Bang!

Sat 4 Mar 2023, 13:54

It was at 12.13hr so the time might help with any websites giving information.

Pretty sure it was a single aircraft at supersonic speed due to the characteristics of the double bang from the leading edges compression of the air and the trailing edges very shortly after that. The last time we had aircraft going supersonic was the event some years ago when a helicopter out near Bristol inadvertently set a transponder to respond with a code that it had been hijacked… Two Typhoons were scrambled from- Lincolnshire I think- went supersonic at a relatively low altitude and passed over the Midlands not far from us to intercept the errant aircraft near Bristol. So a lot louder and multiple concussions then unlike today’s quieter single double boom, if you see what I mean.

The noticeable pressure wave was indicative of a largeish body moving in the atmosphere and have noticed in the past that this characteristic seems to really upset the birds- and the entire rookery my window looks out onto took to the wing!

When I came to England a few times from Canada for prolonged stays in my mother’s old seaside village in the early and mid and late 60s and early 70s happened to be on that stretch of the West Sussex coast between Selsey Bill and Worthing Pier - and even more especially right by the measured distance between Littlehampton Pier and Worthing Pier used for official speed trials. Those who are a decade or more older than me will remember the string of World Air Speed Records set by the’new’ jet engine aircraft in the postwar era. This was the calibrated stretch that they took place.

It was also a happy place for test pilots to put prototypes and development aircraft through their paces. We saw all sorts, like the VTOL Kestrel and later the operational development of the famous Harrier, very often being put through its transonic performance at low altitude - which really makes your ears feel strange- and lots of ‘breaking the sound barrier’ from steep and shallow dives not far offshore by a handful small boats. Quite exciting for a young boy! Got Concorde low and near transonic a few times, got things like Phantoms testing out the Rolls Royce turbofans low down, Lightning’s with wing and fuel tank modifications, a Hunters always it seemed which would do repeatedly supersonic dives all the time well into the 70s though what they expected to learn from them after 20 plus years of testing leaves me baffled.

Felt a bit like old times down by the beach plane spotting!