Breaking the Sound Barrier

[Sombeech]

Hey, I thought these pictures were kind of cool. These are shots of the moment when the sound barrier is broken.

I'm guessing it's the humidity in the air being compressed? :ne_nau:

There's a video out there too, we may even have it in the Misc Video section already of this happening. This will give us a break from brokeback. (a brokeback break)

[stefan]

Apparently, these condensation clouds don't necessarily form at the moment of passing through the speed of sound, but can occur a little bit above or below the speed of sound.

I read that the cloud is not directly related to the shock waves generated by the jet, except that the shock wave marks where the cloud ends, which should only occur during flight speeds where shocks are generated. otherwise that cool vertical cone looking shape becomes smeared out over the back of the plane, which maybe what is happening in the last image (F-14?)

here's a pretty cool movie. :popcorn:

http://www.galleryoffluidmechanics.com/conden/f14.mpeg

thanks for sharin'

stefan

[jumar]

That's awesome! :popcorn:

[Sombeech]

Yeah, that's the clip I've seen. Pretty cool. Thanks.

[Iceaxe]

:popcorn:

[DickHead]

in the last image (F-14?)

In order of posting:
B1
F/A 18
F/A 18
2 F/A 18's
F/A 18
F14

Yes, you were right.

[basilone0331]

:2thumbs: Sweet

[dbessee]

More cool aircraft and pictures of hypersonic vapor at:

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/index.html

Some wild aircraft here and some great shots taken from chase aircraft.