What Would It Sound Like?

[mickemoose]

In the TOS episode, "Tomorrow is Yesterday," the Enterprise enters earth's atmosphere for a brief period of time. Just what kind of sound would we hear from the impulse engines if we were to gaze up and see the starship streaking across the sky?

Since impulse engines are powered by deuterium fusion reactors rather than powered by internal combustion (fossil-fuel powered), would they be so quiet that we wouldn't hear anything at all? Or, would we hear a sound unlike anything we've ever heard before?

 

[blssdwlf]

If "The Voyage Home" was any indication with the BOP's impulse and warp engines in use it would likely be somewhat quiet, IMHO.

But considering the Enterprise's shields and most other systems were offline when they were in the atmosphere, there might have been a loud boom from the ship suddenly appearing in the atmosphere.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Since impulse engines are powered by deuterium fusion reactors rather than powered by internal combustion (fossil-fuel powered), would they be so quiet that we wouldn't hear anything at all?

What does a deuterium fusion reactor sound like, anyway?

Personally, I always thought that the engine noise we heard during first season Enterprise flybys was what the ship was supposed to have sounded like under conditions that would produce an audible sound. This sounded not at all unlike a jet plane.

 

[Knight Templar]

The Enterprise in "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" was pulling away from an F-104 Starfighter which means that the starship was traveling at more than Mach 2.

This of course means given its huge size compared to any aircraft that it was most certainly creating a humongous sonic boom.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The Enterprise in "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" was pulling away from an F-104 Starfighter which means that the starship was traveling at more than Mach 2.

This of course means given its huge size compared to any aircraft that it was most certainly creating a humongous sonic boom.

No way.

The F-104 Starfighter could not attain Mach 2 during a steep climb. The maximum rate of climb in an F-104 was about 48000 ft/min, which is about 550 miles/hour. But even this maximum rate could not be sustained during a long climb, and over a long steep climb its average speed was considerably less, about half that. In contrast, the maximum speed, period, of the F-104 was about 1350 miles/hour.

http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=113
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter#World_Records

When the F-104 climbed as fast as possible, it was going subsonic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound#Tables

Granted, we can only speculate as to the precise trajectory of Captain Christopher's fighter, but we do have this dialog [http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/21.htm]:

[Bridge]

KIRK: Mister Sulu, can you gain altitude faster? I want to outdistance him.
SULU: Picking up, sir, but she's still slow in responding.

[Jet fighter]

CHRISTOPHER: Blackjack, this is Bluejay 4. UFO is picking up speed and climbing. I'm going in closer.
FLIGHT [OC]: Bluejay 4, you should be close enough for visual contact.
CHRISTOPHER: I can see it now. Whatever this is, it's big. Two cylindrical projections on top, one below. Purpose undetermined.
FLIGHT [OC]: We have two flights scrambled and on the way. They should rendezvous in your sector in two minutes.
CHRISTOPHER: I won't be here. The UFO's climbing away fast.

[Bridge]

FLIGHT [OC]: Bluejay 4, you are ordered to close on the UFO. and attempt to force him to land. We want it brought down or at least disabled until the other planes arrive.
CHRISTOPHER [OC]: Acknowledged. Closing on target.
SPOCK: Positive identification, Captain. Aircraft is an interceptor, equipped with missiles, possibly armed with nuclear warheads. If he hits us with one, he might damage us severely, perhaps beyond our capacity to repair under current circumstances.

The highlighted sections indicate that the F-104 must have been climbing at a rate sufficient to close on the Enterprise, which herself was accelerating with the intention of outrunning the fighter.

 

[Forbin]

^yeah, fine, but however fast the 104 was going, the E was accelerating to orbital velocity, so you betcha there was some air displacement and shock waves going on.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

At the points in time when the F-104 was "closing on target", the F-104 was necessarily outrunning the Enterprise. (That is, assuming the phrase "closing on target" meant that the distance between them was decreasing, say as opposed to their positions in terms of longitude and latitude.)

