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Before the Concorde was sent into retirement, their supersonic flight paths were restricted to the ocean because of concerns about sonic boom on the ground.

But just how loud was this boom? Was it significantly louder than the noise from a Mach 0.9 airplane?

Woodman
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JonathanReez
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  • The sonic boom of the Space Shuttle generated a pressure of 60 Pa on the ground, from an altitude of 18 km, the Concorde 93 Pa -- that is 133 dB -- from an altitude of 16 km. See this article on sonic boom. – mins May 14 '17 at 07:21
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    Concorde was louder than a 0.9 aircraft when it was subsonic!. The sonic boom is at 0:58 in the same video. – Simon May 14 '17 at 07:23
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    @Simon yes but that's take off. I'm wondering how loud it was in-flight. – JonathanReez May 14 '17 at 07:42
  • Keep watching. As I said, the boom is at 0:58. – Simon May 14 '17 at 07:48
  • @JonathanReez: Concorde sonic boom was very much louder (at the same altitude) than flying at M 0.9. 133 dB is above pain threshold for most people (discomfort is between 85 and 95 dB SPL and the threshold for pain is between 120 and 140 dB SPL). After pain threshold, no one can say if "this is louder" as ear is saturated. See this comparison. – mins May 14 '17 at 08:24
  • @mins but didn't the boom last for a split second for an observer on the ground? Basically I'm trying to understand just how bad it would be if supersonic jets were flying around all the time. – JonathanReez May 14 '17 at 08:25
  • You last comment is a too broad to be answered here (would jets flying around all the time be a pain, so taking into account duration of exposure and mean level), there is a lot of literature online on the topic. Have a look at the last link I posted ("Military jet aircraft take-off from aircraft carrier with afterburner at 50 ft = 130 dB"). 10 dB SPL difference is factor 2 in the ear sensation (sound twice louder). – mins May 14 '17 at 08:30
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    @mins please don't answer questions in a comment – 60levelchange May 14 '17 at 10:26
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    Anecdotally: I remember visiting Hampton Court Palace as a child on a school trip, which was right below concorde's flight path (into heathrow I suspect). The tour guide had to stop her blurb for a good 90 seconds whilst it flew overhead. That was so far from supersonic, but it was still the loudest thing short of a Vulcan bomber I remember aviation-wise. – Jamiec May 14 '17 at 12:26
  • Forgive my ignorance, I'm new, but why was this question marked as duplicate. The other question answers whether a sonic boom at 60K' can be heard on the ground. I read that other answer and it doesn't directly answer Mr @JonathanReez question of whether the Concorde's sonic boom was "significantly louder than the noise from a Mach 0.9 airplane", as is asked in this question. – Devil07 Jun 27 '17 at 04:33
  • @Devil07 I marked it because it directly answered my question. – JonathanReez Jun 27 '17 at 05:36

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