Iwan

So the other day I was standing outside in the yard on my girlfriends familys farm in Slovakia. Nice sunny morning, birds are singing etc, then out of the blue comes the biggest sonic boom I've ever heard.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when it happened, and started trying to mentally calculate how many hundred KM we were from Chernobyl over the nearby border in Ukraine.

Pretty cool once I realised what it was though, I've only ever heard very distant ones from Concorde when I lived in Cornwall as it went supersonic over the Atlantic. This was fairly low level over land, I didn't even hear the plane coming - then again I wouldn't if it was going mach1 plus.

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

That should not happen most of the time as there are areas for training that should not affect the civilian areas, any damage to the house?

mark engers

She loves you for your passport, right?

The Chief

Donkeys years ago i heard one off the space shuttle as it came to land in Florida, it was posted on the news that the sonic boom would affect the area of Orlando so we all went in the garden and waited, it was loud but not that loud as it was more than 60,000 ft up and tbh although i heard ( i actually heard 2 if that sounds strange) it i did not see a thing as it was travelling that fast.

astraboy

The shuttle produces two sonic booms due to the supersonic shock waves it produces. Most aircraft produce two shockwaves, one from the nose, the other from the tailfin, but becuase most supersonic jets are small fighters they are so small and so close together, they are usually heard as one.

Cos the shuttle is so bloody big, the shockwaves are far enough apart to be heard seperatley.
YouTube - Shuttle Re-entry Sonic Boom Break the Sound Barrier
sound familiar?
astraboy.

astraboy

Even better this one (well, apast from the end credits), Shuttle atlantis breaking the soundbarrier on take off
Remember the shockwaves I was talking about? This time the air is humid enough to see them
YouTube - Space Shuttle Breaks Sound Barrier
astraboy.

The Chief

Ahhh thats why we heard two then - had me puzzled for bloody years

SlimJ_2005

I've been in Florida when a shuttle was due to come in to land, completely forgot about it, but sitting round the pool and heard a double sonic boom, sounded awesome!

As I live down in Kent we get a lot of the shockwaves from Shoeburyness, there always on the firing range and the sound shockwaves travels right down to East Kent, makes the windows rattle a bit... quite a few people have complained about it though. Would say the booms from the shuttle was quite similar to this.

Daz34

Wow an expert in Slovakian airspace control on ScoobyNet.
Whatever next

Iwan

Yeah I used to hear 2 booms with Concorde years ago, but just one this time. Apparently they don't have any mundane laws about not breaking the sound barrier over land around that part of the world, they just get on with it.

No damage, according to her family it happens fairly often over there and the people/animals don't usually bat an eyelid.

Btw Slovakia is part of the EU now so their people don't need to marry a passport to get over here these days.

CrisPDuk

When I was little we used to holiday in Scotland a lot. When my Mum and sister went and did their pilgrimage to the shops, they'd leave me and my dad either in one of the valleys where the RAF strutted their low level stuff, or on the beach so we could watch them tooling around over the sea, Sonic Booms do get a little passe after a while

In the valleys was better, you could always get a dip of the wings or even the odd (probably against regulations) roll if you waved at them

Leslie

My dad used to take me to the Farnborough air display every year. One of the highlights was a sonic boom run done by the Red Hunter. It used to do a steep dive from high level aiming the boom for the airfield area. One year the boom was done first by the DH110 which then recovered to low level over the airfield where the fighters used to do a blisteringly fast low level run over the crowd's heads. That was a bit of a thrill! The DH110 was heading towards us from over the black sheds when it all broke up in the air and caused a terrible number of deaths in the crowd. That was terrifying of course and later the Red Hunter still did its sonic boom run which was even more of a worry I remember. If I remember correctly, it was John Derry in the DH110 and Neville Duke in the Hunter. I was only a nipper at the time.

As Astraboy says, there is usually a sonic boom from both the leading edge shockwave of the wings or nose, and another one from the tailplane. If the aircraft was flying fast enough the front shockwave would move towards the rear of the aircraft and the double boom effect would become less apparent as they coincided. It might even be possible under certain circumstances to get a triple boom.

I had to smile at what you said CPD, I used to fly around there a lot, especially in the Canberras. Maybe I even waved a wing at you, or whatever

Les

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

Expert?? Who the f00k said that you fart stain? It is normal to have most training areas away form built up civilian areas you idiot!!

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

"on the edge".....of initial retardation, dumbass.

Daz34

Another post to prove you cannot debate or comment without a lame insult.
Just another sad sack keyboard warrior......

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

What is this? Learn to pace yourself, and think before you type.

Thanks

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

Sure thing boss!!

Have you been using your clearazit?

LG John

This is one of my life ambitions - to hear an aircraft break the sound barrier from the ground

mart360

Wish granted



YouTube - Thrust ssc

Mucho respect


Mart

ru'

<radio> "I'd say that was fast" </radio>

No Sh*t!

CrisPDuk

A better version of the same thing

YouTube - Space Shuttle Atlantis Twin Sonic Booms From Re-Entry

Booms are at 0:09sec, when the recording ends at 0:39sec the reverb is still very evident

CrisPDuk

I made that as roughly 0-700+mph in 45 seconds

I bet a scoob could still have it in the twisties though