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What's the loudest aeroplane you've been in or on?


Rick Brown

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My loudest aircraft is Boscombe Down's Harvard. Just how loud was demonstrated by one of the trips I did on a Herc conducting airdrop trials. Whilst flying to the drop zone the Harvard formated on the Herc and even though the Herc was all closed up and I was wearing ear plugs and a headset I could still hear the growl of the Harvard's prop tips.

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My dad saw the Brabazon and said the noise was unbelievable, long before you saw it and way after it had gone from sight and the ground resonated, it "buzzed".

Having said that, I could hear cars rattling above the noise and feel them shaking when Concorde went off and we were parked on Caines Lane (Heathrow) If you know where that is, just down from Hatton Cross tube and roughly 400 m from the end of the runway

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From a spectator view and only from my experience from 2008 onwards it has to be the Thunderbirds when they were at waddington. One F16 taking off is pretty loud on its own but 6 at the same time with the last one going vertical right in front of me.........i was trying to figure out how to cover my ears and hold my chest (it felt like it was shaking from the inside out) at the same time........and then the ground started shaking under my feet! Then they dissappeared and all was quiet, apart from all the crying children.

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Not that I've been on or in one, but as a spectator the F-4 Phantom is shatteringly loud! I would think that you could down an enemy aircraft just by flying next to it on full afterburner and just watch the enemy aeroplane shake itself to pieces! My father had a B-36 cross at low altitude in front of him one time - he tells me that was rather loud. Ten engines going at once, six piston-engines and four jets.

Regards,

Jason

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Stictly flying wise

no 2 Was with an airline I worked for, and a Twin Otter with a new captain being endorsed, and I was just along to do some duties at an away airport, there were no pax, the Training Capt failed one engine, so we did a 35 min sector on one engine in full fine and Take Off power, I was sitting in the first row seats beside the engine.with earmuffs on, and still too loud.

No1 Was this Basler BT67, http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234924982-basler-dc-3/

which actually had three P&W PT6-67 engine, two on the wings and one in the main cabin with quite useless bit of vinyl soundproofing over it. The engine was to drive the generators for the 4 wires running around the outside of the aircraft, which operated at 50k amps, I wore foam earplugs, plus really High Quality Earmuffs, and I was still deaf after the flight

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I can remember seeing a Tomcat at Fairford, I think it was, in the early 90's. Showed off full reheat and it deafened me, shook me and everything around and set off car alarms in the car park.

Loudest I've ever been on was a Vickers Viscount flying on Manx Air to the IOM, that was very loud and the bumpiest ride I've ever had. Had a good comparison on the way home though, a lovely smooth and quiet BAe 146.

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Inside an IL-18 complete with shot putting stewardesses. Noisy, uncomfortable and nothing good to look at.

More time in the back of a Herc enclosed in a doss bag and on a hammock than most, one of the more pleasant ways to trek back from the Middle East on numerous occasions.

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An F4E Phantom II; at RAF Aldergrove, was passing though and stopped off; and was being run up on a pre-flight check.

or maybe a S2 Buccanneer or Sea Vixen out of Sydenham....they were noisy too.

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4). C130J. Loud, even when the big wiry prop things aren't turning. The Aircon apparently. Unpleasant.

Second that! 8 hours from Akrotiri to Leuchars Loud, uncomfortable and hotter than Cyprus!

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For me the Vulcan at RAF Finningley as it flew over the crowd, it was quite slow, unlike these days, with bomb bay doors open...deafening...until Concorde came one year, landed and went from one end of the taxway near to the crowd line and then throttled up, but stayed put, then taxied again for take off, I felt it on my chest it was so loud.

Edited by PZRGREN
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Can't believe no one has mentioned the Viggen. I was right next to the runway at Farnborough in early 80s for a demo. Not sure which was worst take off or landing with the reverse thrust. Most impressive, as someone mentioned, was the B-1 doing a low pass with full afterburners.

As for the OP. C-17s practice touch and gos over my office here all the time, and I find them quite pleasant.

Graham,

Dayton Ohio.

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Too many but here's a few :-

Childhood noise - flying in the back row on a Trident 3 and a 1-11, thought the things were coming apart.

Legendary noise - Concorde take-off's at Heathrow, lots of them over my 3 years in London, the best was watching her lift off just in front of us one night about 1800 and watching the purple reheat and jets silhouette against the most amazing rose red sunset...awesome.

Classic noise - not painful or distressing, but beautiful, hearing the sound of 4 roaring Griffons on the old 8 Sqn Shackletons that we used to see all around Aberdeenshire back in the 80's, ....good times.

Sheer noise - 2 Sea Harriers in the hover at Leuchars right in front of where we were in the crowd, brilliant!

Awesome noise - getting to stand in line with the back of a Tornado F.3 about 15-20 ft from the jet pipes whilst it was in full reheat. Won't forget that in a hurry!

Just bl@&dy irritating noise - trying to do leak checks on a running 737 APU, aaaahhhhhh make it stop, too loud, wrong pitch...just nasty.

Great topic.

Eng

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I think most of us have heard most of the types mentioned, but the thread is about what you have been on or in, not witnessesed as a spectator.

Sorry, I was being my "Vague" self!

It should have said:

"Been in or worked on"

Been in, as in fly in and worked on as in noisy when you work on them, even on the deck.

But hey, still quite a good mix!

Rick.

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Where I grew up, the 737-200 was a very common aircraft at the municipal airport. Standing just the other side of the fence when one of those was spooling up was an experience. I have to admit that, for me anyway, the later 737 models just lost something with the different engines.

Some years later I was on a 90 minute flight on a 737-200 and had a window seat just aft of the wing root. It wasn't too bad while flying at height, but while it was revving up for take off and then when the thrust reversers were engaged on landing it was god awful!

I would concur with others that the Hercules, Twin Otter and the Chinook are quite noisy beasts to be in.

I also had a quite noisy ride in an Antonov An-2 Colt a few years ago. In fairness, it was rigged out for skydivers so it only had metal bench seats without cushioning. There was a fair bit of uninsulated metal for the noise to bounce around in on that flight.

As for aircraft observed:

The Concord spooling up certainly is top contender.

The C-141 was quite the noisemaker as well. I visited McChord AFB back in the late 1980s when they still had the aircraft there and I distinctly recall a quite unpleasant shrill whine as the aircraft taxied past.

Someone mentioned the Fouga Magister a bit earlier and I can relate to that after having the displeasure of a Cessna T-37 taxi past me at a fairly close distance. As both types use the same basic engine, the effects would be about the same.

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loudest, blackest (smoke) and most under-performing aircraft I ever heard / saw was a Boeing EC-135N with water methanol takeoff out of Perth Western Australia with a full load on a hot summers day, unbelievable

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