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> Are people forgetting about how incredibly loud is a sonic boom?

Is it? I lived in Kansas in the 1960s. Sonic booms from the AF base were common. They weren't that loud. Electric storms (a regular in Kansas) were considerably louder.

> The Concorde burned fuel (passenger miles per liter) at roughly twice the rate of non-supersonic aeroplanes.

5-7 times as much.

My dad said when he pushed his jet supersonic, you could watch the gas gauge unwind.

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> My dad said when he pushed his jet supersonic, you could watch the gas gauge unwind.

Did your dad fly military jets? Most older jets can't supercruise, i.e. go supersonic without using afterburners, and afterburners consume unholy amounts of fuel. Concorde did consume quite a lot of fuel per passenger mile, but it could supercruise.

Yup, military fighters.

Also, sonic booms are awesome. I don’t know that I want to hear them every 15 minutes, but they are cool.

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