Following up on a previous Boing Boing post, reader Ben Wheeler says,
Sonic booms were used by the US against Nicaragua in the 80s, to scare the population and erode support of the Sandanistas. My friend Camilo, whose parents were activists (father was tortured by the Contras), grew up in Managua and remembers hiding under his bed at night, quaking in fear from US Blackbird planes producing sonic booms over the capital. Years later, our college class had its senior ball on the Intrepid aircraft carrier in NYC, and Camilo refused to party alongside the same Blackbirds that terrorized him in his youth. Link to International Court of Justice claim from 1986 dealing with this and other violations by the US government.
And reader "loraksus" says,
I was discussing the sonic boom post from a couple of days ago with a few people and they were under the impression that a sonic boom would only cause minor property damage. Not so.
On August 6th, 1969, Captain Vince Donile broke the sound barrier over downtown Kelowna, British Columbia, and blew out nearly every window for about 8 blocks – or as BlueAngels.com diplomatically puts it – the majority of the windows in the area parted company with their frames.
The damage was totaled at over a quarter million (1969) dollars and several people were hospitalized for injuries caused by flying glass. A short video showing the aftermath is available at this link – sadly, no video footage exists of the event as it occurred during a practice run.
Here's a related item today on Noah Shachtman's Defensetech blog: Sonic Booms Redux.
Previously:
Israel using sonic booms of jets as "nonlethal weapon" in Gaza
