Supersonic!
By Wyatt Earp | July 1, 2009
The Air Force just released this photo of an F-22 Raptor going supersonic during a fly-by. This, my friends, is coolness personified.
The breaking of the sound barrier is not just an audible phenomenon. As a new picture from the U.S. military shows, Mach 1 can be quite visual.
This widely circulated new photo shows a Air Force F-22 Raptor aircraft participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Alaska June 22, 2009 as it executes a supersonic flyby over the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.
Here’s what scientists think happens:
A layer of water droplets gets trapped between two high-pressure surfaces of air. In humid conditions, condensation can gather in the trough between two crests of the sound waves produced by the jet. This effect does not necessarily coincide with the breaking of the sound barrier, although it can. (H/T – LiveScience)
Let’s see the Iranians make a better one of those.
Sadly, President Obama wants to do away with the F-22, so images like these will be harder to come by.
Topics: Coolness!, The Troops | 6 Comments »
July 1st, 2009 at 12:14 am
Well of COURSE he wants to get rid of the F-22. It’s so AGGRESSIVE and unfriendly… We’re using the money we save to hire more staff at the UN. THAT’s how you stop international conflict, not by blowing stuff up you wingnut.
July 1st, 2009 at 1:43 am
This is the latest news…
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24219.html
To end production is just plain stupid.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:47 am
Obamas air force will consist of those little single engine pipers and cessnas,to pull those banners around,with info on them as to where to turn in your guns,find govt health clinics,and promote his other wonderful programs of “Hope & Change”,maybe an old DC-3 or two.so they can drop food and directions on how to open it,in the blighted urban areas. Those fighters are warming up the planet,all that burnt fuel shooting out the exhaust, the carbon tax would break the Armed Forces:)
July 1st, 2009 at 10:23 am
Well, they’ve already left Seattle.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Woody – Oh, how silly of me. I thought defense would be a priority.
Sully – And while we’re doing this, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are arming themselves. Good move, Obama!
Diller – It would be like “Wings.” Joe and Lowell can pilot the planes!
Doghouse – And never coming back.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:23 am
I’ve seen those condensation waves on a McDonnell-Douglas F-4J Phantom II and a Grumman F-14A Tomcat. It is pretty much as the engineers said. I talked to a fighter pilot once a long time ago on a deployment about it. He was an Aeronautical Engineer and a qualified Navy Test Pilot, by the way.
Close to the surface of the ocean, this happens and not necessarily at trans-sonic speeds. There is moisture in the air and it has to go someplace. Shock waves build up from the leading edges and nose cone of the airplane.
Even the A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair II could generate that effect in the right environmental circumstances.