On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 at 15:00:50 in message
, Paul Sengupta
wrote:
Back during the testing of the Hawker Hunter in the 1950s, they
were tested at supersonic speeds (in a dive) around Surrey and
Sussex (the area I currently live in), flying out of Dunsfold. I recently
read Neville Duke's autobiography (test pilot) and he describes the
first time he realised he'd gone past mach 1...it was when one of the
locals said to him in the pub "Good run this morning". It had generated
"one of they queer bangs".

During some Farnborough Air Shows in the early 1950s sonic 'booms' were
a regular feature. On that tragic day in August 1952 we heard sonic
booms from the Hunter and the ill-fated DH110 which produced a well
aimed 'boom' shortly before its arrival in the circuit and its
catastrophic break up in the air which killed, I think, 28 people.

Some parts of that day were engraved into my memory.

In addition, later at Filton, parts of the Bristol area were
deliberately subjected to 'booms' as part of an experiment to see how
people might react to Concorde. Those I believe were produced by USA
F100 Super Sabres.
--
David CL Francis