Sonic Boom meets Sun Dog

Pauly · February 2010

superjunior · February 2010

wow that was cool!

packetjones · February 2010

Now that was impressive. I get that same effect in my HT. LOL

jacob.simpson · February 2010

Pretty cool

disneyjoe7 · February 2010

Cool during the day, but that Sonic Boom crap just about pisses your pant when it happens at night with the shuttle coming home. Over time it gets better, but the first time it rattles your home the windows, your core everything, you say to yourself its OVER!

Jstas · February 2010

That was pretty cool!

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Cool during the day, but that Sonic Boom crap just about pisses your pant when it happens at night with the shuttle coming home. Over time it gets better, but the first time it rattles your home the windows, your core everything, you say to yourself its OVER!

The shuttle is easy to deal with. I was on a ship off the coast of San Diego about 8 years ago now. We were doing exercises with a battle group as part of a test run for some weapons systems we were working on. When the exercises were over, a couple fighters from the carrier command asked permission to do a flyby and salute. Or at least that's what the Captain said over the PA. He was laughing pretty hard at us when he sent everyone to the weather decks for "the show".

He tells us to watch out the port side of the ship. We hear roaring but can't see anything. Then someone yells "Cover your ears!" and from starboard, two F/A-18's fly by, in the salute formation, at mach 1 at around 2,000 feet. That shook everything including my eye balls. Blurred vision, dizzyness, the whole nine. They rolled over and came back for another pass. This time, at about 2500 feet and they went ballistic right above the ship and did full afterburners to about 15,000 feet, rolled over again, dove and shot back out the starboard side and headed home.

It was an impressive sight. My ears were ringing for a day and a half after it. Those engines on fll afterburner can kick out a surprising amount of heat at that short distance too. But apparently one of the F/A-18's was the flight commander for that wing and he sent a dispatch later in the day thanking everybody for being such good sports and hoped we enjoyed the show. I wish we were allowed cameras because that would have been an impressive video. It was a clear day though so we didn't get to see a pressure cone of water vapor.

I've been in Florida when a shuttle comes back in and there's distance there from that boom. It rocks the house for sure but I'd liken it to an short earthquake. Nothing like the feeling that someone dropped a freight train on your head. Either way, watching the shuttle come is an impressive and unnerving experience if you aren't prepared for it. But if you like that sort of thing, get your butt out to Hawaii, on Oahu and have Keiko take you over to the parks near the airport and Pearl Harbor. You can watch Air Force fighters coming and going all day long.

Fireman32 · February 2010

Very cool!

Sherardp · February 2010

Very cool!

George Grand · February 2010

Today's fighters are "Whisperjets" compared to a -105 in burner on the deck.

hearingimpared · February 2010

Really cool!

Jstas · February 2010

George Grand wrote: »

Today's fighters are "Whisperjets" compared to a -105 in burner on the deck.

But how many F-105's can reach Mach 1 on the deck? I don't know of any F/A-18's that can. Besides, quiet engines or not, a sonic boom from 2500 feet away will rattle anybody's kidneys. Then again the original post was concerning an Atlas 5 whose engine registers on the Richter Scale. The Shuttle doesn't come in under power either. It glides...well, more like crashes with the landing gear down.