 

[Timo]

We don't have precise data on how high the action was taking place, either. But possibly high enough that little in the way of sound would have reached the ground, or even penetrated into the fighter's cockpit.

I guess the higher, the better, giving us a minimum of air resistance - and thus allowing the oddly shaped starship to fly without much effort or instability even when major systems are down and Sulu is knocked out.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Forbin]

At the points in time when the F-104 was "closing on target", the F-104 was necessarily outrunning the Enterprise. (That is, assuming the phrase "closing on target" meant that the distance between them was decreasing, say as opposed to their positions in terms of longitude and latitude.)

But that wasn't the question:

In the TOS episode, "Tomorrow is Yesterday," the Enterprise enters earth's atmosphere for a brief period of time. Just what kind of sound would we hear from the impulse engines if we were to gaze up and see the starship streaking across the sky?

He said nothing about "when the f-104 was catching up to it." You inserted that proviso.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

At the points in time when the F-104 was "closing on target", the F-104 was necessarily outrunning the Enterprise. (That is, assuming the phrase "closing on target" meant that the distance between them was decreasing, say as opposed to their positions in terms of longitude and latitude.)

But that wasn't the question:

In the TOS episode, "Tomorrow is Yesterday," the Enterprise enters earth's atmosphere for a brief period of time. Just what kind of sound would we hear from the impulse engines if we were to gaze up and see the starship streaking across the sky?

He said nothing about "when the f-104 was catching up to it." You inserted that proviso.

Oh, come on. Since the F-104 was catching up to the Enterprise while the Enterprise was briefly in the Earth's atmosphere, it is within the scope of the OP's question. The idea that both craft, the F-104 and the Enterprise, were traveling at subsonic speeds is more than plausible, at least until around the time that the Enterprise activated her tractor beam.

Until that time, in that case, there would have been no shock waves, except possibly for any resulting from the Enterprise's arrival, as pointed out upthread by blssdwlf.

 

[Knight Templar]

There are a number of severe inconsistencies in the episode with the Enterprise in the Earths atmosphere

For example, the view of North American on the viewscreen.

Assuming that is basically a "looking out the window" type of view, then the Enterprise is WWWAAAAYYYY to high in altitude to bothered in the least by USAF interceptors.

From what I could tell, the Enterprise would have to be at least 400-500,000 feet in altitude for its sensors to show that kind of view of North America.

I know an SR-71 Blackbird which could get attain well more than 80,000 feet in altitude (also well beyond the range of USAF interceptors of that era) could not get that kind of view of the Earths surface.

 

[SicOne]

We can only speculate on how loud it would be, but given the fact that nothing Enterprise's size has flown through our atmosphere, much less at supersonic speeds, it would be very fuckin' loud.

 

[Captain Rob]

When you consider that the shuttle used to (hate saying that) reenter without power. All you heard was a very loud noise like a tornado as it landed. Just multiply that times 50 or 100.

 

[Timo]

nothing Enterprise's size has flown through our atmosphere, much less at supersonic speeds

Actually, plenty of rocks the size of that starship have flown through our atmosphere at supersonic speeds. We know what that sounds like... Although I must lament on not having ever personally heard that sound.

It's rather that none have done so at the subsonic speeds that probably were involved in this episode!

For example, the view of North American on the viewscreen.

In the original episode, the view was completely free of clouds, which we might take as an indication that it wasn't a "view" at all, but rather a map. And the fact that the map moved may be more an artifact of equipment failures and resulting positional uncertainty than evidence of the starship moving at tens of thousands of kilometers per hour!

The remastered version of the episode omits both this view and the opening credits view of a distant Earth (clearly viewed from several thousand kilometers up but never actually presented as a view from our favorite starship), and merely shows cloudscapes.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tribble Herder]

Take the sound of those first season flybys, and crank up the volume. There's your answer.