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.

VC10 full-power take off!

Scimitar, military, Concorde, civil, on take off with all 4 burners lit !

Mind you, the little Jet Provost could make its voice heard, particularly if you were trying to sleep during night flying !!

I think we're all agreed that they're all bloody noisy...but we love the sound!

B1 at Mildenhall Air Show with 4 burners, deafening...

To be specific,the shags-only beat up at about 50 ft that the B1 crew did on the Friday before the 1989 Mildenhall Air Show. :ok:

Mirage 3 chasing an F-111 at an 'infamous' supersonic incursion at an Airshow in South Australia was 'satisfactory' unless you were onboard said aircraft, the debrief of which I understood was somewhat 'uncomfortable'.

Is there any information on the racket made by the Me-163?

JAS

Night-time departures of the B1s from Thumrait were always pretty spectacular.

But I think noisiest would go to an E3D full of FCs & Navs – always a lot of loud whining there. :O

"But I think noisiest would go to an E3D full of FCs & Navs – always a lot of loud whining there."


Especially when you added in the AE brotherhood!

Any of the display aircraft in their tacky paint-jobs. Theose clolour schemes - euuuuu!

Oh God! Thumrait - the daily 6AM B1 departure was like being woken by a bl***y earthquake.

Which arse put our tents next to the point on the runway where the jets actually got airborne?

The Akrotiri early morning call was also very loud, especially as it was caused by a single-engined, non-reheat, motor-glider!

Must be the Vulcan. I recall once as a teenager playing golf at Oakington having to lay down with my hands over my ears to save being blown over. I remember the near vertical climb.

We all get sentimental over the types we have been asscociated with.

Always could tell where the Nimrod was going out of Wyton by the sound it made at 6 in the morning and knowing how heavy it was. I lived over 6 miles away in Huntingdon.

Funny enough drove by there late last night. the hangar lights were on. didn't know whether to call in and give them a hand to fix something as I would have done 20 years ago. All gone now...

BAC 1-11 at Ground Idle even.

Particularly in large numbers.

Shawbury Gazelles used to have a recce "war role" associated with - inter alia - Vulcan stations. IIRC mine was Waddo.

The "survival scramble" approaching TACEVAL Endex was visually and aurally unbelievably awesome. :eek::eek::eek:

I sometimes think my dodgy port ear is due to that rather than many rotary hours ......... :(

Not strictly military anymore, but the AN-225 that rocked up at KAF was a little on the bleeding eardrums loud side when it departed with a couple of tanks. Plus managed to kick up a dust storm that would have been visible from space...

Blackbird was pretty spectacular. Used to visit and do Full A/B Go-rounds. The vibration as well as the noise was astounding.

19 and 92 squadron lightnings multi-launch Gutersloh heard from Zeppelinstrasse, memory suggests at least 30 a/c .................

Yes, I'll grant there are a few contenders here, but until you've spent two or three hours in the back of a RNZAF Bristol Freighter you don't know what real noise is! It took THREE days to get from NZ to Changi!

I would imagine a C-130 landing wheels up must be quite loud...