Kevin Farnell
Honorary Member Of Forums4airports
They must have permission to break the sound barrier over land (I'm not sure how far up the chain of command it has to go), but intercepting a 'rogue' aircraft would certainly be valid.At least we have an air force willing to create a sonic boom over land to keep us safe and I am certain residents of East Anglia know about such movements.
Here in south Cambridgeshire we get a lot of aircraft from RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall. Mostly F15 Eagles, OV-22 Ospreys, KC-135's, C17 Globemaster's, C5 Galaxy's and of course C130 Hercules.
With Duxford just down the road, most years we see a plethora of vintage aircraft and even his year, I've seen Spitfire's and Harvard/Texans. The last one is a really noisy aircraft, as it's believed that the prop tips break the sound barrier creating a continuous sonic boom.
Sorry for the thread drift.
Kevin