Okay, I'm not 100% positive where this should go, but I'm trying it here. What sound, in YOUR mind, does a jet make as it flies overhead? It's a military jet, at a low altitude (it's about to drop bombs - insert eminem reference here). I just keep thinking the whomp, whomp sound of a helicopter, but obviously, that's not what I need.
Phased high pass filtered white noise. At least that's what I would do if I wanted to create the sound of a jet using a synthesiser. And that's how I would think of it in my mind. I am very much biased. Perhaps your MC could be sat next to Wendy Carlos on the plane, and get that as an explanation.
That would be really hard to fit into the sentence "Two hours into the evacuation, I heard the first thundering neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow of a jet.
I once saw the sound of a jet described as being like an enormous sheet of paper being ripped in two. A bit weird maybe, but I thought it was a pretty apt description.
Well personally I think it's perfect. On a serious note... I don't think you need another word. "I heard the first thundering of a jet." works just fine for me. Edit: Oh I changed my mind, @Robert Musil's suggestion is perfect.
I heard the deafening wail of a jet? Eliminate the 'first', since it really doesn't matter if it was the first, does it?
But he keeps on spaghetti, what he wrote down The whole crowd goes spaghetti He opens his mouth but spaghetti won't come out He's choking now, everybody's joking now Spaghetti's run out Snap back to spaghetti, oh there goes spaghetti He's so mad but he won't give up spaghetti He won't have it, he knows he keeps on forgetting that Mom's Spaghetti's dope He knows that but he's broke He's so sad that he knows when he goes back to his Mom's Spaghetti That's when it's back to the lab again, yo This whole spaghetti Better go capture spaghetti and hope it don't pass him You better lose yourself in Mom's Spaghetti, it's ready You better never let it go You only get one spaghetti, do not miss your chance to blow Because SPAGHETTI comes once in a lifetime, yo! (Repeat chorus) On a serious note, @Tenderiser said what I came here to say. In other words, I never had any intention of being serious. Sorry. At least you got Mom's Spaghetti. You better never let it go.
A jet starts of as a distant rolling thunder that keeps going, and when it gets louder you start to hear the higher pitches turning into a rough whoosh along with the bone-jarring rumble as it goes past, that turns back into rolling thunder. but at bomb dropping height, all you'd hear is thunder.
Two hours into the evacuation, I began to feel the distant rumbling of of our ticket home. Within seconds the jet screamed overhead, the back draft itself almost lifting us skyward.... also....I will not sleep now trying to put this sound into words.....
Depends on what kind of jet. Some make more of a roar, a high-pitched whistling, or a combination of two. Unless you are in a super or hypersonic aircraft (not recommended for dropping bombs at these higher speeds) would be a sonic boom. Listen to the sounds of different jet engines and find one you like, and try to describe it the best you can.
My reference point is the following; I live on the landing path of Davis Monthan Air Force Base. F-17s, A-10's, C-130s, C-17s, and other aircraft fly just above my house before landing on the runway not 3 football fields or so further from me. All day, every day. It is a deafening roar. The air shakes with the roar of the engines. When the F17s take off at combat speed, afterburners rip through the sky as though the jet is literally tearing the air in two. Just before landing I can hear the squeaks and whines of machinery in the flaps and wings. Whoops of sound come from every different aircraft. The larger C-17s take over the air with their engines. Now with the A-10, in combat, for sound.... watch videos. Its a rip and a roar.
There is a lot to consider in the sound. Such as who the observer is, are they standing under the jet about to get bombed, are they on a nearby hill watching this from afar, are they in the jet itself. Is the jet in a dive, or just a low pass? Is the jet a fighter jet equipped with a few ATG bombs, or is this a heavy bomber jet? There is a Massive difference between an f-15 dropping a few GBUs and a B-1 who is going to ruin your hillside. Also, subsonic or super sonic?
