# That hissing sound **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 21, 1999, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251 "1999-07-21T23:19:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 1999, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/1 "1999-07-21T23:19:00Z")
What makes a bomb hiss when it’s dropped from a plane? Do they all hiss? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 1999, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/2 "1999-07-21T23:32:00Z")
The sound effects guy. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 1999, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/3 "1999-07-21T23:39:00Z")
They don’t like the show. They’re very picky. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 1999, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/4 "1999-07-22T03:17:00Z")
You mean whistle? Take an air hose of suitable pressure, say 120psi, and aim it over various surfaces. Plenty of different kinds of ‘air flowing fast enough over a surface’ noises can be produced. Most aren’t very musical, such as air over rock, or parachutist, but fins or blades are pretty good at producing standard reed type blowing sounds. Does your bomb have fins? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 1999, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/5 "1999-07-22T06:11:00Z")
The whistling sound that WWII vintage bombs made wasn’t accidental. The sound had the desired effect of scaring the bejesus out of the people you were dropping them on. As terrifying a weapon as saturation bombing is, it only manages to kill a small percentage of the people on the ground. One bomb might physically kill half a dozen people. With the whistle, that same bomb can also incompacitate several hundred people with shell-shock! These same whistles were also installed on dive bombers. Quite often, terror is a greater weapon than TNT. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 1999, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/6 "1999-07-22T12:19:00Z")
Pb - you’re thinking of the _sirens_ mounted under the fuselage on the old Stuka divebombers. They did indeed strike terror into the hearts of those who heard them. I think old conventional iron bombs had a fuse that was armed by a small propeller after the bomb was dropped, and I think that’s what made that noise. The new improved stuff announces its arrival by exploding without warning. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 1999, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/7 "1999-07-22T13:11:00Z")
The whistles seem to carry the day. Sorry, English isn’t my mother tongue (although I do think I am a notch or two above Loverock). The fact that the whistling sound was a _deliberate_ tactic in WWII would seem to make sense. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 1999, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/8 "1999-07-22T13:55:00Z")
sttop talking abuot my mothers tounge you sick basterd ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 1999, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/9 "1999-07-22T13:56:00Z")
(loverock asked me to pass that on…lol) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 1999, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/10 "1999-07-23T00:36:00Z")
omniscientnot : I see you translate.What languages? Do Canadian translators belong to the ATA? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 1999, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/11 "1999-07-23T02:46:00Z")
Sunbear: I translate from English to French (mainly) and from French to English (occasionally). In response to your question about ATA, not to my knowledge. Translators can belong to provincial associations like the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario or the Société des traducteurs du Québec, or to Canadian organizations such as the Canadian Translators and Interpreters Council, although membership is not (yet) mandatory. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 1999, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/12 "1999-07-30T22:46:00Z")
It’s NOT a whistle, it’s not a hiss, and it’s not a “reed type blowing sound,” it’s a siren. I think y’all are confusing artillery shells with gravity bombs. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 1999, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/13 "1999-08-01T02:11:00Z")
It’s made by the guy waving the cowboy hat. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 1999, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/14 "1999-08-01T02:55:00Z")
Ok ,Nickrz, what makes an artillery shell scream? Some bombs have sirens, (stukka dive bombers had them mounted on the wheel struts I think ),some bombs have fins that scream, some times the arming prop screw would squeel,but that noise in movies is just a sound effect that sounds dramatic. Just like gun shots in movies, real gun shots don’t sound like that and real shots just don’t sound right in movies. * * * " Pardon me while I have a strange interlude."-Marx (Melissa Gilbert is in the rest room right now or she would have a snappy comeback) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 1999, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/15 "1999-08-01T03:01:00Z")
Oh , sorry I forgot. A bullet passing close reminds me of a BIG, FAST, LOUD angry bumble bee. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 1999, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-hissing-sound/2251/16 "1999-08-01T21:58:00Z")
sunbear: hey, you ATA too?? Astroglide: ROFLMFAO 🙂 that was a good one! OK, back to the thread. * * * Cave Diem! Carpe Canem!