Boom over BKY
 

Reckon someone just dropped a sonic boom approx over BKY 1023Z? A possible contrail in a turn as well...

We'll see if true, else I'll assign this to the rubbish bin :eek:

NoD

Boom heard in Cambs at same time.

No idea where BKY is by the way. It's the IATA code for an airport in the DRC and I don't think that's where you meant.

S-D

No airshow today. Same question in the spotters forum confirms what you heard. Prepare for another farcical waste of taxpayers money at Stansted...

(BKY VOR is about 30 miles North of London, near Royston)

Not heard one of those for at while!
 

All heads turned skywards at the sound(s) just north of Royston, too cloudy to see what it was......

sonic boom
 

sonic boom over north essex nr Sudbury

Mole Man :ok:

No, it was in south Suffolk near Colchester.

Salad dodger, fyi (and that of others geographically challenged) we are talking about East Anglia, north France.

No-one knows what widespread damage may have been caused - foals and calves aborting, grannies being scared, green houses smashed - just watch for the claims.......................

From the 'Spotties'
"It's a pair of Typhoons on a QRA mission from Coningsby."

That will really help the geographically challenged. I know Calais used to belong to us but since when did France incorporate East Anglia?

salad dodger - If you are geographically challenged, then so am I. I regularly feel pretty stupid when someone on here starts talking about some trip from ABCD to FGHI in a 789 when they had an XYZ occurrence overhead PQR (or somesuch) Makes me realise how long it is I've been out of the game :(

(by the way, what's the DRC?)

That's the second time a QRA Typhoon has made a bang over the mainland. Can anyone suggest where it likely went to Mach 1, presuming it was flying directly south from Coningsby to catch the big jet (inbound from the US) before it turned west over London to approach LHR (no voice contact, apparently)? The worst of the bang seems to have been SW of Cambridge.

By the by, I wonder if a QRA detachment's planned for Aldergrove this week?

TTN - by the way, what's the DRC? - often the Democratic Republic of Congo, but not as far as I know, in East Anglia.

Yep, boom heard loud and clear near Huntingdon. House shook and windows rattled. Son immediately idented it as a boom. Speculated that it could have been Typhoons from CGY en-route to intercept...

Busta and BOAC - thanks - now why couldn't I have worked that out for myself? I know where CGY is, my son was working there on Thursday!

(ever noticed that any country with "democratic" in its name isn't democratic?)

Presumably the damage claims magnet was triggered by;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/10122649/Egyptair-flight-diverted-to-Glasgow-after-note-threat-found-on-board.html

Quote:

---

An Egyptair flight from Cairo to New York was forced to land at Glasgow Prestwick Airport after a message threatening to blow it up was found on board.


The Ministry of Defence confirmed that it launched Typhoon fighter jets to escort the plane to the Glasgow airport.

---

　
　
BBC News - Sonic boom heard in Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire

And faster than a Typhoon can annoy the natives;
　
Prestwick landing: Five passengers seek UK asylum - Scotland - Scotsman.com

Quote:

---

Prestwick landing: Five passengers seek UK asylum

---

I would suggest that their application is filed in the pending tray until they have paid for the costs of the QRA. And after that treated with the seriousness it deserves :ugh:

- never mind those - it will have livened up a dull Q Sunday standby - what about the costs of the diversion?

Of course, the asylumers will deny being involved, won't they?

I noticed that the BA 777 flight from Shanghai to Heathrow came up on Flighttracker24 earlier today, with a General Emergency squawk code. Probably after the event with the sonic boom, but the same squawk was used by the aircraft that went back to Glasgow earlier in the week. I wonder if restrictions on "making booms" is lifted for a scramble in such situations. I would imagine the thought that he could legally do the business would make life on Q a bit more interesting for the pilots. I've seen nothing on TV re the BA bird, so assume it was some sort of precautionary, or possibly an accidental transmission.

The report of trees breaking apart seems a bit heavy for a sonic boom, windows broken yes, but trees?:hmm:

Smudge

Bugger! just noticed that the Egyptair flash was yesterday and the reported bang was today. Please disregard my previous.

Since no one has answered BOAC's question STILL, I thought I'd give it a try...

None of these seem to fit, though.

I was starting to think there was no one out riding today but the BBC somehow managed to find a horse rider to interview. At least it seems that no one on the horse or the horse itself was injured despite the scale of the noise viz thunder. Hope no parrots were injured!

Compo
 

It was so scary I feared for the world when I heard it; is there a compensation hotline number??

