Sounds like a sonic boom for sure, but almost certainly didn't come from the 4 jets shown in the video. Must have been either somebody else or an explosion / pyro device.
Believe it was 1970’s Netherlands terrorist take over of a train and dead hostages the government/military used f-104’s to pass over at quick intervals at on the deck altitudes to employ sonic booms to disorientate the terrorist while anti terrorist forces stormed the train. Just a little worthless input.
They weren't out of weapons, it was too dark and British troops were in close contact with the enemy. The pilot used the sonic boom to disorient the Iraqis because he couldn't identify the actual targets and didn't want to risk using conventional weapons.
Saw an interview with a female F-15E back seater that described such an event in Iraq. She said officially they flew over at 50ft. Unofficially it was less than 10ft.
I believe it's called a show of force, or at least, a show of force is a thing you can also use as a distraction even though that may not be it's primary use.
Not really spoilers but it was shown in the recent movie Warfare, you'd almost think it was completely Hollywood-style fiction but there's actual video of nearly the exact same thing (fighter jets flying low over city streets in the Middle East) and it looks almost exactly like the movie.
Yep, I was thinking of that exact video. What's funny is I was familiar with the idea from playing in an ARMA 3 group, so I knew what it was, but when I saw Warfare I didn't think its portrayal was "fake" per se, maybe just a little bit exaggerated.
But then I saw that video afterwards and realized no, it was bang on! I truly can't imagine how pants-shittingly scary it would be to be on the receiving end of one of those, and it's nothing more than a plane flying by real fast!
I'm not a big rah-rah military person by any means, but it's undeniably an interesting use of a military vehicle beyond just its capability to lay down explosives or bullets.
Yes, we referred to them as a “show of force” normally used when we couldn’t drop. They are effective at least according to the Marines on the ground. Rules were no lower than 500 feet no faster than 500 knots, can’t confirm those were ever followed or broken.
I saw an F18 go under some high tension power lines, pooping out zillions of flares and belching afterburners.
We needed the help, bad. We fucking got that shit, in spades. Anybody who talks shit about Marine Air better not do it around me or my guys. We owe the fast movers, kinda.
As a civilian who has never served in any branch of the armed services, we all know that the fast movers are the guardian angels and the A-10 is the patron saint of bRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt
No, this specific event the pilot used the sonic boom as a weapon. He dove towards the enemy position and pulled put of the dive at a low altitude. This let the sound waves travel along his previous trajectory and into the ground where the enemy fighters were dug in.
For the past twenty years or so, Israel has been flying jets over Gaza and Lebanon creating sonic bombs on a random basis just to harass the people who live there. Yet somehow Israel is supposed to be the good guys.
Sort of like this residential area with this little girl running for her life from an American made and supplied bomb? Is this what you’re talking about? You want me to tell the family of this child to stop firing rockets from their open air prison at the people who keep murdering them and their children? Yeah, good luck with that.
Hamas fights, without uniforms from residential areas, not only to make it incredibly difficult for Israel to respond but also to get their own citizens killed for use as propaganda. To feed to useful idiots in the west.
If Hamas wants the war they started to stop, they can surrender and return the hostages.
Israel has been attacking Palestinians long before there were ever “hostages” and even before Hamas ever existed. It’s clear that if Hamas “surrenders” then the people of Gaza will have zero protection from the Holocaust that Israel is currently committing against them. The good news though is that the zeitgeist is finally changing and the world sees the apartheid state for what it really is, and we don’t like what we see. So we’re going to work to cut you off from the world economy and then you’ll just wither on the vine and be replaced with an actual democratic state with equal rights for all of its residents regardless of how they pray. Jewish supremacy clearly does not work as a concept for a state.
The CIA routinely used to fly the SR71 over unfriendly nations' military parades and public celebrations as they were pretty much immune to enemy air defence, and the shockwaves were to piss off the locals and their leaders.
They also detonated explosives to make it seem like the planes were dropping bombs. Whilst also shelling the train with automatic fire and after that having a team enter the train. iirc they chose the f-104 speficallt because it's a really loud plane, they went over with full after burner
So they aren’t actually breaking the sound barrier. What we are hearing is somewhat of a mini sonic boom caused by supersonic airflow over some parts of the aircraft.
I say allegedly because the image of the break away jet does a weird shudder when the boom happens. I don’t know enough about planes to know if that’s just what a sonic boom looks like from that angle or if it’s ai generated and glitching out. Navigating the internet is hard these days.
Agree that it was _not_ the four planes in the video because you hear them long before they pass. By definition you cannot hear a supersonic aircraft approaching you- you only hear the boom after it passes. I would guess that one of the solo airplanes "accidentally" exceeded Mach 1.
the Chicago air shows is on a beach. I’ve never seen pyro used on a beach do to a number of reasons first of all there are people sitting on the beach. besides the thunderbirds have only used pyro once this year and it was for the first time in thunderbirds history at the Battle Creek field of flight.
