Is there such a thing as a sonic poof?

Factual Questions
1

Not that kind of poof. I know about the Scissor Sisters. :wink: (Not bad!)
I have, though, occasionally heard a kind of muffled “whump” as a jet flies over, especially at a distance. Mostly in Vietnam and before the ban, though I think I heard it again today. Which is what prompted this question.
I know what a “boom” sounds like, believe me, and this ain’t that.
Peace,
mangeorge

2

The sonic boom is caused by the shock wave(s) created by the aircraft. These waves trail out and behind the aircraft in a cone with the aircraft at the point. An ideal shockwave is a discontinuity in pressure, density etc., but viscous effects in the air tend to smear out the discontinuity so the further you are from the aircraft, the wider and weaker the shock is. In addition, an aircraft may have several shocks coming off it from nose, fuselage bumps like the canopy, wing leading edges, tail structure, etc. These are hard to discern in the “boom” unless the aircraft is very large (e.g. space shuttle) so the shocks are spaced apart. If they’re fairly close to begin with and your perception of them blends even more because of the viscous smearing, the sharp crack of the shock might sound like a whump.

3

I’ve heard/experienced an ‘inadvertent’ sonic boom which the RAF apologised for a few days later. At the time, we all took it to be an earth tremor (not entirely unknown here, although the last damaging earthquake was centuries ago).

Basically, it was like the leading edge of a thunderclap. But this was one way out over the North Sea, so we only got a trailing edge.

4

Doesn’t Dr. Who keep one of these in his toiletry kit?

5

Q1: How does a sonic boom sound when the airplane goes by only a few dozen feet from you?

A1: VERY VERY LOUD and sharp

Q2: How does a sonic boom sound when the airplane goes by directly overhead but several miles up?

A2: Loud, and fairly sharp.

Q3: How does a sonic boom sound when the airplane goes by 300 miles away and several miles up?

A3: Inaudible

So somewhere between Q2 and Q3 we’ll have a region where the sound is like any other distant impulsive sound, a smeared “whump” noise. Different frequencies travel at slightly different speeds and have slightly different attenuations, so the sound changes in character in addition to simply losing intensity with distance.

6

So were these sonic booms ever considered as potential weapons, say, I dunno, during the 1920’s?

7

The Dutch used them that way back in the 70’s:

Bijzondere Bijstands Eenheid