Post by MCDemuth on Jan 13, 2021 23:33:24 GMT
During the Vietnam War, it wasn’t uncommon to hear sonic booms. I’m assuming these were pilots doing practice runs on various mock targets around the country. One even hit his afterburners nearly over my house. It was awesome.
I think this was the first time I heard one. Concorde would fly over our house every now and then but I can’t recall ever hearing a boom.
I believe the Concorde was frequently restricted from flying supersonic over populated areas, since residents were against sonic booms going off over their homes, and so, the Concorde was only allowed to fly supersonic over the ocean.
This article references that problem of supersonic transport:
The annoyance of a sonic boom can be avoided by waiting until the aircraft is at high altitude over water before reaching supersonic speeds; this was the technique used by Concorde. However, it precludes supersonic flight over populated areas...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_transport#Sonic_boom
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_transport#Sonic_boom
This is probably why you don't recall sonic booms from The Concorde.
I believe this is also, why the Concorde was usually only used for International Flights, and why Supersonic Transport didn't become widely used throughout the airline industry.