Message posted by Duke on February 28, 2020 at 7:47:45 PST:
Most people under fifty, especially those who didn't/don't live relatively close to a military air base, have never heard a sonic boom. Back in the day however, starting in the mid 1950s when the "Century Series" of fighters could break the sound barrier in level flight, sonic booms were fairly common. A former boss of mine, an F-101 pilot, referred to it as "supersonic dick waving". Soon the DoD was getting complaints about the noise, as well as paying damages for property damage, decreased farm productivity, etc. (This became a theme in 50s TV shows, btw.) Don't know when restrictions were put in place, but I don't remember any booms locally much beyond the late 1960s. The last sonic boom I heard was in the late 90s/early 2000s while TDY to Edwards AFB.
In Reply to: Mysterious loud boom reported in Prescott posted by Viper on February 23, 2020 at 15:36:58 PST:
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