Posted on 08/26/2007 5:00:52 AM PDT by jsh3180
Fighters? Bah. I spent eighth through twelfth grades at a school that was directly under the takeoff path for March Air Force Base. C-141s, C-5s, KC-135s, and B-52s rumbled overhead on a regular basis. An awesome thing to see, hear and occasionally feel, especially when they had alerts going on. These people are weenies.
There’s a NAS here in Marietta, GA. Several years back, an A-6 crashed into an apartment complex. The press tried to make a big deal out of it and asked if the station (along with Dobbins AFB) should be moved. The military replied that they were there first. They did not ask anyone to set up residential areas around the base.
As far as noise goes, it is much better today. One rarely hears the deafening A-6 in the air anymore. And the noisy F-14s have been replaced with the quieter F-18s.
Loud, yes. Sonic boom, no.
It sure is!
Most bases, like Oceana, predate the complainers. They were an existing condition when the houses were built.
Were you here in the early nineties (I forget what year) when a large Air Force jet flew low over the middle of Abilene about two in the morning? I was living in the middle of town at the time, and it woke me up- felt like the house was about to collapse around us! They got in some trouble for that, but I think it was just a mistake.
Didn't bother me, once I figured out what it was- told the wife "Sound of Freedom", and went back to sleep :)
Awesome is correct. I remember somewhere around '52 -'53, a flight of three B36's flew over my town in v-formation. Fairly low, say 5 thousand feet. We ran outside to see what the noise was, and the whole neighborhood was outside, looking up!
No? It makes that boom and the windows shake. What, if not a sonic boom?
Some here look up as the jets fly over, with a sense of pride and awe. Others just complain.......”
When I was a kid on the farm in Wisconsin, the Air Force Base on the east side of Madison starting flying jets.
People whined constantly about the noise.
My Dad used to tell them:
“Those planes have USA marking on them. Be happy about that.”
Military jets are forbidden by law from breaking the sound barrier over populated areas of the United States and only do so in extremely limited areas, training ranges, and circumstances, scrambling to intercept a hostile or unidentified threat. If the sound barrier was indeed being broken you’d have a lot of broken windows and lawsuits being filed against Uncle Sam. While it is not impossible that you did indeed hear a rare sonic boom, it is highly unlikely. Military aircraft, particularly fighters, are extremely loud and even when flying subsonic can cause windows to shake and buildings to rattle.
If the sound barrier was being broken over our heads, ok. But i live on the edge of civilization out here in the country. Beyond me is open farm land mostly. And it’s not over our heads, we just hear it.
But what do I know, only that exhusband, who is a jet mech on F15s,, Navy retiree, said they were sonic booms.
Do try not to be so condescending or shall we say “know it all”. You’re not the only one who knows how loud jets can be. k?
:)
AVIATION PING
When I was a kid, we lived in Taiwan at a base that flew F-104s. At the end of the flying day, a jet would go supersonic over the housing area to let the families know folks would be home in a couple of hours. Loved it!
I think San Francisco would be a better choice.
90 miles from a commie country, they should be encouraging the flights!
Typical, airport there first, housing built close to airport, people bitch to get rid of airport after being fully aware that it waa there when they bought.
But because of the airport, it was cheaper.
Instead of cowing to the creeps the Navy should tell them to go to hell!
Do you accept transplants, even from the “Land of Lincoln” (i.e., Illinois, although Lincoln was actually born in Kentucky.)This state is becoming more socialist and government intrusive every year. I can barely breath and to think my family’s been here over a hundred years, makes you want to cry.
Most people are very accepting of like minded people.
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