Have you ever heard Concorde's sonic boom?

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I was watching a random YouTube video and the sonic boom was mentioned and the guy was saying that it couldn't possibly have been Concorde as they didn't go supersonic over land. Which is true, but they did speed up as soon as they were far enough from land for it to be a distant (and therefore quieter) boom. I used to hear it in my childhood when I was on holiday in Kerry. The video was specifically about a place in the west of Newfoundland so I think it's quite likely that they might have heard the boom there.

Anyway, it got me thinking that I'd never thought about how rare it might be to have heard a sonic boom. Where have other people heard it?

Yes. Again, in Cornwall as a child. I understood it reached mach 2 as it left the land and that's pretty much where we were! So yes we heard it daily!
Later as an adult we witnessed it's final flight, over our street in Teddington. I'm no longer as in love with the glamour of flying for obvious reasons, but it was kind of exciting. Even tho I didn't fly til I was 21 years old

I grew up near an air base and heard the sonic boom a few times.

As a child I met Brian Trubshaw , the test pilot, at a neighbour's Christmas drinks party. The neighbour worked at Filton aircraft works.

One of the Concorde is at Filton in the Aerospace Museum.

https://aerospacebristol.org/

Goodness. What a fuss. It wasn’t that disruptive. 🙄

That was about the fuss in Parliament. Not notimagain’s comment.

When trains were introduced people thought travelling at 20 mph would cause them to turn inside out. People often fear the unknown.

Not the boom but when I was a student at Kingston Uni my books used to vibrate across my desk when it went overhead.

@MarnieDocs you thought there was only ever one Concorde?!

It was always referred to as Concorde not 'a Concorde ' which suggests there was only one although, of course, that isn't the case.

I feel like I grew up with Concorde. My dad was a flight test engineer and worked on it in the 1970’s. Seeing old films of it still makes me emotional! It seemed like everything was possible in those days.

As a young flight engineer my dad was in another jet that accidentally caused a sonic boom over land and received a stern rap over the knuckles! I miss him and I miss Concorde too.

Heard it? Been on it when it did! Also live near Bristol and regularly heard it.

Never heard the boom but used to live in SW London and for some reason we would occasionally pick up pilots talking to Heathrow on the radio. Always knew it was Concorde because of the call sign Speedbird 1.

I remember going on one once at some air museum and being really surprised how small it was inside.

Concorde was a massive part of my childhood, my dad was an aeronautical engineer working on all sorts of projects for BAE from the late 60s onwards. Most of our day trips out involved engineering of some kind. I’ve since discovered that he worked on some top secret stuff. Used to travel home under protection. I had no idea at the time. It used to fly over our home in the south, nothing else quite like that roar(that and the Vulcan) and I heard the boom on holiday in cornwall once. My dad went nuts, as you can imagine 🤣

I was privileged enough to fly back from Barbados on Concorde when I was a young teenager with my parents. I’m not sure I appreciated it at the time but feel very lucky to have flown on one! As a previous poster has said I remember the slight jolt when approaching Mach 2

It went over Reading every day at 11am and again in the evening. We always ran outside to see it and we never lost our fascination with it. When it was overhead everything rattled, window frames, tables and you couldn't hear yourself speak

Yes, in Berkshire, between Reading and Windsor.

Not Concordes, but when I was visiting my great aunt in Florida in the late 90s I heard it from a rocket. It woke us both up and my elderly aunt ran out her bedroom in her nightdress with her antique ladies pistol thinking we were being robbed. The neighbour had to explain to her what had happened. Was very exciting for teenage me.

@HashBrownandBeans I wonder if your Dad worked with mine!

That's where I heard it - Bracknell.

And mine! Mine was in Farnborough on some metal fatigue tests.

Every evening growing up in Cornwall in the 70s/80s. It added routine to the evenings.

One of my former clients had been given a portfolio of sketches from one of the design team. I imagine they must be worth a small fortune.

I have heard sonic booms. Im not far from London. But also the static being released from the national grid which sounds like a large crackle.

Yes @CaptainMyCaptain i totally agree - and if you were quite young then you may not really have ever known of Concorde flying and it’s sort of drifted out of common conversations now. I doubt my kids are that aware of what they are other than very fast planes that don’t fly anymore.
some relatives of mine lived underneath the flight path of Heathrow, I remember hearing it sometimes but don’t recall the sonic boom sound, my god just hearing it taking off though was so incredibly deafening. I went inside one once as a kid, not on a flight just to walk around one, possibly one that was no longer commissioned to fly.

This makes me think of “POSTS EVERYONE!” In Mary poppins where they have to hold the good china up on the shelves and kick tables back into place!

Yes it was a sort of boom BOOM noise

I can also remember people running outside to have a look as it went over
was quite loud here in Reading

kind of miss the 11am and 3pm noise