[John Rogers]

Many years ago there was a large airshow at Brown Field just south of San Diego and they had a SST that was giving 1 hour rides out to sea and back again. I remember seeing it take off and when it was about even with the edge of the Pacific Ocean it went to full power which the sound was, as you said huge. It seemed to go on for 5 minutes or so until it disappeared. That was a long and loud sound.

A short and tremendously loud sound was a US Navy A5 Vigilante doing a flight deck level full speed (1300 + knots) fly by for an air show when I was on the CVA(N) 65. The sonic boom and shock wave actually made some flight deck viewers fall over! I was in the #1 engine room and the machinery actually shook!