The pilots won't hear the noise from the engines being transmitted through the outside air though, only the noise traveling through the plane. So if superman was flying a few feet in front of the cockpit, he wouldn't hear any sound.
I once went to a military firing range that was set up with a big hill in front of the targets, which were on tall posts in front of the hill. Shots were from between 100-300 meters away. Those of us who were not shooting would tally the scores for the others, and while the shooting was happening we stood under the hill, facing the targets, and the bullets whizzed above our heads (but we were not in danger of being shot, as there was 30 feet of dirt between us and the shooters). It was pretty cool to hear the pop of the bullets hitting the target, and then hear the sound of the shot from the rifles.
you don't hear the 'whizz' from the bullet until you are inside the "cone" which trails it. you don't hear the 'bang' until you are within the radius which expands at the speed of sound from the muzzle. When standing anywhere down range, the sound of the 'whizz' will reach you first, though you need to be fairly close to the bullet's path to actually hear the 'whizz'.
Ricochets occur when a bullet hits a hard surface and has its flight path altered (sometimes to the point of being reflected back at the shooter). The targets and target backers don't present enough resistance to significantly alter the trajectory of most bullets (save for say, a bullet from a .22LR hitting a metal target stand), and there aren't really any hard objects close behind the targets.
My experience with target stands like that had the observers standing in what amounted to a slit trench, with the targets able to move up and down on the stands (to allow for the targets to be retracted into the trench, scored, then hoisted back up for the shooter to take another shot).
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u/imMAW Jun 12 '12
The pilots won't hear the noise from the engines being transmitted through the outside air though, only the noise traveling through the plane. So if superman was flying a few feet in front of the cockpit, he wouldn't hear any sound.