4 ms·

Concorde had a bunch of publicly tours around Asia. There are a few that could make sense-- HK to Tokyo? Tokyo to Singapore? The fuel requirements from the US

Concorde had a bunch of publicly tours around Asia. There are a few that could make sense-- HK to Tokyo? Tokyo to Singapore? The fuel requirements from the US to Asia are pretty intense, so I'm interested to see how they solve that issue. Sonic booms haven't always been illegal in the US (1973?). My dad grew up near O'hare, and he said you'd occasionally hear them when it was still a military base. Its just annoying, but for people who live near airports, jet noise is already annoying? I think as long as jets just boom over specific areas, it would minimize the public nuisance.

tshaddox 6y ago
We heard sonic booms routinely growing up in the 1990s in small-town Missouri, presumably from nearby air force bases. It was little more than a curiosity, and never enough to rattle windows or really affect anyone much beyond perhaps a brief startling.
- ajmurmann 6y ago
  I grew up not far from an Air Force base on Germany. We got sonic booms multiple times a day. It was super shitty. We never had windows break, but as a young child I started to cry every time it happened. My grandfather woke up from his naps from them quite regularly which sucked especially when he was dying of cancer.
  - tshaddox 6y ago
    I wonder what the difference is. Airplane size/speed/altitude?
    - ajmurmann 6y ago
      Most likely altitude. I recall that they used to practice flying at low altitude. Much more interesting than our anecdata is probably the Oklahoma City Sonic Boom study: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_sonic_boom_tests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_sonic_boom_tests > the NORC reported that 73% of subjects in the study said that they could live indefinitely with eight sonic booms per day, while 25% said that they couldn't. About 3% of the population telephoned, sued, or wrote protest letters, but Oklahoma City surgeons and hospitals filed no complaints. However, with the city population at 500,000, that 3% figure represented 15,000 upset individuals. There were 9,594 complaints of damage to buildings, 4,629 formal damage claims, and 229 claims for a total of $12,845.32, mostly for broken glass and cracked plaster.
  - spaetzleesser 6y ago
    I doubt they went supersonic over Germany. They probably went just very low which can be extremely terrifying and loud.
    - zaarn 6y ago
      I live in germany and can confirm that Jets go supersonic there. Live near both a US and german air force base and both sometimes go supersonic, more often it's the german air force to go after an unresponsive plane, probably about once every few months or so.
      - spaetzleesser 6y ago
        In an emergency yes but not several times a day as the OP described.
        zaarn 6y ago
        Could happen that there were several per day. Especially from US airforce bases in germany you can't expect much, they pretty much ignore air safety regulations entirely and do what they want (there have been multiple almost collisions over my city reported to air safety, several accidents where people got injured or died due to american personel acting reckless).
        ajmurmann 6y ago
        This was in the late 80s and early 90s in a part of Rhineland-Palatinate that is still designated as a practice area for fighter jets. The low flying jets are still a common nuisance, but as far as I know going super sonic sad been banned since. I tried to google verification of this but only find more current information.
ajmurmann 6y ago
> I think as long as jets just boom over specific areas, it would minimize the public nuisance. That's not how it works. The boom is continuous along the flight pass
spaetzleesser 6y ago
They still go supersonic in the Mojave desert. You can hear them from time to time. To make a supersonic passenger plane meaningful you can’t just go supersonic in a few areas but you have to go at that speed as much as possible.

tshaddox 6y ago

We heard sonic booms routinely growing up in the 1990s in small-town Missouri, presumably from nearby air force bases. It was little more than a curiosity, and never enough to rattle windows or really affect anyone much beyond perhaps a brief startling.

ajmurmann 6y ago
I grew up not far from an Air Force base on Germany. We got sonic booms multiple times a day. It was super shitty. We never had windows break, but as a young child I started to cry every time it happened. My grandfather woke up from his naps from them quite regularly which sucked especially when he was dying of cancer.
- tshaddox 6y ago
  I wonder what the difference is. Airplane size/speed/altitude?
  - ajmurmann 6y ago
    Most likely altitude. I recall that they used to practice flying at low altitude. Much more interesting than our anecdata is probably the Oklahoma City Sonic Boom study: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_sonic_boom_tests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_sonic_boom_tests > the NORC reported that 73% of subjects in the study said that they could live indefinitely with eight sonic booms per day, while 25% said that they couldn't. About 3% of the population telephoned, sued, or wrote protest letters, but Oklahoma City surgeons and hospitals filed no complaints. However, with the city population at 500,000, that 3% figure represented 15,000 upset individuals. There were 9,594 complaints of damage to buildings, 4,629 formal damage claims, and 229 claims for a total of $12,845.32, mostly for broken glass and cracked plaster.
- spaetzleesser 6y ago
  I doubt they went supersonic over Germany. They probably went just very low which can be extremely terrifying and loud.
  - zaarn 6y ago
    I live in germany and can confirm that Jets go supersonic there. Live near both a US and german air force base and both sometimes go supersonic, more often it's the german air force to go after an unresponsive plane, probably about once every few months or so.
    - spaetzleesser 6y ago
      In an emergency yes but not several times a day as the OP described.
      - zaarn 6y ago
        Could happen that there were several per day. Especially from US airforce bases in germany you can't expect much, they pretty much ignore air safety regulations entirely and do what they want (there have been multiple almost collisions over my city reported to air safety, several accidents where people got injured or died due to american personel acting reckless).
      - ajmurmann 6y ago
        This was in the late 80s and early 90s in a part of Rhineland-Palatinate that is still designated as a practice area for fighter jets. The low flying jets are still a common nuisance, but as far as I know going super sonic sad been banned since. I tried to google verification of this but only find more current information.

ajmurmann 6y ago

> I think as long as jets just boom over specific areas, it would minimize the public nuisance. That's not how it works. The boom is continuous along the flight pass

spaetzleesser 6y ago

They still go supersonic in the Mojave desert. You can hear them from time to time. To make a supersonic passenger plane meaningful you can’t just go supersonic in a few areas but you have to go at that speed as much as possible.