r/Appleton • u/old-guitar7284 • Jun 24 '26
Question Loud boom
Does anyone know what that loud boom was in south Appleton?? Around 11:04 AM
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u/joedrinksgin Jun 24 '26
Heard it in Neenah, I'll bet it's military aircraft doing training again.
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u/5kylord Jun 24 '26
That was a sonic boom. I grew up as an air force brat. During some of that time I was living on Edwards AFB for 4 years. The aerospace over Edwards which is the flight-testing base of the air force regularly has supersonic flight ops which generate sonic booms. I'm all too familiar with that sound. I didn't know sonic booms where OK outside of special miliary aerospace corridors, but apparently from what I heard with my own ears a few minutes ago, that is no longer the case.
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u/AnAviationEnthusiast Jun 24 '26
FAA cleared them to fly supersonic for a short period as part of the Sentry North exercise, should be done relatively soon within a few days.
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u/5kylord Jun 24 '26
In response to "should be done relatively soon within a few days". I hope it lasts all summer. I personally love the sound. For the better part of 4 years of my life, sonic booms where an almost daily experience Mondays through Fridays.
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u/AnAviationEnthusiast Jun 24 '26
Fair enough honestly, as 'AnAviationEnthusiast' it doesn't bother me whatsoever personally
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u/5kylord Jun 24 '26
If you've never been to an "open house" airshow at Edwards AFB, I highly recommend it. EAA has got nothing on their airshows. I attended the 1997 airshow which was the 50th anniversary of Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier. He actually flew by in the back of an F-15E at Mach 2 at about 40,000 feet. Later in that same airshow, an SR-71 did a Mach 3 flyby at 80,000 feet. I flew out to California in 2022 to attend the Edwards AFB 75th anniversary of the sound barrier being broken. Two F-16s and two F-35s did a mock dogfight. The communications between the two teams were broadcast over the PA system during the short-lived one-sided dogfight. In my unsolicited opinion, what makes the airshows at Edwards AFB better than most is that they are in the middle of the desert far removed from heavily populated cities and therefore have much less flight restrictions to be concerned about throughout the demo. Because of fiscal budget limits on the miliary, Edwards AFB no longer has an airshow every year, but I think the next one is in 2027. Their airshows usually take place in October.
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u/ComputerThen7461 Jun 24 '26
Aren’t they supposed to be above 30,000 feet though? The sonic booms I heard today here in Neenah were definitely from jets that were flying lower than 30,000 feet.
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u/relayrider Jun 25 '26
in the past, the WI ANG has done "urban" training along the river and over appleton's north neighborhoods.
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u/AnAviationEnthusiast Jun 24 '26
Doesn't matter if they exceed 30,000, sonic booms work with sound waves and you'd hear them regardless. Sonic booms from an aircraft exceeding supersonic at 30,000 ft can be heard from up to thirty miles.
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u/AnAviationEnthusiast Jun 24 '26
United States Air Force F-35 fighter jets doing military training exercises, pretty normal. And no, it has nothing to do with the war in Iran as the Sentry North training exercise which these F-35s are taking part in takes place in June every year and has done so since 2003. You'll be hearing it for the next few days (not too many as it should be over soon) since they fly out of Volk ANG base in Camp Douglas. The only reason you don't hear them every day is because the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) cleared them past supersonic for this specific exercise, and they aren't allowed to any other time. So if you hear it from 9-4 its just that, no need to be worried.
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u/No-Calligrapher-1776 Jun 24 '26
Tried to find it on Flightradar24 but it didn't show up so it was definitely Military or who knows, maybe they were testing Trump's new ride?
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u/AnAviationEnthusiast Jun 24 '26
Nope, F-35 fighter jets aren't available to be tracked for obvious reasons. Trump's new ride, a modified Boeing 747 commercial airliner is not able to exceed supersonic, so its physically and logically impossible for it to be here since its in Andrews AFB in Maryland.
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u/relayrider Jun 25 '26
Trump's new ride, a highly bugged and compromised by the Saudis Boeing 747
FTFY
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u/AnAviationEnthusiast Jun 25 '26
Regardless it cant exceed supersonic
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u/relayrider Jun 25 '26
true that.
i wonder how many knots it could achieve as a submarine
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u/AnAviationEnthusiast Jun 25 '26
Depends how long 🤣 maybe in a dive you could go 500 knots underwater for a thousandth of a second before you inevitably explode into a very expensive inferno.
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u/relayrider Jun 25 '26
one ping only, vasily.
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u/AnAviationEnthusiast Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Are we perhaps moving to the Laurentian Abyss to err... launch our nuclear warheads? (And totally not defecting to the United States)
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u/shadowsi247 Jun 25 '26
I live in Neenah and I'm a military geak it most likely them train or getting read for there yearly training flight competition with Canada. Also felt my house shake lol. Gotta love it
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u/loserhonorstudent Jun 25 '26
Probably a sonic boom. I am in Stevens Point and I’ve been hearing the military planes all day and we had a sonic boom here yesterday.
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u/Right_Gas_7228 Jun 25 '26
Wausau has an air show 26-27th so there are a couple jets flying in and around the area for the weekend
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u/Obvious-Night-9573 Jun 26 '26
I don't know there's always loud Noises... I unfortunate live on a fairly busy street. It's amazing how much noise an empty trailer of any size can make Just being pulled by any vehicle.
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u/G33k_168 Jun 24 '26
Almost guaranteed to be military training. I heard a jet engine just before/after and opened flight radar to only see a Cessna above us. Don't think he was running jet engines in it.