Every year in San Francisco, they celebrate Fleet Week, an amazing gathering of ships and planes. I was in SF for an astronomy meeting last week, and it turns out we discovered rather quickly that the Blue Angels were there. I wish I had had time to go see them, but they made it a little bit easy by flying several times less than a kilometer from my hotel.
Ever wonder what a Navy F/A – 18 Hornet sounds like when it goes past you at just under Mach 1 and you hang a microphone out your window?
Trust me– it as a lot louder than this mp3 implies. Way cool. The bell you hear ringing is a cable car. It’s San Fran, after all!
By the way, just to make this at least marginally sciencey, you don’t hear a Doppler shift in the roar because the plane came up behind me, so the hotel blocked the approach. And you can’t even imagine what it sounds like when four of those planes go by in formation.
October 9th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
I saw them in Atlantic City about a month ago. It was a hell of a surprise after I stumbled out of Showboat at 10 in the morning to see a fleet of fighter jets fly over my head.
October 9th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
That sounds great! What kind of mike did you use? It only breaks up a bit right when the jet is at it’s closest point. You can even hear some harmonics in the cable car bell towards the end.
October 9th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
When the Blue ANgels perform at Jones Beach they fly 100 feet over the crowd. The sound pressure is intense and you feel it in your bones.
October 9th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Neat that you got to experience that, Phil.
When I served on a carrier, on two seperate occasions, an F/A-18 and a F-14 went supersonic. The F-14 was louder.
You could FEEL the sonic boom in your chest (happened both times).
October 9th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
YouTube.com has a bunch of F 18, carrier flyby and Blue Angels video clips. Some from air shows and some excerpted from documentaries.
Here’s one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xlFTbvVh9E&mode=related&search=
October 9th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
AIIIGGHH!!! LOOK OUT!!! CHEMTRAILS!!!!
October 9th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
When I was in the Marine Drum Corps we used to go up and play fleet week every year. One of my favorite memories is sitting on the dock there on the Naval base on Treasure Island while the Blues did a practice run. They were so low we could feel the heat from the engines as they went by. Incredible.
October 9th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
The mike was just a cruddy old Sun microsystems mike that came with a Sparc server. I think the computer has long since crumbled into dust.
October 9th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
I saw both the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds at different air shows (MacDill AFB in Tampa and and air show in Portland, Oregon). Amazing planes.
October 9th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
The last time I saw the Blue Phantoms perform they were flying F-4 Phantoms. I think doing aerial tricks in a Phantom is a lot gutsier, to be honest.
October 9th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Blue Angels, obviously. I got Phantoms on the brain now.
October 9th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
By the way, since the comments are temporarily closed on the blog thread after this one, and since the BA asked: Ants secrete formic acid.
October 9th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
In response to the Phantom bits, I’d say yeah, doing maneuvers in an F-4 is way gutsier, like dancing ballet in steel-toes. The hornet is all well and good, but it’s comparing a butterfly to a hammer. When you see a butterfly flitter through the air, you say “oh, how beautiful.” When you see a hammer fly past, you duck!
October 9th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Well I’ve been to several air shows and the F-15s are much much louder than any of the other planes. F-18’s included. You whole body vibrates in harmony with the roar. But I’m not sure if I’ve heard a Tomcat tho. I suspect it would be F-15 like.
October 9th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
I am in San Francisco right now, and they are annoyingly loud and frequent. Though Mikey Weinstein did get some laughs when they crashed past while he was talking about evangelism at the Air Force Academy and the AF-Navy game that afternoon…
October 9th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
I was on top of the parking structure right by fishermans warf, the A-10 was impressive also. such cool planes
October 10th, 2006 at 4:32 am
Actually, I *can* imagine what they sound like. I was at SF harbour when they did some unannounced (as far as I know) showing off last Thursday. Suddenly there was this HUGE roar, and the next thing we knew, four of these guys were flying right over our heads at maybe 100 ft of altitude.
