Smudge (and others) apologies for the lateness to this, and the length of the following ..but the "supersonic" tale .... (due to age/senility I need a trip to the loft to retrieve logbooks to get the Captains name nor can I remember any of the rest of the crew, although I think T***y C*****f may have been the Nav, and the Loady "may" have been "B*b C**k")
Back in the past just after LXX left Cyprus we still resupplied Masirah and many other middle east places, this was done by the "Herc Det" which operated out of Cyprus for 6 week rotations. As we were away more than a month the Pilots had to do their monthly "circuits" at Cyprus. It became common for the "2 winged master race" to invite the younger, more attractive ladies from the hospital and/or the teachers to join them for a "trip around the island" whilst this occurred.
On one such det, OC Ops (Akrotiri) gave my captain a very hard time as there was a rather "large", and loud, lady teacher who had never been invited to fly and was giving said OC Ops an earbashing ... we were tasked to take her flying..... At some point early in the trip she asked how fast the Herk could go .... young co-pilot instantly replies, with a very straight face - "Sorry that's Top secret" .... well she started nagging and nagging ... so eventually young co-pilot points to ASI and says "That's a coded instrument, it is designed not to tell the truth, when it reads 2.0 its actually mach 1.0 the speed of sound ....." which, for some reason she actually believed ..... more nagging and "can we do it " .... so captain called for the "pre-supersonic checks" which T***y (?) made up, followed by "Eng - supersonic power" so I set 1010 and we accelerate from 160 knots to 200 .... as we approach 200 the captain starts to "wrestle" with the controls as the "buffet" was getting "hard to handle" .. as we passed through 200 knots the aircraft "jumped" 100 ft, and we nearly shat ourselves .... as without saying anything the loady joined in by lifting the galley floor about two feet then dropping it !! No-one expected THAT "sonic boom" !! so captain calls for immediate power reduction, wrestles controls a bit more, another bang as we go back through 200 (expected this time) and that was it ... lady concerned is given strict instructions NOT to tell anyone what we had done, repeated many times through the rest of the flight .....
We land and the Loady spoke to the ground crew, we disembark and the first thing she does is blab to the see-in crew .. who instantly tell her to shut up as it is a NATO secret, and the word spread around Akrotiri very quickly .... everyone joining in the deception. Apparently she was not a well-liked person ..
A couple of days later Loady and I are in the mess when I get a phone call .. the captain, very short message ... "we're coming to your mess.. get permission for us to get in" .. so a quick word with the CMC and the front end are made welcome in the Sgt's Mess. It seems another Herk crew had arrived and not been told of the occurrence.. and when she blabbed to them they told her, in no uncertain terms, not to be so bloody stupid etc etc ..... at which point she was going to kill my front enders!! They were awarded "honorary members" status of the Sgts Mess until we flew home....
In those days it was quite common for the Officers to be invited to the Sgts Mess, and occasionally we lower mortals ended up in the O's Mess ... there being one occasion when a certain Lynham Staish ..Gp Capt H*******f and his guests turned up unexpectedly and his passing comment to me was " ..... when we get home can you bring me your commissioning certificate .. I'd love to see it !!" this was just after the captain had introduced me to the AOC as "My Engineer - Flt Lt *****" ... at least on that occasion I was in civvies and not the growbag with the borrowed rank tabs of the previous night !!