Boing Boing: Shuttle makes spooky-cool Prandtl-Glauert condensation cloud

Boing Boing ^ | July 27, 2005 | Xeni Jardin

[EnjoyingLife]

Reports say Space Shuttle Discovery's July 25 liftoff generated a Prandtl-Glauert condensation cloud (the mysterious "now-you-see-it-now-you-don't" formations sometimes observed in relation to jets in transonic flight).

Link: http://www.BoingBoing.net/2005/07/27/shuttle_makes_spooky.html

[EnjoyingLife]

Alas, as an example of a Prandtl-Glauert cloud the blog posting uses a photo of-of-of an F-18A "Hornet"! Oh my F-14! my F-14 "Tomcat"! are you forgotten so soon? Must photos (and they are so cool) of the fearsome "Hornet" now take first place? Won't you make a dramatic comeback for one more decade? Just ten more years of defending and protecting U.S. interests--of flying alongside the shuttle--then you can think of retiring? One more opportunity for a photo shoot of you making those rightly called "now-you-see-it-now-you-don't" transonic clouds, so that in future shuttle articles your presence will at least be considered? Oh my F-14! my F-14! you are retiring, but not in shame. For you and the near-retirement NASA shuttle fleet--no, it's the People of the United States' shuttle fleet--are serving and will have served with distinction, sometimes in very difficult and painful times, the United States of America.

Dr. Mark S. Cramer's Prandtl-Glauert condensation cloud tutorial
http://fluidmech.net/tutorials/sonic/prandtl-glauert-clouds.htm

Photo of an F-14 "Tomcat" making a scary Prandtl-Glauert cloud
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1294939/posts

Video of an F-14 generating a Prandtl-Glauert cloud
http://www.galleryoffluidmechanics.com/conden/mpegf14.htm

[BipolarBob]

BTTT

[EnjoyingLife]

The link referenced by Xeni Jardin's Boing Boing article, http://linkfilter.net/?id=90041, now has a video link showing a very clear view of the shuttle's "spooky-cool Prandtl-Glauert condensation cloud". Though hosted elsewhere, it appears to be a NASA video.