When I was in elementary school in the 50's it was common to hear fighter jets flying overhead and breaking the sound barrier whenever they felt like it. We kids thought it was cool. I guess the grown-ups didn't like it but I never heard them complain. The jets were always high up and it sounded like a clap of thunder.

Anyone else remember this?

I remember them well. I had flown sub-sonic Panthers and Banshee's for 3 years 1954-57, then I got out to get a job with TWA.

In 1958 I was "furloughed" for 4 years, so I joined a reserve Cougar Squadron at NAS Brooklyn, Floyd Bennet Field, right near where I was born and grewup. There was a club called the Mach Knockers, which a lot of USAF pilots belonged to from F-86 squadrons. I was envious. The F9F8 Cougars were capable of M. 1.1, or so I was told.

I got my chance when we deployed to NAS Miramar for 2 weeks. Our schedule called for one hop dedicated to going supersonic orientation. The procedure called for going offshore a few miles, climbing to an altitude of around 31,000' if I recall, and entering a dive with full throttle until the needles crossed.

Off I went. The dive went fine, and just as the needles crossed, all Hell broke loose. I lost my canopy, or so I thought. The decompression and slipstream caused my 02 mask to fly off, and with it my transmitter inside the mask.

"There I was" ...I found myself supersonic in an open cockpit Cougar, and no means of communication. It was COLD! I throttled back, leveled off at 10,000', and looked around. My canopy was still there, but jammed back in the full open position. It would not close.

I went back to Miramar, flew by the tower rocking my wings, got a green light, and landed uneventfully. Hey, I was A MACH KNOCKER!!

Hey Ed Toner
that's one hell of a story - fantastic!!
Thanks![sm=cool.gif]

Yer' welcome indeed, sir Spad

Ed

Oh man do I, it seems like when the local air guard switched from F-84's to F-100 they went nuts.As a kid I thought it cool but the farmer guys said it scared the cows.

I was doing a barbecue in Florida at the airport when I heard and felt the windows pulse twice. Turned out I had heard the double boom of the space shuttle approaching the area for landing. Pretty neat to hear.

I remember...as a kid growing up in the 60's and 70's we heard sonic booms fairly regularly.
The F-106 pilots were always practicing interceptions, etc....
We live about a mile from the runway at (formerly ) Griffiss AFB, and the engine test stand
Before they built the "hush house" I would be awakened bright and early, 6AM sharp to a thunderous afterburner salute![X(][8D]

I also remember watching in awe as the B-52's and KC-135's would take off with great plumes of thick black smoke gushing out of their engines...as I daydreamed out the windows of Ridge Mills Elementary...

Used to hear one every day right around noon. Wish it wasn't illegal to do them over the country now. Miss that! Was way cool. Would rather be making the boom myself, sonic that is, didn't like making the other boom!

Ed-Here's a couple of pics that should look somewhat familiar to you. It's from a collection of my stepdad's, he was head of Financial Planning during the late '50's through the early '70's at JFKIA. This was right after FBF was sold / leased to the Navy, during the early development of NYIA / JFKIA. As for the experience at Miramar, I'd have been a KNEE KNOCKER after that

Did you guys see Monster Garage last night?
There were some guys trying out a pulse jet powered motorcycle out on the old Floyd Bennett field strip...

Didn't make a sonic boom, but made a heck of a racket!

Hey Commander...did you ever talk to General Electric about seeing The Electrician (or someone like him )?

Regards...

Rocky Roccoco

Hi Rocky,
Seen Nick Danger around anywhere?

I missed that episode of Monster Garage. I'll have to catch the re-run. How fast did it go?

Gotta go now, It's the bees and spiders again Mr. President.

I think they got it up to 31 M.P.H.?
I don't think I'd like a home made, red hot buzz bomb engine a foot from my backside...[X(]
The thing started leaking fuel too, and was trailing burning fuel down the runway![X(]

Some nostalgia now.

I was born in 1931 in what was called the SPRINGFIELD GARDENS section of Queens, NYC.

Nearby was the IDLEWILDE section, abourt 2 miles or so. There was a small airfield there, and my Uncle Tom and Aunt Virginia lived there on a small plot, on which they had a few apple trees.

I was nuts about airplanes back then, and I would peddle over to watch the airplanes come and go. Aunt Virg always had a slice of warm apple pie for me.

