Sonic boom...

[whosyourdaddy00]

no seriously, how many of you have heard a real sonic boom from a plane exceeding the speed of sound? i don't think i have, but i'm not 100%

what does it sound like?

my guess is the closest thing would be thunder...or is it a single transient with rumble after...wait, thunder does that too DOH!

i'm drinkin'...

[MASSIVE Master]

I've heard several. Some in placed I'd expect (near military bases, etc.), some not (Northern Wisconsin from a high altitude jet). Impressive amount of energy. Not unlike a lightning strike.

Once in 2002 right near my house - Two military fighters were scrambled about a plane that was flying where it wasn't supposed to be. THAT was something... It sounded like the entire block exploded. Pictures fell off walls here, churches and office buildings had glass damage over three or four counties. I've never felt one that close or that low before. And it wasn't even that close.

Ah, memories... That was a moment of sheer terror. I ran out to find my wife & (then infant) daughter expecting to see the whole block in flames from whatever crashed.

But it was nothing more than a jet flying faster than the sound was going...

[whosyourdaddy00]

gosh, now that's cool!!!

as an audio kinda guy, i'd love to experience something like that...

[nebula328]

I have always heard that it "sounds like the sky ripping apart". After hearing a few myself, I find that the only explanation as to what a sonic boom sounds like. It's half scary as hell / half cool as f*** and ear piercingly loud!!

[Masterer]

I once watched a pair of F16 fighters fly up the Hudson from the kitchen window at Sterling. I think it was around the 4th of July. They seemed to be going as low and slow as they could. The approach was almost silent, but as they flew past the roar became deafening and for a moment I thought the window was gonna break. Seriously scared the shit outta me. All I could think afterward was I wouldn't want to be on the business end of those ****ers. Very scary. If a sonic boom is scarier then count me out!

[gsilbers]

i heard a lot during a goverment militarty cue in my country from F-16 and migs. it sounds like a really loud big bomb and it breaks glasses andu feel it. and a bomb doesnt really sound like bomb in TV nor gunshots. it kinda does but sounds more like small firecrackers. only when u are too close u hear the botom end then its kinda deadly.
but hollywood sound fx are amazing to make it seem bigger than in reality.

[jayfrigo]

You feel it as much as hear it. It's pretty cool really; can be a bit startling too.

[C Heat]

This happened to us locally. I'm in Redcliffe.

I thought a plane or semi-trailer crashed in through the house.

The walls shook and glass shuddered.

Very scary.

"A ROYAL Australian Airforce F1-11 has been blamed for a sonic boom which shook coastal areas of south-east Queensland this morning.

The roof-shuddering boom was reported just before 10am by residents in Brisbane's bayside suburbs of Clontarf, Deception Bay and Redcliffe and as far north as Coolum on the Sunshine Coast, sparking fears of an earthquake.

Defence spokesman Paul Lineham said the F1-11 had been conducting engine tests about 60 nautical miles off the coast in a designated supersonic area.

Mr Lineham said it was highly unusual for the "boom" to travel so far and it had most probably travelled in an inversion layer between two different temperature levels."

[RedTuxedo]

I wanted to hear what the Space Shuttle sounds like taking off. I understand it is incredible, like someone is pounding on your chest. My Dad and I went down there one time (he lives in Daytona Beach) but they cancelled the launch.

[lucidwaves]

To me a sonic boom sounds like a short blast of thunder, not the cracking kind of thunder, but the low boomy thunder. You deffinately feel it too. I guess it depends on how far you are from it as well.

[Greg Reierson]

I lived out in the country about 20 miles from an Air National Guard base and the F4s would fly pretty low. I seem to remember there beeing two booms when the planes flew over, but that was ca. 1970. Haven't heard one since.


Greg Reierson
Rare Form Mastering

[dkatz42]

Originally Posted by Upawholestep

I wanted to hear what the Space Shuttle sounds like taking off. I understand it is incredible, like someone is pounding on your chest. My Dad and I went down there one time (he lives in Daytona Beach) but they cancelled the launch.

I saw Challenger go up in '84. It's pretty intense, but weird because it takes a good 30 seconds for the sound to make it to the closest observation points that civilians can reach. A combination of chest-thumping rumble, roar, cracking, popping. Kind of like a hip-hop mobile with blown speakers.

My lifelong disappointment was never convincing my father to take me down to Floriday for a Saturn V launch during the Apollo days. I recall Walter Cronkite on TV in a CBS trailer showing the first (unmanned) launch of the S-V; there were ceiling tiles falling down and he jumped up and held the picture window behind him to keep it from being blown in. I thought, "how cool is that!"