Yours traumatised of Wyton

NM

I don't understand.....in the days of Phantoms at Yeovilton we had booms nearly every day and no-one complained, and no-one suffered broken windows

What is it with these broken windows ?

I can still remember sitting in Cafes / Restaurants in France
30 - 40 years ago, nearly every lunchtime the booms came
across the village, windows shook a little but nothing major.

Are they just compo claims or do some windows shatter ?

MythBusters (2009 season) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"A supersonic jet can break any kind of glass by the sonic boom it generates"

Busted

Jamie set up a test area filled with various glass items and products while Adam performed a flyby in an F/A-18 going supersonic. However, at flybys of 8,000, 2,000, and 500 feet (2,400, 610, and 150 m), the jet failed to break any of the glass. They then performed a series of low altitude flybys at 200 feet (61 m), but only managed to break a single window. Since the majority of the glass was still intact, the MythBusters declared the myth busted.




Good episode if you can get your hands on it, BTW :ok:

"nearly every lunchtime the booms came"

Concorde!
You could almost set your time by them as they lit up, the BA ones as they went down the Bristol Channel.
Best heard from the end of the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland - the English and French ones close together around 2:30pm

Mythbusters is not particularly scientifically rigorous.

Thanks for the answers.


Milo
Are you sure that it was only Concorde ?
I wasn't on the coast of France, well inland
and the Bristol channel is a long way from there.

I also think someone mentioned Military aircraft ?


Question for those who might know.

What is the furthest a sonic boom can be heard from say,
a jet at 20,000 feet ? (or 10,000, you pick the height).

500N

You're forgetting the French Concorde.....they lit up over the English Channel or Biscay

Milo

No, I understood that we were talking two different planes
in two locations, I still think I was one hell of a long way
from the English Channel.

I am currently looking to see where but that is why I asked
the question of how far can a Sonic boom be heard ?

just found this - seems to be the defining document
http://aero.stanford.edu/Reports/MartinFinalThesis.pdf

"A boom carpet is the area on the ground where the aircraft’s sonic boom can be
heard (Figure 1.3). It is approximately 1 mile wide per 1000 ft altitude. Since the
disturbance to the air is greatest in the lift direction, the sonic boom is loudest directly
under the flight path. Moving sideways across the boom carpet, the sonic boom reduces
because of the greater distance traveled and lesser air disturbance in that direction. The
boom carpet has finite width because at some point the sonic boom rays do not reach the
ground due to refraction."

This survey also has some interesting info regarding old tests
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/684806.pdf

Good stuff.

I was at "Montberthault", half way in a straight line between
Paris and Geneva.

I just had a look, quite a few Air Bases around the place
- within a 100km.

Maybe it was a designated flying area for the air force ?

Apologies for the thread drift but in the good olde days of Concorde, here in sunny Torquay, South Devon we would regularly experience the effects of Concorde's sonic boom. Once in the morning and one more in the late evening. The boom was very, very muffled but the windows vibrating or rattling was more noticeable.

Certainly not a big issue but one day whilst out in the English Channel I swear I nearly gave birth as an aircraft went through the sound barrier directly above where I was fishing. I thought I had mistakenly parked directly under a warship firing its main gun!! The noise was more like an explosion as opposed to an insignificant, mild boom :sad:;)

If I had have given birth, then I would definitely have sued someone!! :ok::*

Did not a certain Lightning pilot (AVM and subsequently father of another Lightning jock) break a few windows at Barkston Heath with a Mach1 (or nearly) low pass

I knew a Lightning Pilot who dropped a boom on a Russian Trawler in the Med ... well it was a listening post after all :E

One once had ones sails rattled by a Froggy Concorde heading for South America.

We were sailing between the Solent and Brest (or possibly vice versa) at the time.

Seeing a French ac going that fast in a southwesterly direction, one could only assume some sort of attack from the northeast .......;););)

Talking about sonic booms and Lightnings, I believe Jimmy Dell once shattered the windows of the terminal building (or possibly the control tower) in a low and fast fly past in front of one of the Saudi princes and senior military officers (possibly Riyadh?)

I believe that this impressed the watching crowd so much, they decided to order a number of EE's finest for their air force.

Sorry the details are a little sketchy, but this was a story told by AVM Peter Collins/Air Cdre John Spencer at the 'Jimmy Dell day' at Bruntingthorpe some years ago.

To be fair Mythbusters did report breakage on the lowest altitude passes. Their basic point that breakage is unlikely from passes at several thousand feet is reasonable.