SONIC BOOMS MAY GET LESS BANG PLANES' REDESIGN COULD CUT SOUND.(Business) From: Daily News (Los Angeles, CA) | Date: August 29, 2003 | COPYRIGHT 2003 Daily News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - The sonic boom, that wall-shaking, heart-stopping proclamation of man's victory over the sound barrier, could be reduced to a mere boomlet by redesigning supersonic aircraft.

That was the conclusion announced Thursday by Northrop Grumman, which spent $7 million researching technologies that would make future supersonic aircraft fly more quietly.

``Based on those studies, an experimental aircr...