Loud Boom Heard During Lockheed Martin Supersonic Testing in Parker County

Many North Texas residents took to social media to report hearing a loud noise about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, which may have been caused by supersonic testing conducted by Lockheed Martin. Law enforcement officials and other agencies received reports of homes shaking after the loud noise in northern Parker County, including Azle and Springtown. Parker County spokesman Joel Kertok says officials were looking into the incident.Lockheed Martin had flight operations in the area, which included supersonic testing, spokeswoman Lindsay Wilson said."Our pilots work to perform these flights in a manner that hopefully impacts the fewest number of people while still allowing us to make sure each aircraft made meets our customer requirements," Wilson said in an email. "Atmospheric conditions sometime make a difference in whether the sonic booms reach the ground. It is our intent to disturb the community as infrequently as possible."NASA describes sonic booms as "a thunder-like noise a person on the ground hears when an aircraft or other type of aerospace vehicle flies overhead faster than the speed of sound, or 'supersonic.'"Some initially believed the noise could've been from an earthquake, but no earthquakes were reported by the U.S. Geological Survey.  Continue reading...