Dr Jekyll, Interesting comments. I have often wondered how much sonic booms do actually affect the population.
When I was a kid in South Wales we often heard some dull booming sounds which were alledged to be Concorde accelerating out over the Bristol channel, it wasnt that unpleasant, but then I have always been interested in aircraft.
The SR71 and the Tu144 must have flown quite a lot over land, both probably over sparsely populated areas of the former Soviet Union.
Surely the SR71 would have given away its presence on a mission with a sonic boom. Anybody like to comment.