Loudest military aircraft?
 

Assuming it would be afterburning aircraft on take-off? Guessing 1950's era SAC bombers would be candidates? Loudest I've heard would be the F111 I think.
Curious to hear your thoughts.
Cheers
Octane

I would have thought it or according to some intercepting QRA pilots who swore they could here it's engine noise .

Thank you Tartare. You reminded me I once heard a Harrier takeoff vertically from a carrier in Sydney harbour. I was a couple of kilometres away and it was LOUD!

Vulcan bomber!!, once had one fly over me on take off, and I couldn't hear myself scream!!.

Must have been less than 100 feet above me, and I was 10 years old.

Example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djd1pPQZ_LE

Sorry, I know it's not military, but I stood on the tarmac whilst a DC-8-52 taxied in one day & I swear my fingers were touching as I pushed them into my ears! Never before, and never since, have I experienced such a painful noise!

Loudest in my personal experience is the Harrier. Part of the airshow routine in St. Louis was a hover over the Mississipi river opposite the arch (and below the top of it). The RR Pegasus screaming away was the loudest sound I've ever heard an aircraft make.

TWB

The Tornado could be pretty loud with the chest vibrating away but the loudest I ever heard was at Scampton in the 70s when still in my teens. They had an exercise of some type and launched the wing in stream.....bloody hell!

Best of all not one noise complaint to my knowledge just accepted as the sound of freedom.

Mirage 4000 at Paris Airshow (c mid-80s) I thought was the loudest.

Loudest military aircraft?
 

I am saddened and surprised that on a forum for aviation enthusiasts and professionals, no one has pointed out that the 6-engined XB-70 is oft listed as the loudest built so far, or that the Thunderscreech turboprop induced vomiting at 100m due to sonic effects.

With the Bear, it wasn't the engine noise you could hear, but the 'beat' from the contra rotating props. In fact, you could feel it more than hear it.

I don't know for sure but I would vote for the B52. 8 engines with water injection.

The Bone is fffffairly loud LOL ; )

The Wokka Cockpit has to be the all time winner for noisy!:{

Loudest military aircraft?
 

English electric lightning

Loudest inside - Shackleton.

Dealing with an RTA in the fog on the peritrack at Marham when a Victor briefly taxied out of the murk before turning away from us and disappearing again. We were unknowingly in the undershoot of the active, sitting about 100-ish yds behind 4 Conways at take off power can quite accurately be described as "loud".

Bergneustadt-auf-dem-duemple in Germany mid 70's. Airshow where a Vulcan 'rolled' on the grass strip then got airborn and climbed out vertically, not sure what was the loudest, the Vulcan or the earth rumbling.

The Nimrod MR1 when it first appeared at Farnborough. Even Raymond Baxter said so.

Vulcan at full chat close-up must be a strong contender. Loudest civilian by a long way must have been the Comet 4.

Again, not strictly military, but I've stood 10km from a Shuttle launch and my chest vibrated with the noise. Loudest sound I've experienced since watching Slayer at Donnington in '91. Awesome.