October 10th, 2006 at 4:51 am
I can certainly imagine it too – the RAF used to do low-level practice right over my house. The worst thing is that you can’t hear them coming…
October 10th, 2006 at 4:52 am
Last month, a group of rich University of Texas alumni rented a restaurant rwo blocks from the UT football stadium for a “tailgate party” before the UT-Ohio State game. My brother’s band (thebandhaywire.com) was hired to play. I went along as his “roadie”. A squadron of F-16s did a flyover at the end of the national anthem. Fortunately, the band had finished playing by then. A seven piece band with a 10 KW sound system is no match for 4 f-16s on full afterburners 100 meters up!
October 10th, 2006 at 7:38 am
O.K. Phil, now go down to your local big name dragstrip, stand at the 60 ft mark and record 2 top fuel dragsters coming off the line at full traction. The only sound phenomenon I’ve ever experienced that actually vibrated my eyeballs and made my vision blur. And I’ve been to some pretty impressive rock concerts!
Greg
October 10th, 2006 at 8:43 am
The Thunderbirds fly over my house every year when they come to March. Way loud, even compared to the F-16s the Reserve flies over daily. But the F-16s wave occaisionally!
October 10th, 2006 at 10:29 am
Hmmm … well the loudest sounds I’ve known have been (a) being in the Pits Grandstand at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix in 1992 (also, the Red Arrows flew a display there, but were at least half a mile away, what with not being permitted to fly over the crowd); (b) in the departure lounge at Heathrow when Concorde was taking off just outside (four Rolls Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines on full reheat were LOUD!); (c) near the treble speakers at a Judas Priest concert (my ears were ringing for 2 or 3 days afterwards); (d) at a firepower demonstration, in which I got to see an A10 firing its Phalanx gun at an unwanted tank hulk that had been painted orange for the occasion; (e) having an RAF Tornado pass overhead at a height of about 200m at supersonic speed; but the loudest of all was (f) firing practice rounds for the Karl Gustav 84 mm medium antitank weapon in an Indoor Training Theatre (even with ear defenders on, it was really, really loud).
October 10th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
I was stationed at NAS Pensacola while in the navy. Had one of the blue angels fly over doing about 400kts about 500ft off the ground. Talk about a cool sight. They practiced alot, so we saw them all the time, never gets boring. Wanna talk about loud? Stand 30ft from an EA-6B at full throttle right before a catapult launch.
October 10th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
I work not far from a small airport where there’s an annual air show; every other year, they get the Blue Angels. I guess 3 years ago, I was driving home along the airport road with my sunroof open when one of them passed directly overhead, at about treetop level, with afterburners going. My car had a failing muffler, so I didn’t hear the approach at all, but, DAYUM, when they’re pointed away from you, jeez! My hair is only just beginning to stand down!
We also occasionally get A-10s checking out bikinis on the Lake Michigan beaches. It’s pretty obvious when they’re dipping their beach-side wing! Sometimes it’s good to fly slow, I guess.
did
October 11th, 2006 at 9:56 am
It was very nice seeing you in SF. I hope you keep up the good work with GLAST. I managed to get a couple of good photos, including one deep-focus shot of four F/A-18’s at rooftop level with the Powell Street sign in the foreground. It is on Tuesday’s blog.
December 8th, 2006 at 6:32 am
Here’s the best video I’ve seen of a F/A-18F Super Hornet flight demonstration (interesting physics too): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6017342022780502321 which is also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBuIidllusc
And here’s a link to awesome photo gallery of transonic F/A-18 Hornet fighterjets, including one image of a low-flying and near Mach 1 Blue Angels F/A-18 jet: http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20061112.htm
December 14th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
http://break.com/index/blue-angels-really-low-flyby.html
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/speed/awesome-jet-streaks-by-creates-vapor-cone-310829.php?autoplay=true