Quote:
Originally Posted by gunnut
I did...sort of. The 8 propellers on the 4 turbine engines are so big and spin so fast, their tips break the sound barrier to generate mini sonic booms. Or so I've heard. Most Bear crewmen suffer from hearing damage. Is that true?
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As far as I know, it is a big point of design to make sure they never exceed supersonic speed for the reasons glyn stated. It's the reason jets were needed to break the sound barrier.
http://www.aviapedia.com/files/bombe...95/Tu-95MS.jpg
The cross-sectional area is gigantic so that they won't have to spin so fast to generate the same displacement.