# Boom!  Boom!  Boom!  Wait... I won't hear that again.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boom-boom-boom-wait-i-wont-hear-that-again/629687>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 28, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boom-boom-boom-wait-i-wont-hear-that-again/629687 "2012-07-28T16:24:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boom-boom-boom-wait-i-wont-hear-that-again/629687/1 "2012-07-28T16:24:03Z")

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I lived near NAS (now MCAS) Miramar when I was a child. Even if we didn’t go to the annual air show, I could hear it. There would always be a point where there was a series of loud booms. Looking up, I could see a vertical ring of white smoke clouds. I always thought it was neat.

What was happening is that an RF-8 Crusader was demonstrating photo reconnaissance. In action, it would fly over a target at night and eject flash bombs to illuminate the target for its cameras. At the air show it demonstrated this in the daytime by flying a loop and ejecting the charges. It occurs to me that I’ll never hear or witness this again. Nowadays we don’t need to use the technique.

I don’'t suppose anyone has a video of it?