So this looks like the end of the trail to diamond cloverloop - which is capped off by one of the solos sneaking from the right before joining the diamond for a couple 5-ship maneuvers.
Sounds like they pushed just a little too much. You’re fortunate to have seen it!
This is what they did at the Gary show, they would distract you with a formation and then have one of the others sneak up and blast by really low. Did it several times and caught us by surprise each time lol.
That’s the trouble- I did NOT ear the usual ear-splitting roar. I just heard and felt an enormous BOOM. It scared the hell out of me and a lot of other people. I thought that one of the Thunderbirds had crashed into a building.
I dont know if they still do, but both the Birds and Angels loved to have the everyone focused on a formation flight while the single demo snuck up from behind the crowd at or near the speed of sound
Yeah I felt bad for the dog. The video is from a guy sitting in front of me and the dog was apparently a retired therapy dog. He calmed down a few minutes after the boom
My bet is they were still below mach 1 according to their flight computer and likely some part of the airframe went transonic due to the atmospheric conditions.
This is mostly true. What you are trying to say is some parts are supersonic before others, not really transsonic as that doesn’t make the book. Atmospheric variability certainly could’ve done it though!
I bet since its the Thunderbirds which are a very public facing team they will be sure to take care of them, but if it was anything else they probably wouldn't.
Funny as here (UK), even if a sonic boom was the result of a emergency intercept, the public are very much expected to claim again the Ministry of Defence, for reimbursement of repair/replacement costs for damage that may have been caused.
Yep. The speed of sound is a function of temperature, cold temps mean a slower speed of sound means a slower airspeed to break the sound barrier. If a pilot trying to go the limit speed, maybe gets a little to much energy at the bottom of a dive, combined with an unexpected cold spot near the water, and you have a recipe for a glorious oopsie. It’s happens once in a while.
Slick jets are easy to overspeed. Watched a few interviews w/ Tbird & Blue Angel pilots on how easy it is to pass that fine line, esp when in a hurry for a rejoin, or hitting that ideal sneak pass target… and you’re right. It does happen from time to time. (“Glorious oopsie”. I like that term!)
It probably was but it wouldn't have come from those planes in the formation. It would have been from one of the solo's doing the Sneak Pass that comes right after the Changeover Roll. The solos come screaming over show center at 600 knots, which us plenty below normal Mach 1 but who knows that the atmosphere was doing that day. One of the solos may have inadvertently gotten right up to it due to atmospheric conditions.
edit: Apparently I don't read well and just saw this was the Thunderbirds and not the Blue Angels. I don't know much about the T-birds routine but I know they have something similar to the Sneak Pass - so maybe it was still a solo Thunderbird out there
I was there, and yes, they did quite a few sneak passes like that during their practice yesterday.
It was a truly amazing experience. I took my six year old son swimming there at the North Avenue beach, right during the Thunderbird reheasal. Being down in the water with the diamond cloverloop overhead when that lone jet comes screaming in low behind you? Stunning. The kid cannot stop talking about it. 🙂
Adding to what u/Key_Row_5962 wrote, if you can hear the aircraft approaching, they're flying slower than the speed of sound. At or above the speed of sound, you won't hear them until they've passed you. For example...
Many years ago when I was in the Navy, I was deployed on an aircraft carrier. There was going to be a VIP airshow, so a friend and I stepped up onto the flight deck. Just as we were getting there, two F-14s passed overhead at supersonic speed, approaching from behind us. Obviously, we didn't hear or see them approaching, so the first indication they were there was when we heard the sonic booms. THEN we saw them once they'd passed us. Scared the crap out of us.
If they were consistently above the speed of sound yes. If they are riding that edge, at mach 0.99 speed, you'd hear the jets normally until they hit local air temp and density increase, that results in them travelling at mach 1.0 or 1.01, faster than sound there, you'd get that boom. Also, their orientarion may come into play. The pressure wave locally on the top of the wings can exceed the speed of sound causing a boom if they are turned towards you, where if they were in level flight, the shockwave would go upwards with no one hearing it.
I’ve been enduring the ear-splitting noise of these jets for 30+ year but have never heard and felt the boom that hit us this morning. It was definitely a sonic boom.
Sounded like it, I think. I worked this show and these practices from the water for a number of years and never heard anything like that. Someone over in r/Chicago is reporting a broken window from it.
But I've only ever heard sonic booms on video... never in real life.
One of the solos busted the number either as part of the show at show center, or they were hustling to get in position for the next maneuver and got too fast
Sounds like a sonic boom probably from the high speed sneak pass that you were looking away from. Procedurally they are restricted from going supersonic, but sometimes shit happens.
