fighter jets several times a day What's up?

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I live 100 miles north of Wash DC. every evening about sun set 2 fighter jets head due north or due south, very low and rather loud. Occasionally so low, I can smell the exhaust a few minutes after they passed. This past week they have been coming over two at a time in pairs an hour apart in the after noon. So low the house rattles. I am used to them flying high at sunset, but this low roar stuff is getting to me.

[Brett Luna]

I'm retired USAF and live near a combined USAF/Army base, so this sort of thing is old hat to me. Operational exercises almost always mean more missions, extended hours, loud/unusual noises etc. We get jets, helicopters, artillery fire, and more. If it is an exercise, my guess is that things should return to normal soon. Try to be patient and enjoy the "sound of freedom."

Another idea: if you can identify the aircraft, it might help figure out where they are based. You could then voice your concerns about the low overflights to their public affairs office.

[Wade Lippman]

I worked on an archaeological dig in northern Israel in 1974. Every day jets would head out to Syria. Wasn't sure if that should make us more or less secure; but the flights never made the news.
Oddly, we never saw them come back.

[Bill Dufour]

Maybe they are practicing so they can be ready for trumps parade when he tweets he wants one now.
Bill D.

[roger wiegand]

When I lived in St. Louis we had the air national guard low over our house every Saturday morning. They used to fly along the bluff of the Missouri river flood plain. Good to get you up and going on a Saturday morning!

[Kim Gibbens]

Life is kind of interesting now and then, we live in a flight path to the bombing range north of us. I've been to 2 public displays at the bombing range and I highly recommend one if you ever get the chance. Very impressive.

[Bill Dufour]

In the spring time I see the fire planes practicing touch and goes. Mostly just the twin engine ones. Local small airport moves tower guys to the mountain airport as needed during the season.
Bil lD

[Jim Barkelew]

I would guess that there are more flights now due to budget increases. More money for taining.
When I'm in the shop and hear a rumble I go out and take a look. I don't mind the sound at all.
In the 60's I remember hearing sonic booms regularly, very distinctive sound.
In the 70's I lived off the end of a B52 airbase. They would pracitce scramble takeoffs where a plane left every 15(?) seconds. That was noise.

[Curt Harms]

I wonder if you're under one of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_training_route

[Larry Frank]

Growing up, I lived outside Omaha, Nebraska and not far from the SAC Base (Strategic Air Command). It got really noisy at times.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

Send them down my way. I enjoy watching jets fly over. Have ever since I was a kid and my dad used to take me to the airport to watch.

[Alan Rutherford]

If you watched the news this morning, you can understand why the military might have been on a higher alert status, even domestically.

When I was in the AF a very long time ago, I was an "Intercept Director" which meant I sat in front of a computerized display and told fighter-interceptors where to go. Their job was to shoot down bombers if any. Fortunately there never were (this was in the continental US) but they trained a lot. Radar coverage was poor, the computerized integrated displays were worse, and the average controller had no clue how the display he saw related to the real world. Among other things, the displays had extremely little information about population centers and terrain elevations. The best part of my job was the chance to go for back-seat rides in jet trainers and call it cross-training. It was eye-opening to be able to translate the very plain 2-dimensional world I worked in to the 3-dimensional space in which the pilots flew and the areas they flew over. The technology is better now - the technology in your laptop is probably better than what we had - but the aircraft are just as loud or louder and good controllers are probably just as hard to find.

I should add that any military aircraft low enough to notice are undoubtedly under FAA control, or at least coordination, unless they are in a published designated airspace or are controlled by a nearby military base.

[Dave Richards]

We were in the DC area the week after Easter. Friday morning of that week I saw several dozen jets going over at high altitude. They were flying from generally ENE to WSW all on a parallel. They weren't in formation but they weren't very far apart. I'm guessing it was military traffic but I couldn't see the planes well enough to tell what they were. Being from the Midwest where we don't have a lot that sort of traffic, it was interesting to watch. Of course they were too high to hear over the ambient noise.

[Bill Jobe]

I live within 15 miles of a nuclear power station. Several days after 9/11 a single fighter flew over the house at perhaps less than 500 feet moving in the exact direction of the nuke plant. Very unsettling.

[Bert Kemp]

Don't complain, thats the sound of Freedom your hearing:)

[Matt Day]

Buddy of mine was captain in the Marines and flew Hornets. Training missions were always done in pairs, even take off and landings. They had certain routes around the country they’d fly on a routine basis. Maybe this time of year is when they’re doing these missions more frequently.