Perhaps if the aircraft were based somewhere a bit more central than the back end of Lincolnshire they'd be able to attend these airliner-spotting meetings somewhat faster and without undue haste. Given that most of our inbound civil traffic comes from the S of London wouldn't a base down there make more sense? Boscombe Down, for instance? Or are Hampshire horses just too sensitive to take it?

Out of interest were any windows shattered when the effects of sonic booms were tested over London(?) prior to Concorde entering service?

Rocket 2

"Out of interest were any windows shattered when the effects of sonic booms were tested over London(?) prior to Concorde entering service? "


Concorde was strictly subsonic until the Bristol Channel when it "lit up" and went supersonic...you wouldn't hear a supersonic boom in London, only in the South West
I suppose in those testing days it was assumed everyone would be buying them and transiting across UK supersonically

Was there not some testing done with a Lightning over the London area in the late 60's/early 70's, I seem to recall news of citizens being forewarned of a sonic boom(s) done by the RAF possibly linked with groovy superdupersonic airliners coming into service ?

BF - see the post above. Lightnings flew over London several times & dropped a boom to test the effect of supersonic overflights, don't recall any mass hysteria, earthquakes or narks calling Radio 2 :E

xtp, Good to see that you have been paying close attention to this thread :ugh:

Sorry. Must have skipped p2 after being away. Duplicate url deleted.

The yanks did sonic boom experiments in the 60's. Everyday at 7am USAF would fly a F-104 over Oklahoma. Nice wake up call! Apparently, like the arty in Edinburgh Castle, you could set your watch to the sonic booms. Construction workers, were surprised to find that the booms signalled their lunch break.

The story is here
Oklahoma City sonic boom tests - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia