The military can’t fly supersonic over the US, either. Except in a few specific areas, or during a national emergency.
Or if the plane flies above 60k feet. Which right now, is pretty much no plane.
And yes, I used to hear them all the time in to 60s, in Wisconsin.
I once saw a map, with a label “Supersonic Corridor”.
I was raised in a suburb outside of San Bernardino CA from the time I was born until I left in the mid 70s. There were several Air Force bases fairly close as the jet flies, as well as Ontario and LA airports.
Back then, even toddlers knew the difference between sonic booms and earthquakes. They were just very distinct things that happened in our worlds. The adults would sometimes spend time figuring out what had just happened, but adults were like that.
(animals protest earthquakes before and while they are happening, they protest sonic booms during and after the boom.)
I grew up on AF bases and definitely remember hearing booms from time to time. However, the flying units on those bases flew B-52s, KC-135s, or C-130s, all of which are subsonic planes. So the booms I heard were either from visiting fighter jets or Air National Guard planes.
In the 80s, I remember one waking me up in the middle of the night. I lived in the vicinity of an air force base, and it was reported the next day that jets had been scrambled the night before due to a “UFO” – a drug smuggling plane that flew into the wrong airspace. I think that was the only one I’ve heard.
They were just uncommon enough in San Diego in the '90s that it’d make the local news headlines when it happened, along with a stock press release from the military neither confirming or denying that they had anything to do with it.
Only time I’ve heard one in the PNW was about 11-12 years ago - a small plane accidentally entered a no-fly zone in Seattle while Obama was in town, and the Navy scrambled a couple of fighters to respond.
There were two just 4 days ago, because they were doing test flights with F/A-18-Hornets. Normally they would fly over less populated areas, but the risk that they might set off avalanches is too high. So the people in Bern had an earthquake the day before (small) and then two sonic booms. There were lots of complaints.
The last one I found in the news is from January 2020, when they were doing training before the WEF. I may or may not have heard it, because it’s not that uncommon. I am close enough to one of the military airports that I get to experience a sonic boom approximately once per year.
As Switzerland is rather small, if they scramble to meet uncommunicative planes (such as in July 2019), quite a few people will get to experience a sonic boom.
They are rare enough here to make headlines.
Sonic boom heard over East of England as RAF intercepts civilian plane - BBC News
I remember experiencing one or more in Pittsburgh in the 60s. I also remember a neighbor crusading about his huge mirror that cracked due to a boom.
I grew up in the St Louis area in the 70s and used to hear them occasionally. McDonnell-Douglas built fighter jets in a facility near the airport and I always assumed when I heard a boom that they were taking one out for some test flights.
Last one I heard was in Orlando around 95’-96’. I guess they were pretty common when the space shuttles were returning from orbit and landing at Canaveral.
For a while in my childhood my dad worked at the China Lake AFB (non military) so you can bet the answer is ‘yes.’ But in truth, I don’t remember being all that upset about them. They were quick and over, not like some of the other noise that would totally drown out important things like cartoon shows for what seemed like HOURS.
We heard several per week in the late 1960s or so. This was rural South Dakota so it was most likely military flights, but if any civilian aircraft were headed to Minneapolis, we were right under the flight path. I don’t know if any commercial airlines flew supersonic.
It was always a double boom, a split second apart. Something to do with the leading edge and trailing edge of the aircraft as it enters and leaves supersonic airflow.
When Obama was President and flying to Seattle someone violated his airspace and they scrambled jets from somewhere around here. We heard a sonic boom that day.
We heard them all the time in the late ‘60s in Southern California. When we heard the boom from the first space shuttle landing at Edwards in ‘81, it was a real novelty.
So, are you saying those rules weren’t in place in the 60s?
Also, I used to see test flights of AWACS aircraft. They would fly incredibly low and slow at times, it was pretty cool looking and a huge mystery for a while what that thing was on top of it.
I remember them in the 60s in Nebraska, not much after that until we moved to Saudi Arabia with fighter jets enforcing the ‘ no fly zone’.
First time I heard one, I was playing outside; I ran full speed for the house. My mother, who knew what it was, calmed me back down.
That was probably late 1950’s; early 60’s at the latest. They didn’t scare me after that, but they sure did the first time.
No, me too.
I was living in a quiet enough area otherwise (New York State, a couple hours’ drive away from the city) that nothing else went boom like that. An occasional gunshot (hunters or target practice) didn’t sound anything like it.
@running_coach, thanks for information – I hadn’t known what had happened to them, though I did have a vague idea that they might have been banned due to noise complaints.
Y’know, there ought to be a descriptive term for those of about the right age that they would have heard these in their childhood or teens…
There weren’t that many things that could sound like a sonic boom from nearly overhead, but blasting from highway construction might sound like it further away, or a random thunderclap that could be heard on a summer day. I think it was pretty clear at the time if the news reported them being heard in the area and they sounded close by. Any distant boom could be many other things.