Who remembers in the 60's and early 70's hearing....

[stevej37]

Sonic booms?

Living in Michigan, it seemed to be an everyday occurrence....until they banned them.

[astrochex]

Would hear them occasionally in SoCal.

[Steve Carlton]

Didn’t hear very many.

[stevej37]

I remember hearing most of them in the mid 60's....I had just started middle school.
Never had any broken windows, but they would sure surprise me.

[A930Rocket]

Never heard them, in Westport, CT.

[harvardma]

As a kid I lived on a US base in Heidelberg. I remember the German Air Force F104’s flying over and making sonic booms. I thought it was awesome.

[gregpark]

I remember well. Bring em back, people need to be shook up a bit. Can you imagine the 911 calls? "Terrorists are attacking!"

[stevej37]

^^^ Might shut-up my neighbors dog...lol.

[Bob Kontak]

Heard them lots and lots. Dayton was right down the street from Toledo. Dayton was right down the street from you.

Probably heard the same ones.

I remember looking up in our driveway seeing them when shooting hoops. Usually just one hauling the mail.

[stevej37]

I can't remember ever seeing the jets...when hearing the 'Boom' they were long gone.

It must have been fun being a pilot in the armed forces back then.

[herr_oberst]

I like this question.

Definitely heard 'em in Boise. I had to look online to see what sort of aircraft would have been causing them when I was a tot:

"Specific Aircraft in Idaho:
Idaho Air National Guard: The Idaho Air National Guard transitioned to jets like the F-86A Sabre Jet in 1953 and later operated aircraft such as the F-94 Starfire and F-102 Delta Dagger during the 1960s. These jets were capable of supersonic flight and could have caused sonic booms in the area.
Mountain Home AFB: Mountain Home AFB was home to various aircraft, including the RB-29 Superfortresses, B-47 Stratojets, and KC-97 Stratotankers, which could have been involved in flights that produced sonic booms. " (per the google)

Another search confirmed my memory that the later F4 and other jet aircraft stationed at Mt Home AFB and Gowen Field AFB (Air Guard) close to where I lived were mostly restricted to sub-supersonic speeds over population areas, so very few sonic booms during the Lyndon Johnson administration and beyond.

Those were the days. I loved those window-rattling booms when I was a little kid.

[TimT]

Grumman built F14's a few miles from where I grew up... Fairchild built fighters not to far away either...

And then there was the Concorde.. You could sometimes hear it go boom on a certain approach to JFK..

I also worked on an Airbase constructed for the IDF as part of the Camp David accords..

When the IDF started making the base operational... There were Mirage,K'Fir,F4,F16s 15s?... and there were no restrictions there ..Many big booms

[WPOZZZ]

My brother would talk about hearing them when we were at our grandparent's house near Waikiki. Me? I don't recall hearing them.

[DRONE]

Worked at Mojave Airport in the 90's, booms were 1 or 2 at least a month there, never knew what would fly over

[stevej37]

^^^
1973 was the year they were banned in the States.
Mojave must have been exempt?

[oldE]

Here in the Annapolis Valley in south western Nova Scotia, we could hear the Sonic Boom from
Concord sometime around 10 AM on Sunday mornings. Their flight path was about 30 miles off the coast.
I commented on the video already posted in the short video thread. It is referring to the F84 "Thunderscreech ", but does not have a single image of that aircraft.

[pavulon]

As a kid, the local ANG F-100s would pound 'em out on the regular. Of course, there were issues. I remember my parents taking us to see a crash site on the shore of a local lake in 1970. Reading through the history of the SDANG, there were plenty of crashes--especially P-51s.

https://www.114fw.ang.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/437541/history-of-the-south-dakota-air-national-guard/

[JackDidley]

We lived a few miles from Midway Airport and once in a while they would rattle windows in the house.

[stevej37]

Our childhood home was mid-Michigan and I was told most of the sonic booms were out of Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Detroit.

Someone here might know if that is correct.

[L8Brakr]

It wasn't a sonic boom, but I remember as a lad (72-73) playing a junior golf tournament at a course in Ft. Worth that was just off the end of the runway where B-52s were stationed/maintained/serviced. I'm talking low enough that you could see the pilots waving at us as they passed over. A B-52 at full takeoff power passing at less than 2-300 feet will definitely get your attention!!