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Before the Concorde was sent into retirement, their supersonic flight paths were restricted to the ocean because of concerns about sonic boom on the ground.

But just how loud was this boom? Was it significantly louder than the noise from a Mach 0.9 airplane?

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  • $\begingroup$ The sonic boom of the Space Shuttle generated a pressure of 60 Pa on the ground, from an altitude of 18 km, the Concorde 93 Pa -- that is 133 dB -- from an altitude of 16 km. See this article on sonic boom. $\endgroup$ – mins May 14 '17 at 7:21
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    $\begingroup$ Concorde was louder than a 0.9 aircraft when it was subsonic!. The sonic boom is at 0:58 in the same video. $\endgroup$ – Simon May 14 '17 at 7:23
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    $\begingroup$ @Simon yes but that's take off. I'm wondering how loud it was in-flight. $\endgroup$ – JonathanReez May 14 '17 at 7:42
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    $\begingroup$ @mins please don't answer questions in a comment $\endgroup$ – expeditedescent May 14 '17 at 10:26
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    $\begingroup$ Anecdotally: I remember visiting Hampton Court Palace as a child on a school trip, which was right below concorde's flight path (into heathrow I suspect). The tour guide had to stop her blurb for a good 90 seconds whilst it flew overhead. That was so far from supersonic, but it was still the loudest thing short of a Vulcan bomber I remember aviation-wise. $\endgroup$ – Jamiec♦ May 14 '17 at 12:26