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Sonic booms can be nerve rattling. I remember when the Virginia Air National Guard transitioned from the F-84F to the F-105D. There were some booms, some may well have been sonic, others were from the afterburners being lit off. People complained and restrictions were placed on the VANG. I kind of enjoyed the booms, to me it is the sound of freedom.
 
Yep, I remember the sound of sonic booms as well. Growing up in south central Ohio, which was the main flying area for the Ohio ANG out of Richenbacher Air Field in Columbus, I heard sonic booms every once in a while. At the time, the squadron was equipped with A-7 Corsair IIs...which are stated to be sub-sonic, but under the right conditions and with the right pilot at the stick, can punch through the sound barrier. The sound of a sonic boom could startle the pants off a person, but I still liked the sound....even if my heart was in my throat and racing like crazy. Did anyone else notice the picture of the F/A-18 "breaking the sound barrier"? How many times have we seen pics of planes with the shock cone thingie and it being described as "breaking the sound barrier"? I wish people would really learn what it is. OBIO
 
[SUB]Growing up in the 80's, out in the cornfield. The local Guard unit had F-4Ds. Every once in a while.... BOOM!!! Rattle, rattle... It was so cool. One week, it happened every day at 3:30 pm. And when you requested a fly-by for a parade or something... You didn't know when, but you were well aware when it happened. Hairs were raised, not only from having the crap scared out of you, but from the overflying airplane moving the air around you.... hehe... That's back when fly-bys were impressive, not like today, where restictions could force a fly-by to be mistaken for overflying airliners.[/SUB]
 
They were pretty common out in West Colorado too. The Colorado Air National Guard had F-100s at Buckley ANG Base and over in Utah there were supersonic jets at Hill AFB.
 
Many years ago I was on a camping holiday in Cornwall in the UK. We had a very pleasant first weekend but around mid-morning on the Monday I heard what sounded like someone firing a double-barrelled shotgun but much louder. I just thought it seemed strange and wondered if there was a nearby golf course perhaps having a 'shotgun' start to an event. A day or so later I heard it again at about the same time. When it occurred the third time I happened to be chatting with the campsite manager and mentioned the noise to him and asked what it was. He chuckled and replied "that's Concorde throttling up and breaking the sound barrier as she heads out over the ocean!" It was certainly an unforgettable sound.
 
Everyone should get to enjoy at least one sonic boom in their lifetime. It's good for the heart!

Jim
 
i used to hear them here where i live when i was a kid,im in the sierra nevada foothills,i surrounded by McClellan,Beale,Mather,in sacramento,then theres reno and travis nearby,,,back in the day when they could do the "booms" i have no idea what planes may have been overhead...we sure heard them,,,to this day,around 10 pm every night we hear a deep throttled sounding whoooshing sound thats high in altitude,ive often wondered if its something being tested long distance from edwards? ( id like to believe that,,lol) or something coming back into beale ( more likely) but it sounds awesome
 
I was a boy when Concorde was test-flying off the UK west coast and remember our glazed front door rattling to the boom. I was a bit surprised to see no-one standing at the door...
 
When I was a kid my Dad was stationed at Camp Pendleton in S. California for a few years. I remember sonic booms rattling the house fairly regular.
 
Way back in about 1963 I was at an airshow at Ohakea NZ , and one of the US Air Force F-105 Thunderchief's took off and disappeared into the sky in between displays.

Sometime later it scared the crap out of the spectators with a massive boom. :icon_lol:

I shall remember it always. :applause:

Pete.
 
Although I haven't heard a sonic boom in years, I do remember hearing them when I was growing up in the '60s / '70s. Wouldn't mind hearing one (or more) again someday.
 
One of the most interesting "sonic boom experiences" for me was when a plane flew past the ship (Enterprise, CVN-65) while I was walking through the hangar bay. Being "indoors", I never saw the plane, or knew of it's passage before the "b-BOOM!" occurred. What I did notice was that the ship moved. And it seemed like a lot. That must be why people mistake them for earthquakes. The other thing that I noticed was a blast of wind that came through the hangar bay, from the large openings for the aircraft elevators. Is that amazing or what? Sonic b-booms are cool.
 
What gets me is that after 55 years of supersonic flight, and not-withstanding the general lack of public knowledge of all things aeronautical, it still creates "news".

There's a great article about "booms" in the Smithsonian Air & Space Mag.
http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/Mach_1.html?c=y&page=1
A couple of my favorites are:

During 1964 the FAA had the Air Force wallop Oklahoma City with eight sonic booms every flyable day for six months, using the area’s 700,000-odd inhabitants as unwitting and unwilling subjects in an experiment to determine society’s threshold of auditory pain. Century-series fighters and B-58 Hustlers played the city like a drum, which doubtless is why the project was code-named Operation Bongo.
The effects of the booms ranged from the inevitable to the incredible. One victim claimed that her bra strap snapped whenever the Air Force lowered a particularly loud boom...
----
The all-time Glass-Makers’ Appreciation Award, however, should go to the U.S. Air Force F-104 pilot who in November 1959 buzzed an uncompleted terminal at Ottawa’s Uplands Airport at 500 feet and did $300,000 worth of damage to windows and the roof.
----
The latter is quite a story in itself, considering it was a demo flight watched by Canadian Defense staff, the Minister of Defense, etc. and the terminal was new, and still under construction ... oops indeed. When I worked there 17 years later there were still unresolved leaks and bent window frames.
 
The sonic boom I'll always remember was when I was with my Dad at the Buckley ANG base's air show in about 1960 or so. One of the demonstrator fighters busted a boom in a low level pass in front of the crowd. Loved it.

It was also the first time that I saw paratroopers. Must have been a battalion or so from the 101st or the 82nd Airborne. They dropped from C-119 Boxcars and used the grass in front of the ramp for their drop zone. I knew in an instant that I just had to be a para from that moment on.
 
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