Enjoying the JourneySupersonic Clouds - Wow
September 14th 2008 13:03
Supersonic Clouds
Did you know that when a jet plane breaks the sound barrier it is instantly surrounded by a sort of halo cloud? I am not sure if I am the only one that doesn’t know this. I am very into trivia and trivial things, and have never come across this fact before. The only reason I now know is because once again I was roaming around the internet in the middle of the night. Did you know they keep it open 24 hours a day, and don’t even close for Christmas? Anyway, I came across some more cool pictures. These were (shh, don’t guess, it might ruin it for everyone else). . . pictures of fighter jets breaking the sound barrier.
With my naturally inquisitive mind I said, “Well that looks really cool. I wonder what causes that?” Of course at this point I went searching, only this time with a purpose. So here are some details and definitions I found about the pictures I will be sharing in a moment.
If I try to reword this I am sure I will get something twisted around, so instead I would like to thank Wikipedia for the following:
“In aerodynamics, the sound barrier usually refers to the point at which an aircraft moves from transonic to supersonic speed. The term came into use during World War II when a number of aircraft started to encounter the effects of compressibility, a grab-bag of unrelated aerodynamic effects. The term fell out of use in the 1950s when aircraft started to routinely "break" the sound barrier.”
Our friends at Wikipedia also define the “speed of sound” as:
“Sound is a vibration that travels through an elastic medium as a wave. The speed of sound describes how much distance such a wave travels in a certain amount of time. In SI Units with dry air at 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound is 343 m/s. This also equates to 1235 km/h, 767 mph, 1129 ft/s. At such speeds, sound can travel a mile in approximately five seconds. Although it is commonly used to refer specifically to air, the speed of sound can be measured in virtually any substance. Sound travels faster in liquids and non-porous solids than it does in air.”
Wow 767 mph, now that is fast.
It seems the halo cloud that forms is caused by condensed water droplets which are thought to result in a drop in air pressure around the aircraft. This process is called the Prandtl-Glauert singularity. Don’t worry this is getting to technical for me too. Rather then copy Wikipedia’s explanation of the singularity I will simply link to it here for anyone who wants to go and read it. Click here for info on the Prandtl-Glauert singularity.
Now back to the non-technical stuff. This halo that it makes looks really cool. (Hey, I warned you it wasn’t technical.) Here are the rest of the pics, let me know what you think.
While loading all these images I wondered what the Space Shuttle looked like as it broke through. I went and found a couple pics, but it wasn't nearly as good as I was expecting.
Did you know that when a jet plane breaks the sound barrier it is instantly surrounded by a sort of halo cloud? I am not sure if I am the only one that doesn’t know this. I am very into trivia and trivial things, and have never come across this fact before. The only reason I now know is because once again I was roaming around the internet in the middle of the night. Did you know they keep it open 24 hours a day, and don’t even close for Christmas? Anyway, I came across some more cool pictures. These were (shh, don’t guess, it might ruin it for everyone else). . . pictures of fighter jets breaking the sound barrier.
With my naturally inquisitive mind I said, “Well that looks really cool. I wonder what causes that?” Of course at this point I went searching, only this time with a purpose. So here are some details and definitions I found about the pictures I will be sharing in a moment.
If I try to reword this I am sure I will get something twisted around, so instead I would like to thank Wikipedia for the following:
“In aerodynamics, the sound barrier usually refers to the point at which an aircraft moves from transonic to supersonic speed. The term came into use during World War II when a number of aircraft started to encounter the effects of compressibility, a grab-bag of unrelated aerodynamic effects. The term fell out of use in the 1950s when aircraft started to routinely "break" the sound barrier.”
Our friends at Wikipedia also define the “speed of sound” as:
“Sound is a vibration that travels through an elastic medium as a wave. The speed of sound describes how much distance such a wave travels in a certain amount of time. In SI Units with dry air at 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound is 343 m/s. This also equates to 1235 km/h, 767 mph, 1129 ft/s. At such speeds, sound can travel a mile in approximately five seconds. Although it is commonly used to refer specifically to air, the speed of sound can be measured in virtually any substance. Sound travels faster in liquids and non-porous solids than it does in air.”
Wow 767 mph, now that is fast.
It seems the halo cloud that forms is caused by condensed water droplets which are thought to result in a drop in air pressure around the aircraft. This process is called the Prandtl-Glauert singularity. Don’t worry this is getting to technical for me too. Rather then copy Wikipedia’s explanation of the singularity I will simply link to it here for anyone who wants to go and read it. Click here for info on the Prandtl-Glauert singularity.
Now back to the non-technical stuff. This halo that it makes looks really cool. (Hey, I warned you it wasn’t technical.) Here are the rest of the pics, let me know what you think.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet
F/A-18 Hornet
A B-1 Lancer
An F/A-18F Super Hornet
An F/A-18F Super Hornet
An F/A-18C Hornet
An F-14B Tomcat
An F-14B Tomcat
F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
Apollo 11 breaking sound barrier. Rockets do it too.
While loading all these images I wondered what the Space Shuttle looked like as it broke through. I went and found a couple pics, but it wasn't nearly as good as I was expecting.
Space Shuttle Atlantis breaking sound barrier
Space Shuttle breaking sound barrier
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