By Beth Hale
It looks like a flight of fancy from the special effects department - a fighter aircraft slicing through a perfectly triangular cloud. Yet no trickery was involved in this photograph of a U.S. Navy Super Hornet. The cloud is known as a shock collar or vapour cone, created in certain atmospheric conditions at high speeds.
The £35million plane was travelling at about 570mph when the blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment was captured on camera at the Jones Beach Air Show in Wantagh, New York. Super Hornets have been used by the US Navy since 1999. This plane was in flown by Pilot Lt. Justin Halligan and Lt Michael Witt.
Paul Jackson, editor of Jane's All the World's Aircraft, said the vapour cone effect was caused by pressure differences around the aircraft. A sudden drop in pressure associated with high speed allows water vapour, which is normally invisible, to condense as fog.
The shape of the Super Hornet, which can travel at up to 1,370mph - 1.8 times the speed of sound - encourages the cone to form. These condensation clouds are frequently seen during Space Shuttle launches but their precise nature is still under debate. Mr Jackson said similar effects sometimes allowed passengers to see clouds around an airliner's wing tips or even in a corkscrew ahead of a plane with a propeller.
'In faster aircraft the way the fuselage is designed does cause these changes in air pressure that give a characteristic cone shape,' he said. 'For aerodynamic reasons the Super Hornet is especially good at producing these cones.' He added that as a plane changed speed, and went beyond the speed of sound, it was possible for the position of the cone around the plane to move.
It looks like a flight of fancy from the special effects department - a fighter aircraft slicing through a perfectly triangular cloud. Yet no trickery was involved in this photograph of a U.S. Navy Super Hornet. The cloud is known as a shock collar or vapour cone, created in certain atmospheric conditions at high speeds.
Plane amazing: This awe-inspiring image shows a U.S. Super Hornet while performing at New York Air Show
The £35million plane was travelling at about 570mph when the blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment was captured on camera at the Jones Beach Air Show in Wantagh, New York. Super Hornets have been used by the US Navy since 1999. This plane was in flown by Pilot Lt. Justin Halligan and Lt Michael Witt.
Paul Jackson, editor of Jane's All the World's Aircraft, said the vapour cone effect was caused by pressure differences around the aircraft. A sudden drop in pressure associated with high speed allows water vapour, which is normally invisible, to condense as fog.
Lieutenant Ron Candiloro creates a beautiful cloud as he flies an F/A-18 'Hornet' above the USS Constellation
The Atlantis shuttle creates a vapour cloud as it lifts-off from Earth
The shape of the Super Hornet, which can travel at up to 1,370mph - 1.8 times the speed of sound - encourages the cone to form. These condensation clouds are frequently seen during Space Shuttle launches but their precise nature is still under debate. Mr Jackson said similar effects sometimes allowed passengers to see clouds around an airliner's wing tips or even in a corkscrew ahead of a plane with a propeller.
'In faster aircraft the way the fuselage is designed does cause these changes in air pressure that give a characteristic cone shape,' he said. 'For aerodynamic reasons the Super Hornet is especially good at producing these cones.' He added that as a plane changed speed, and went beyond the speed of sound, it was possible for the position of the cone around the plane to move.
A B-2 Spirit Bomber reaches a high subsonic speed during a flight over Palmdale, near Los Angeles
[...] here: Amazing pictures of vapour cone as fighter jet cuts through the sky Tags: amazing, bigtha-tryphena, boutique-jeanny, cone, download, eveline, eveline-rose, events, [...]
ReplyDelete