The Southern State Parkway was being built them, and was completed to Brooklyn, but not Eastward. No traffic was allownd, but lots of kids rode their bikes on it. I pedelled down to Floyd Bennet and watched the Navy flying boats, and other Navy planes. Later, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia opened the Southern State Parkway in a ceremony, and cars were the traffic.

Well, Idlewilde Airport became JFK International where I flew TWA aircraft from, and later I flew F9F-8 Cougars from Floyd Bennet. There was no restriction of 250Kt. below 10,000' back then, and I'd buzz Coney Island and Jones Beach just offshore at high speed.

Those were the days, my friends, those were the days.

I was doing defense contracting in the 80's where I was out in Nevada during some field tests. During these tests, I heard a few sonic booms. To me they were unique in they were more like a BaBOOM. Always in pairs. One caused by the front, and one by the back of the aircraft.

I never saw the aircraft breaking the sound barrier though. (They were high). I also got buzzed by the subsonic ones down low too.

When I first went into the Air Force, we had a lecture at Sheppard AFB by (then) Major Brian Schul. His lecture was about the importance of aeromedical evacuation and how it saves lives during wartime because of the speed that a wounded combatant can receive the best care, etc, etc. (He was severely burned in a F-4 crash). He was not initially expected to survive his injuries, but eventually regained not only flight status, but became an SR-71 pilot, and gained a reputation as a bit of a hotdog. He supposedly did an almost Mach 2 low altitude pass with the SR-71 down the runway at Edwards AFB back in the late '70's or early '80's, cracked windshields, broke headlights and windows all over the base. Wish I could have been there to see it.

At an air show at Pope AFB back in the '80's, I got to see a B-1B do an almost supersonic low pass; he had taken off after being on display most of the show, and did a slow pass with wings spread, gear and flaps down, then cleaned the bird up and disappeared. About 10 minutes later he came down the runway at about 1000 feet unannounced, wings full swept and hauling ass. The announcer said, after the roar had subsided and the plane had disappeared again, that he'd been going about 600 kts when he went by.

There's a guy at our local airport that has a new toy-- a completely restored F-86. We can see him take off from our field, about 1-1/2 miles away. He was flying one day as I drove past the airport, and I stopped to watch. He came down the field at what was about 500 feet and 500 per, and went into a zoom climb, rolled over at the top, and did the whole thing over again, then once around the pattern and landed. Beautiful.

Back in 1950 the F-86 Sabre jet was the ultimate, but it is now 60 year old technology. The best "Toy" jet, in my opinion, is the T-38 or the two seat F-5 variant, the F-5L.

If you ever get a chance to ride in one don't hesitate.

Just tremember, deep pockets are required to keep any high performance plane flying.

Bill.

I was stationed at Dyess AFB in TX in 93. Worked with B-1's and C-130's. There was a B-1 that did a extremely low level flyby over Lake Breckenridge. Dont know how fast he was going, but it was awesome. So low he left a water roostertail coming off the back end of the aircraft.

The coolest thing Ive ever seen though was a F-18 super hornet, come streaking down the runway at Pensacola NAS, JUST under mach 1. He held it there as he did a low level flyby down the runway. I watched in amazement as he flew by with the sonic "wave" wrapped around the nose of the plane all the way down the runway. If he had gone a touch faster....BOOOOOOOM. He didnt break it, but he was RIGHT ON THE EDGE. It was cool as hell actually physically being able to see the sound barrier wrapped around the nose of the plane.

I think I might have some lousy pictures of it someplace, Ill try to find them.

When I was a youngster back in the late 50's I think, the AF was testing the effects of sonic booms on the public. Every 15 minutes between 8:00pm and 10:00pm two B-58 Hustlers would fly over at speed. I remember the first night there were broken plate glass windows all over town. The AF was paying for all the damages.
We've been getting sonic booms recently from F-22's flying out of Lockheed-Marietta.

Jerry

This thread brings back memories for me as well. I live near NAS South Weymouth (aka South Weymouth Prep) and it was not uncommon for us to hear a sonic boom rattling the windows while we were eating breakfast, or while we were having a math test in the 5th grade.

Gawd, I miss that sound....

Bob

My father in law used to fly sabres..he'd tell stories of them staggering up to 50 thou or so, and rolling over on their back into a vertical dive at full power. Sometimes they would punch through for a few seconds until the air density at lower altitudes caught up with them.........