Semi OT- Loudest jet ever?

I always thought the F-105 was the loudest I've heard, we had sr-71s, f-4s and lots of other aircraft stationed at Okinawa. A aircraft lovers delight!

A Harrier may not be the "loudest", but is has a screaching, high pitched whine at idle that would blow out a dog's eardrums, let alone remind you of a trip to the dentist. Especially if you're standing directly in front of the inlets.

The last time we went to Miramar, to soothe SWMBO we bought chalet tickets at show center. They handed out free earplugs- with a Harrier hovering about

B-1, burners lit at the start of takeoff roll.

Fouga Magister - loud enough to make you vomit.

Duncan

The high frequency noise is apparently due to the metal from which the compressor bearings are made. The bearings on a F-16 are made from a similar material, and it presents a similar high frequency hazard. The difference with a Harrier is that the bearings for the first-stage compressor are literally within arms reach of the intake lip!

During the late-1980s groundcrew on the RAF Harrier force were issued with slimline ear defenders. These were designed to sit underneath the kevlar helmet so that linies could wear full combat gear while deployed in the field. It was only after eighteen months that it became apparent that the ear defenders were designed to protect infantrymen against the noise of gunfire... not against high frequency aircraft noise! Those of us who spent any appreciable time on Harrier lines in those days all suffer from a certain amount of high-tone deafness. Pardon?

Yeah, having watched a B-58 take off with FOUR afterburners blazing in a rainstorm at Bunker Hill (now Grissom) AFB in 1967 I gotta concur.

I recall seeing an F-105 undershoot the runway while in Basic Training at Fort Dix (it was next to the main runway at McGuire AFB) and when he hit the burner to schooch it to the touchdown strip it got very, very loud. He also toasted about a dozen ducks in a pond off the end of the runway...

Cookie Sewell

Actually heard with my own ears. It's either a pair of F-15s hitting the afterburners on a flyover at the race track or a pair of F-4s staging out of Pope AFB many moons ago when I was a kid. Things always seem bigger and louder when you're a kid, so I'll go with the Phantoms. ;-)

WmB

Training at Fort

I think that's an inherant property of jet engines in general, but I'll agree that the inlet definatly has something to do with it. F/A-18s have a similar highly directional high frequency content comming out of the inlets, but an E/F has a different pitch/sound than an A-D. I figure it's ont only the engine but also the acoustic noise from the air volume mixing with the engine noise and cavity effects in the duct.

When I was designing compressor components for GE I ran across more than one instance where acoustic coupling had structural effects on engine components. In one case I recall having to change the number of bearings in a #1 race to get around a problem.

I'll back you up on that one, having seen both the Blue Angels and the Thunderbird shows in F4s as a kid. Haven't enjoyed either of them since...

I was having an early lunch in a Roy Rogers in down town Frederick Maryland when an F-117 went over very low. It was the weekend of the Frederick airshow. There wasn't anybody sleeping late in Frederick after that pass!

Bill Shuey

An F-117? I thought they were designed specifically to be quiet...

I've only seen an F-117 up close once,at an airshow.Wasn't anything like as loud as the F-15 and F-16s I saw at the same show. I'd say a B-1 in afterburner was the loudest I'd seen,but the F-15 came close.

Probably none of us here ever heard it, but the XF-84H 'Thunderscreech' was reputed to put out such a high-pitched din that it caused debilitating nausea on the surrounding air base apron. However, that might not have been strictly jet noise, since it was caused by the tips of the propeller going supersonic.

Mark Schynert

A Magister? That pretty little French thing? Wouldn'ta thunk so, but I ain't never heard one, neither...

RobG

I've had a Magister or 2 at my airport & they aren't all that loud. I've never heard an F-117 that I'm aware of, but I've read that it's not much louder than a Cessna Citation. I always took that to mean like a Citation I or II since they were around when the F-117 came out. I hear Citations all the time, & rarely need hearing protectors on the ground, much less in flight.

Concorde in full reheat on takeoff for a transatlantic flight. It was loud *inside* a 737 taxying past. It was also dusk so the sight of the reheat plumes trailing behind is forever engraved in my memory.