DAE remember sonic booms?
Posted by CptBronzeBalls@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 28 comments
Seems like when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, sonic booms were a pretty frequent event. This was in rural Wyoming.
As an adult I can’t even remember the last time I heard one. I’m guessing the military changed their policies about supersonic flight or something?
DakCasper@reddit
I heard them ALL the time as a kid in rural San Diego in the 90s. My mom used to tell me every boom was the sound of a giant taking a step. Used to scare the absolute shit out of me.
amazetome@reddit
I hear them sometimes from Canaveral launches, but don’t remember hearing them growing up.
CptBronzeBalls@reddit (OP)
Interesting. Maybe they just wanted to fly over my flyover state REALLY fast.
amazetome@reddit
Well, I grew up in a different state, and I don’t think there were any military bases nearby. Also, my brain is mush 😂
CptBronzeBalls@reddit (OP)
Must be the chemtrails from all those shuttle launches. /s
amazetome@reddit
Or the Florida of it all is getting to me!
IbanezForever@reddit
Concorde flights stopped. https://www.britannica.com/technology/Concorde
Agent7619@reddit
I'd be surprised if the Concorde ever flew over Wyoming.
Hilsam_Adent@reddit
We're there ever Concorde flights over the Continental US at all? I thought it only went to LaGuardia/Heathrow/Charles DeGaulle.
Agent7619@reddit
I don't think there were ever any scheduled commercial flights of Concorde over the interior US. I know for certain that it at least came to Chicago/Rockford for a couple of air shows (I saw it), but I am also certain they were never allowed to go supersonic.
CptBronzeBalls@reddit (OP)
Almost certainly not.
Hilsam_Adent@reddit
I lived on the final approach path for the shuttle when it would land at Elsinore. She was still cookin' when she went over the house... Always a double boom, sometimes a triple.
A few years later, I lived close enough to El Toro MCAS to hear the occasional boom from an F-18 being a "hotdog" leaving base. Wasn't living there yet, but I was at the show when the crash happened in '88.
TKD_Mom76@reddit
My dad is from Wyoming. I'm not sure it gets more rural than Fort Laramie!
Also, I can't remember the last time I heard a sonic boom, and I grew up in an air force town.
fgclolz@reddit
As a late X'er, this is the Sonic Boom I remember.
ScienceMomCO@reddit
Yes, we heard them regularly in California due to Vandenberg Air Force Base
aogamerdude@reddit
I think it's a shift among financing, like if Russia is at war with someone other than us, then it's like we'll get back to the strategy if they regain focus on us.
In the recent few years I've heard but not seen those newer bombers, no sonic boom but it sounds like they're always turning somewhere, 10k feet up -can't even see anything on clear days but can definitely hear those loud engines.
slade797@reddit
The Federal Aviation Administration effectively prohibited most sonic booms in 1973.
Objective-Badger8674@reddit
Used to hear them pretty often when the SSTs/Concorde would fly into JFK back in the day.
ToddBradley@reddit
I lived in urban Wyoming and remember hearing them, too.
I know what you're thinking. "Urban Wyoming?" Yes. My town had four stoplights, a library, and a McDonald's. That was Casper in the 1970s.
CptBronzeBalls@reddit (OP)
Oooh look at Mr. Fancy pants with his McDonalds. Lol
My wife grew up in Casper during that time as well
middlingachiever@reddit
I heard them from the Space Shuttle reentry into the 2000s. Quick google search shows people are hearing them from Space X.
TransitJohn@reddit
From Bridger Valley. Totally remember it. They used to fly out of Hill AFB in Utah and boom is multiple times per week.
stanley_leverlock@reddit
I was just vacationing in Chincoteague VA and heard them almost every day. I never actually saw the jets causing them but I did see a couple AWACS.
F-Cloud@reddit
When the Space Shuttle would land at Edwards Air Force Base, Los Angeles County was treated to a loud, double sonic boom. I miss those! I used to hear sonic booms while exploring the desert near Edwards AFB too, but the last time I caught one there was in the late '90s. You can hear sonic boom demonstrations at airshows still, but it depends on the location and they don't do it up close and personal.
billyjack669@reddit
I was always more of a “Hadoukin!” guy myself, but you do you.
Goldie1976@reddit
No sonic booms. , but we always had military helicopters fly over and the occasional C-130. They would both fly low. I live just a mile from where I grew up and I haven't seen any military aircraft in years. The base (about 30 miles from us)is still active.
Full-Steam@reddit
Yes. Growing up in central Florida there were always two sonic booms whenever the space shuttle would land.
spiritwalker6913@reddit
The military isn't supposed to exceed the speed of sound in areas over a certain population. I'm not sure what that number is, who decided it or who enacted it.