How to Use subsonic in a Sentence

subsonic

adjective
  • The Concorde’s fares were about 30% more than subsonic first class fares.
    Jennifer Alsever, Fortune, 18 Sep. 2021
  • One group tried to build an app that could deter boars with subsonic sound waves.
    New York Times, 9 Apr. 2021
  • Boom, like Concorde, will have to go subsonic over land.
    Tom Vanderbilt, Wired, 20 Dec. 2021
  • Boom predicts that the Overture will be able to serve more than 600 routes around the world in about half the time of subsonic commercial jets.
    Michael Verdon, Robb Report, 27 Nov. 2023
  • The previous record was held by a Norwegian Air flight that made the subsonic trip in 5 hours and 13 minutes.
    Madison Dibble, Washington Examiner, 10 Feb. 2020
  • Ukraine’s Neptune is a subsonic anti-ship missile with a range of about 175 miles.
    Michael Peck, Forbes, 6 May 2022
  • The plane performed like no subsonic plane could perform.
    Francesca Street, CNN, 27 Apr. 2023
  • But no one could hear what the elephants were humming to themselves, in the deep subsonic of their own frequency, as the drums clattered and gongs crashed.
    Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023
  • Most dogfights these days are done at subsonic speeds and at low altitudes.
    Kevin Brown, Popular Mechanics, 19 Nov. 2020
  • For the most part, that’s subsonic flight within Earth’s atmosphere.
    Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 2 Dec. 2020
  • The second set of pilot and main parachutes, which are larger, are deployed at subsonic speeds.
    Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 25 Feb. 2020
  • In the same way, the air conditioning system has to heat the interior at subsonic speeds and then cool it after Mach 1 is passed.
    J. A. Maxtone Graham, Popular Mechanics, 24 Sep. 2020
  • This generates enough thrust to drive an aircraft at subsonic speeds.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 7 Aug. 2020
  • Scholl said Overture’s gull wings will be shaped for both supersonic and subsonic flight modes.
    Michael Verdon, Robb Report, 26 June 2023
  • The subsonic Hawks are the only fighters permanently based in the east, where the Chinese planes flew their provocative mission.
    David Axe, Forbes, 27 Sep. 2021
  • All four competitors have developed subsonic jet drones in the past.
    Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, 6 Oct. 2020
  • Critics have pointed out that subsonic, non-stealth aircraft like the Reaper could be easy targets for Chinese air defense systems in a near-peer war.
    Alex Hollings, Popular Mechanics, 20 Sep. 2021
  • And so, the lower ends are usually taken by mammals, from the subsonic utterances of giraffes, elephants and hippos to the sounds of monkeys and cats.
    Peter Hemminger, Longreads, 3 Mar. 2022
  • The long-range B-52 heavy bomber flies at subsonic speeds and provides a global strike capability.
    Allison Barrie, Fox News, 4 Apr. 2013
  • If the pilot ejected at a high subsonic speed, say about 600 knots, the chute would remain reefed; that is, restricted by a cord from opening to its full diameter.
    Kevin V. Brown, Popular Mechanics, 17 June 2021
  • Kalibr is a subsonic cruise missile used against targets in Syria.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 30 Apr. 2021
  • The extended-range JSOW cruises at subsonic speeds rather than racing toward targets like an air-to-air missile.
    Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 2 Apr. 2018
  • The subsonic Kalibr, with its thousand-pound warhead and range of a thousand miles or more, is indicative of this modernization.
    David Axe, Forbes, 19 Jan. 2022
  • Hermeus will use its hybrid engine in turbojet mode when taking off and landing, as well as at subsonic speeds.
    Jacopo Prisco, CNN, 16 Oct. 2021
  • In that case a subsonic converted airliner like the Boeing 767 would be cheaper and just as effective.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 20 July 2022
  • This would give the subsonic attack jet the range to strike distant targets, perhaps bombing enemy air defenses to allow manned jets to slip through.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 5 June 2019
  • This makes it, as well as subsonic cruise missiles, a major threat to military installations across Guam.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 29 Aug. 2022
  • Bullet-shaped with stubby wings and a Williams turbofan engine, the Tomahawk flies low at subsonic speeds to avoid enemy radar.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 13 June 2017
  • Scholl said Boom will reduce costs by designing an entirely new engine rather than tweaking one made for subsonic flight.
    David Koenig, Orlando Sentinel, 13 Dec. 2022
  • Entering the atmosphere, the capsule would use its heat shield to absorb the reentry heating and then employ atmospheric drag to slow down to subsonic speeds.
    Robert Zubrin, National Review, 19 Sep. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'subsonic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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