atmosphere.

I'm wondering if the drag edges of an object could be shaped in a way that they either didn't create the air pressure waves for a sonic boom, or if they could create inverse waves to cancel out each other?

If anyone has any examples of objects created or experiments conducted in the past on this would be interesting to me as well.

Is there any evidence, documented or otherwise that the design and or development of the Sukhoi PAK-FA was based on the legitimate sharing of information from Lockheed Martin with respect to design of the F-22 Raptor?

If not is there any such evidence that any of the design principles were copied from or otherwise obtained by Sukhoi unscrupulously?

The question assumes the Raptor's development preceded that of the PAK-FA however if this is not the case then the question still stands in inverse.

I find it hard to believe that two rival military hardware developers came up with such similar design and operating specifications independently of each other for their 5th Gen stealth fighter projects.

What is the proper name for a track which has teeth so that a gear can roll along it?

(See representation below)

/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_

|_____________________________|