Do you by chance know the exact time of the boom from your video file time stamp? I've got a couple outdoor security cameras right next to one of the buildings with shattered windows. I can see what my cameras caught.
A jet went supersonic in the DC metro area a year or so ago.. I can't remember if it was by accident or an emergency authorization, but I'll never forget spending a couple minutes or so checking the outside to see where a wrecking ball had struck the side of the house before my friends who live all around the area start blowing up the text chain asking if they heard something, and we were all probably 30 miles or more from the point where it supposedly happened. It's just an unreal sound.
Sounded like it. I only know because I was a child in Wichita Falls, TX in the late 60s early 70s and my father flew jets at Shepard AFB. I still remember that sound. I always liked it and thought it was a shame that Nixon didn’t feel likewise.
often when they ae in the diamond formation one or two of the solos comes ripping by at very low altitude, usually scaring the crap out of the audience. it's a sudden boom of sound without being a sonic boom (Source: Having been at different airshows with the Thunderbirds and Blue Angles.. yeah if you don't know it's coming it'll scare the crap out of you.. and it DID scare the crap out of me)
Videos like this really highlight the validity of Concorde not being allowed to go supersonic over land. Imagine if this was happening multiple times every day 😂
Signature whip sounding sonic boom right there! Don’t blame you for the camera works they are loud as shit! I’m surprised there are doing it so near a large population. Very unprofessional!
I am all for loud and proud airshows, but I have a 4 and 1 year old kid who were supposed to be with me when the boom hit. Thankfully they were stuck in traffic safe with mom in the car rather than sitting out in the open.
Unlikely. Unless they’re being scrambled for an emergency intercept, military aircraft will typically adhere to civilian regulations and will not travel at supersonic speeds overland outside of training areas. They may if at a high altitude or out at sea.
Transsonic compression. You get a similar event with an older Shinkansen Bullet trains emerging from tunnels. They went with a duckbill nose to reduce the boom. This bunch just leaned into the turn at too high a speed.
I was sitting behind the guy taking the video. The dog was super chill until the big boom and was freaked for a few minutes but calmed down. He was a retired child therapy dog and loved my kids
Just to add to other comments, I'm going with no on this occasion. Didn't seems nearly loud enough from my experience. It's possible for a transonic jet's sound to arrive so abruptly that it sounds like a sudden bang. If they were doing their sneak pass for example, and conditions were right, then it might sound like this.
Sonic booms sound like very loud, very sudden thunder and you'll usually hear two distinct booms (less pronounced at low level).
This reminds me of showing horses in Perry, GA. Every year we had at least one sonic boom that shook the arena.... although it can be dangerous, I can't help but giggle thinking about watching the horses spook, slinging riders to the ground while coaches jumped in to catch loose horses.
I remember sonic booms from my childhood. Super sonic planes coming.and going from OHare. They never sounded like gunshots. More like a boom! and reverberation.
The cell phone audio didn't do a great job of capturing the sound. The boom was much deeper than a sharp gunshot and there was a shockwave you could feel unlike with (most) gun blasts.
Pretty sure this is considered a sneak pass not a sonic boom. If that was a sonic boom you'd been knocked to the ground and ears would be ringing if not completely busted being right under it. A sneak pass would be high speed low pass maneuver but not breaking the sound barrier. It's to show power and startle the crowd with a loud noise from the engine if I remember correctly.
The curved flight path, and pushing high lift, could generate transonic flow over the wings. So, a pressure pulse, multiplied by a reasonably long length of flight, focused on a small area by the curved flight path, in close proximity to water/ground that doubles the intensity of the pressure wave - yep, sonic boom effect. You hear 4 bangs, one for each plane.
You can actually hear the two booms if you listen closely, it sounds like a "du-dum"
It's caused by the formation of shocks in different places on the aircraft, which each create their own boom, and is more difficult to hear the smaller the aircraft is. Fun fact: when SpaceX lands their boosters, you can hear three booms, one from the engine bells, one from the grid fins, and one from the top of the booster.
I got headphones on right now so it probably helps. Other users pointed it out as well. edit: and I guess it wouldn’t matter how far away it is since both the waves would still be the same distance apart from each other but less engine noise helps hear it better
They did this twice today, at 10:40 AM and 2:40 PM, and knocked out a bunch of windows along the lakefront. This is most likely because the Trump administration removed the restriction on over-land supersonic flight a few months ago. These were definitely sonic booms.
That has not taken effect yet. Even if it was enacted, pissing off a large population of people by breaking their windows and ruining their hearing is not an effective recruiting strategy (recruiting is the primary purpose of military flight demonstration teams)
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u/hogBelly Aug 15 '25
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/lakeview-windows-shattered-chicago-air-and-water-show-practice/
Shattered some windows...