Supersonic shock wave
Read a magazine article by a retired pilot who said that a shockwave from the Concorde hit his aircraft once. Sounded interesting. Has anyone else experienced a shockwave from another aircraft during their career?
"With deference to Belgian cosmologist Georges Lemaître, I have my own version of the Big Bang theory, and it states that big bangs occur in clusters of three. My basis for this is that I had three big bangs during my airline career, and I am grateful not to have had more.
My first occurred when our Lockheed L–1011 was halfway between Los Angeles and Honolulu on Track Delta in clear, glassy air. My first officer, flight engineer, and I were enjoying crew meals at FL350 while marveling at a magnificent subtropical sunset. Life doesn’t get much better, I recall thinking.
The tranquility was shattered by a truly loud bang. The airplane shook once, but hard, as if a cosmic fist had given it a body blow—but it was over almost as quickly as it had begun. My crew and I exchanged startled, quizzical glances, wondering what had happened. It was similar to flying through the wake of a crossing aircraft, but this, we agreed, was like no wake encounter that any of us had ever experienced. We checked cabin pressure and then the other gauges and systems. Everything was normal, as though nothing had happened. The only lingering effect was our elevated pulse rates. I quickly explained to our passengers over the PA that we had flown through the wake turbulence of another aircraft, even though I knew better. What else could I say—that we had entered the Twilight Zone?
Twenty minutes later, we made a routine position report on HF and reported what we had experienced earlier. The ARINC operator said nonchalantly, “Oh, you must’ve been hit by a supersonic shock wave. A British Airways Concorde passed over you about 20 minutes ago.” A warning about this would have been nice."