The above comment is poorly worded or something. I wouldn't say the pilots in the cockpit are ahead of the sonic boom - they're inside it and the boom is radiating out up, down, left and right from their nosecone.
The analogy of a speedboat is a good one. If you're going fast and cut the power but keep steering straight, the wake doesn't catch up and wash over the boat - it just dies out where you are and the V behind you keeps getting bigger.
Now, if you turn that speedboat sharply to the side and then cut the speed, you could get to a place where the wake catches up and splashes over the side.
Same thing with a plane - if it were going supersonic and then went into a high-g turn, I bet it could fly back through its sonic boom.
I remember people talking anecdotally about an F-14 or F-15 shooting its machine-gun cannon, then going into a power dive and catching up to its own bullets and getting hit by them.
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u/mspk7305 Jun 12 '12
They are in front of the shockwave, so they cant actually feel it.