An S-V launch makes a shuttle launch look like a firecracker...

Somewhere on a web there's a recording of a shuttle launch with a fourier analysis, but I can't seem to find it right now...

[Greg Reierson]

Originally Posted by dkatz42

Somewhere on a web there's a recording of a shuttle launch with a fourier analysis, but I can't seem to find it right now...

Bob Katz made a recording a few years back.

http://www.digido.com/bob-katz/we-have-lift-off-2.html


Greg Reierson
Rare Form Mastering

[whosyourdaddy00]

i lived in orlando for 13 years. the space shuttle returning home scared the crap out of me many, many times. i have been in the den, at times, quietly interfacing with my computer, and have heard what i took to be the world ending. yes, the windows rattle. if i'm quiet and thinking when that happens, i tend to shout a curse word, loudly. it always takes a few seconds to realize what it was.

it happens in the middle of the night often, too. at such times, i've sat up in bed, scared, trying to figure out what it was. then i realize, the space shuttle. or else, the sound works its way into your dreams and turns it into a nightmare.

the shuttle's sonic booms are really, really freaking loud. bombs going off. you hear the windows rattle!

i asked the same question on another site...sonic boom... - Talkin' Smack Forum - Home Recording Connection

[Silvertone]

When the military still had a post up near Plattsburg State University in NY sonic booms were a daily occurrence. Sometimes 3 or 4 times a day! If you were lucky enough to be in one of the dorm towers you not only got to hear it but you also got to feel it quite a bit. Those towers shook more then normal as they were originally not suppose to be built that close to one another. Quite a feeling and sound. To me the sound is just like when someone is blasting rock but less muffled. I use to love it when it happened.

[MBishopSFX]

Originally Posted by Upawholestep

I wanted to hear what the Space Shuttle sounds like taking off. I understand it is incredible, like someone is pounding on your chest. My Dad and I went down there one time (he lives in Daytona Beach) but they cancelled the launch.

Give this recording a try on a LARGE 5.1 playback system with LOTS of headroom:

Telarc SACD-60437, TRACK 6

Saturn V rocket launch at Cape Kennedy, recorded simultaneously at 450', 1 mile and 2 miles from the launch site and synchronized & mixed in surround.

Just be sure the amplifiers and speakers can take it... You should hear it on a 5-channel ATC SCM-300 system!

[Sunbreak Music]

We had a mock target fairly close to where I grew up, so we'd get a few a year. Rattled the windows, that's for sure.

[Tripper]

i hear atleast two sonic booms a week. Worse bit is you always miss seeing the plane as it is long gone by the time you hear it. Quite an amazing sight. (sound).

[Thomas W. Bethe]

I have only heard three sonic booms and two of them of were at Lake George in the Adirondacks. One happened early in the morning as we were getting up. It was the Concorde coming in from its Northern route and I don't think he was suppose to be doing the speed he was over a populated area. The second was from two jets that overflew us when we were out in the lake and they came in very low and very fast and our canoe almost got dumped by the shock wave. I was also out in California in the 70's and was staying with some friends near El Toro and one night about 1 am a jet from the local naval air station overflew the house and woke everyone up with a sonic boom. It was reported in the local paper the next day and the young airman was severely chastised and had to do some community service to somehow make up for all the people he awoke - luckily there was no damage to any property.

[Silvertone]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

I have only heard three sonic booms and two of them of were at Lake George in the Adirondacks. One happened early in the morning as we were getting up. It was the Concorde coming in from its Northern route and I don't think he was suppose to be doing the speed he way over a populated area. The second was from two jets that overflew us when we were out in the lake and they came in very low and very fast and our canoe almost got dumped by the shock wave. I was also out in California in the 70's and was staying with some friends near El Toro and one night about 1 am a jet from the local naval air station overflew the house and woke everyone up with a sonic boom. It was reported in the local paper the next day and the young airman was severely chastised and had do do some community service to somehow make up for all the people he awoke - luckily there was no damage to any property.

Hey Thomas,

Small world. Lake George is only 25 minutes away from Silvertone Mastering.

I remember that as well. The military use to love to fly those jets low and scare the sh*t out of any body on the lake or lying on the beach. They did it to us all the time when we were up on the Sacandaga Lake as well. Make you jump right out of your skin as they'd come out of nowhere. Bullet the blue sky...

best regards,
Larry