[EnjoyingLife]

Do you think that certain nations in the East China Sea region, you know the the ones that have difficulties with the United States of America, took note of the F/A-18's flyby on September 11, 2006?

[Ken522]

What is that cloud around the aircraft? Is there a name for that phenomena?

[sleddogs]

Yeah, going supersonic, or breaking the sound barrier.

[brothers4thID]

Something about compression velocity as they break the sound barrier coalesces the water vapor nearby. Yeah, I'm no engineer and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express either.

[Alice in Wonderland]

Here's another great photo:

[Moonman62]

Neither one of those photos look right.

[kstewskis]

oooooooooooooooooooh ping!

[metmom]

ping

[EBH]

bookmark

[Doogle]

here ya go....a f-14 breaking the barrier between two navy ships.....(note the the water under the plane on approach)
I get a kick out of the commentary and the crew's laughing


http://www.galleryoffluidmechanics.com/shocks/sfb.htm


Doogle

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I actually saw this condensation cloud form briefly on a Blue Angels F/A 18 during the San Francisco Fleet Week air show last month. One of the jets was coming in over the Golden Gate bridge and the cloud formed -- and was gone in a half second or less. I had no idea the jets were that close to transonic speeds. It was incredible to see.

[Doogle]

...and for the Hornet groupies here's a youtube Willow Grove vid thats about 9 mins long

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8WG5ZkQsIs

Enjoy

[VOA]

amazing photos bump

[VOA]

bump

[EnjoyingLife]

10 September 2005, Freedom Through Friendship Air Show, Osan Air Base, Korea: United States Marine Corps (USMC) F/A-18C Hornet jet fighter assigned to the Strike Fighter Squadron One Nine Five (VFA-195) at Naval Air Station Atsugi, Japan. Image ID: DFSD0602979, 050910-F-4707M-142

Photographer
Tech. Sgt. Raheem Moore, United States Air Force, http://www.af.mil

Links
http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/2006/Air_Force/DF-SD-06-02979.JPEG (big image)
http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/DefenseLINK_Search/Still_Details.cfm?SDAN=DFSD0602979&JPGPath=/Assets/2006/Air_Force/DF-SD-06-02979.JPG (source)
http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20061112.htm (above smaller image -- #8, ALT text)

[EnjoyingLife]

A post in Slashdot's discussion regarding the Prandtl-Glauert Condensation Cloud phenomena ("The Beauty of Fluid Mechanics in Video and Photos", 20 November 2006, http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/20/1456204) brought up questions that frankly I hadn't considered before. Any thoughts on the matter?

"From a tactical standpoint isn't it a major downside in air-to-air combat to have that giant cloud behind you? Wouldn't that completely block your rear view? Also, wouldn't it increase the aircraft's visual profile? What does this do to its radar profile?" Posted by Lord_Dweomer on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 01:53PM, #16918484, http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=207510&cid=16918484

[raygun]

cool thread

[shekkian]

keewwwwlllll

[Brad’s Gramma]

BTTT!!!

[rlmorel]

ping!!!!!

[EnjoyingLife]

051009-N-7559C-001 San Francisco, California, 9 October 2005: The Navy's Flight Demonstration team, the Blue Angels lead solo, performs the sneak pass, a maneuver that demonstrates the F/A-18 Hornet's ability to sneak into a target area undetected at speeds approaching 700 mph.

Photographer
Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Ryan Courtade, United States Navy

Links
http://www.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/051009-N-7559C-001.jpg (big image)
http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=34239 (source)