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I grew up watching movies that depict the sound of a bomb dropping overhead like this:

Feeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww

Is that for real? I have never heard a bomb dropping over my head. Just curious how it would sound in real life.

Jamiec
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  • it would depend on the bomb design and its aerodynamic properties, and whether it is self powered – ratchet freak Oct 18 '13 at 08:22
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    See also [Sound frequency of dropping bomb on Physics.SE](http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31709/sound-frequency-of-dropping-bomb) – ChrisW Oct 18 '13 at 09:14
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    Also: [Did World War II-era bombs actually whistle?](http://history.stackexchange.com/a/2689/767) –  Oct 18 '13 at 17:22
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    Suggest migration to History and close as duplicate. – DJClayworth Oct 18 '13 at 19:29
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    A question already answering this exists on the History site. – DJClayworth Oct 18 '13 at 19:29
  • Are you sure it's not the bomb but the plane? German Stuka divebombers used to be equiped with horns to scare the people on the ground. : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCB8ZVxKqyI – Pieter B Oct 18 '13 at 19:37
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    Some bombs were *designed* to whistle; it scared the shit out of those being bombed. So a good answer would classify and explain whether whistles were common. – matt_black Oct 20 '13 at 22:53
  • I don't know the answer to this question, but I know something about a related question. The violinist Fritz Kreisler served in the infantry during the 1st World War. Happily for all of us, he returned unharmed. When he was first at the front he discovered that he could calibrate the distances that artillery shells would travel by hearing their pitch. He used this on at least one occasion to help target an artillery attack. However, it apparently didn't scale to the entire battlefield, as the Austrian army was short of Violin soloists in the infantry. The account of this is in his autobiograph – Vilcxjo Oct 23 '13 at 18:27

1 Answers1

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This depends on the design of the bomb. Some bombs made whistling sounds, as explained in this answer on the History site.

Another famous bomb was the so-called "Buzzbomb", aka V-1 rocket, used by the Nazis, primarily against Great Britian during WW II. It didn't whistle, but did make a loud buzzing noise.

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Flimzy
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