What is the loudest, noisiest plane you have ever encountered?

After an airshow at NAS Norfolk, I was driving on a nearby highway and had a B-1 taking off very low over my car. Drowned out my high dollar car stereo and I had it cranked up listening to some Floyd.
 
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Aeons ago, I flew in the back seat of Grumman S2F ("Stoof") Trackers.

On carriers, getting ready to go off the cat, those engines would go up to full power and it felt like the sound of the props was shooting straight through each ear and forcibly compressing my pea brain as it rattled around inside my hollow skull !

Oh, did I mention I now wear hearing aids?
 
I'll agree, Concorde and the SR-71. Both we're quite loud on take off. But enjoyable to be sure!
And yes, the Magister does have a real whine to her when taxiing.
 
Hands down, the SR-71 in full burner going out of Beale AFB. Unreal! Before I saw a Blackbird, the loudest I ever heard were F-4's, F-105's/106's, F-15's. The Thud and Delta Dart were probably the loudest single engine jets I've ever heard.
 
The loudest jet I have ever heard was the B-1. I was out in the woods, sitting on top of a ridge, smoking a cigar. I heard this super loud jet...scanned the horizon. Nothing. Then I looked up...and there was the B-1 going nearly vertical right over head. I could see up all four engines and see the exhaust flames swirling as they made their way out of the engines. I don't know how high the plane was overhead when I first looked up....but I can say that it was the closest I have ever been to a running jet.

Off topic a bit: The closest I have ever been to a jet was back in 1988 at the Ohio State Fair. The USAF had an F-16 there on display with a ladder thingie you could climb up and look into the cockpit. Well, there I was on the platform looking into the cockpit...and the 2 USAF guys were WAAAAAY other there chatting up some gals in tube tops and Daisy Dukes. I made my move....I crammed myself into that cockpit just to see how it felt. It felt wonderful. About that time I was getting a good look at everything, one of the gals alerted the FlyBoys that I was in their plane...they came running toward the plane and I went running the exact opposite heading!

OBIO
 
Definately would have to say the Harrier, and EA-6B Prowler.. We had one of our 60's get stranded once in Cherry Point, and I got sent on a team to go fix and retrieve the aircraft. First time I ever saw Harriers/Prowlers in real life. At idle not very loud so did not think much about putting my cranial on. Yeah when they took off I wish I had of put it on cause I thought I would never hear again after that.
 
Three way tie between Harrier,F-15, and a B-1. All three caused physical pain in my ears.

The Harrier and F-15 were at airshows. The B-1 was this summer. I was working at a camp in northern New Mexico, and at least 4 B-1s and 2 C-130s overflew me as I was hiking up a canyon in a two hour period. One in particular passed right overhead as I was on top of a mesa, it was flying insanely low, significantly below most of the peaks in the area. There has to be some sort of low level flight path going through the area, because I experienced something similar when I was there 3 years ago too.
 
I thought the A-6 Intruder was pretty hard on my ears, but the Russian Ilyushin IL 76 may just be a tad more offensive.

Back when they flew Intruders out of Whidby Island NAS, there used to be a billboard sized sign showing an Intruder on the east side of the base the read in part "The sound of Freedom." I guess it was the Navy's way of telling passing motorists on Route 20 that the Intruders were LOUD. They must have been murder on poor deck crewmen's ears when they operated off of carriers.

I agree with Teasea that a Phantom in full afterburner going overhead is really, really loud, but oh what a sweet sound just before the high drags hit.
 
I worked catapults on a carrier, launched Tomcats,A6s and RA5C's and many other types, at full power with afterburners blazing it was impressive but the shrill and rumble of a Harrier hovering hands down is the loudest and most annoying sound Ive encountered from any A/C.
 
For me personally, it's the F-14. I recall first hearing one on full 'burner at the Willow Grove NAS airshow back when I was about 10-11. I think the noise catapulted me into early puberty...

It's a pity (or perhaps a blessing?) we can't experience the "loudest airplane ever built"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-84H

On the ground "run ups", the prototypes could reportedly be heard 25 miles (40 km) away.
Click to expand...

the XF-84H's propeller traveled faster than the speed of sound even at idle thrust, producing a continuous visible sonic boom that radiated laterally from the propellers for hundreds of yards. The shock wave was actually powerful enough to knock a man down; an unfortunate crew chief who was inside a nearby C-47 was severely incapacitated during a 30-minute ground run.
Click to expand...

In one report, a Republic engineer suffered a seizure after close range exposure to the shock waves emanating from a powered-up XF-84H.
Click to expand...
 
Loud is as Loud goes

My personal experiences leave me to put down this list

1. Av8A Harrier, as it passed over my billet on take off....
2.any Space Shuttle as viewed from the viewing stand..your basic "BOOOM ROAR ZOOM"
2 .RA5C Vigilante as it did a low level pass over DaNang in full ab
3. same as above during fly by on USS AMERICA in the MED
4. RF4J Phantom flown by my OIC on a quick photo mission...he had a golf tee time and had to get his hurry-up on...he made the tee time, it took hours for the engines to cool down.the noise was at take off....
5. B-52H as it slow orbitted our Marine base looking for a runway it could use for an emergency. the pilot had the engines spooled way up....whew that was loud
6.B-25 from co-pilot seat as the pilot worked the engines up....a whole lot of vibration too...great plane though
7.F100 Super Sabre thunderbird flyby when I was a kid...
8.Any number of F4J phantoms as they cat shot off any number of carriers. Listening from above on the pri-fli catwalk...Hot too...as the ab flames shot over the deflectors...


Ol'Jarhead :wavey:
 
For me, the one memory that stands out is my first airshow at age 8, and the moment that undeniably started a love affair. As my mother and I walked in, having just cleared the security checkpoint at the gate, a Tomcat blasted past about 100 ft up, having just taken off from the runway that ran parallel to the entrance path, and close. F-14 + full burner + that close = the loudest (and most beautiful) thing I'd ever heard or seen. Might be remembering the volume wrong, but it seemed even louder than the F-22 I saw last year, and that felt like it was ripping the air apart.
 
Lots of military fuel-to-noise-converters already mentioned.

But what about the BAC 1-11?
When I was a kid, standing at the fence of Berlin-Tempelhof airport, it seemed to me the loudest thing ever imaginable!
You could almost hear them still when they were landing at Hannover half an hour later...

Cheers,
Markus.
 
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