The XF-84H Thunderscreech
First taking flight in 1955, The XF-84H was quite possibly the loudest aircraft ever built (rivaled only by the Russian Tupolev Tu-95 “Bear” bomber), earning the nickname “Thunderscreech” as well as the “Mighty Ear Banger”. On the ground “run ups”, the prototypes could reportedly be heard 25 miles (40 km) away.
Unlike standard propellers that turn at subsonic speeds, the outer 24–30 inches (61–76 cm) of the blades on the XF-84H’s propeller traveled faster than the speed of sound even at idle thrust, producing a continuous visible sonic boom that radiated laterally from the propellers for hundreds of yards. The shock wave was actually powerful enough to knock a man down; an unfortunate crew chief who was inside a nearby C-47 was severely incapacitated during a 30-minute ground run. Coupled with the already considerable noise from the subsonic aspect of the propeller and the dual turbines, the aircraft was notorious for inducing severe nausea and headaches among ground crews.
In one report, a Republic engineer suffered a seizure after close range exposure to the shock waves emanating from a powered-up XF-84H.
Nevertheless, the aircraft was abandoned due to teething aerodynamic deficiencies which led to prototype FS-059 being put on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, while prototype FS-060 presumably being scrapped.
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