Vapour cones don't occur over a split-second, they happen during transonic flight which is a range rather than an instantaneous event. If the aircraft remains in that range the cone will persist.
What a coincidence this was posted on the 67th anniversary of Yeager breaking the sound barrier.
Copious amounts of imaginary Beeman's have been chewed while I watched The Right Stuff tonight
In all my years I've never seen the like. It has to be more than a hundred sea miles and he brings us up on his tail. That's seamanship, Mr. Pullings. My God, that's seamanship!
Yeah, that's not breaking the sound barrier, that's just getting close to it. I think the aircraft would have to pass through the cloud, which is the shock wave, to actually go supersonic.
I took this picture at an air show and it was definitely not going supersonic:
Ken Cartwright
No single drop of rain feels it is responsible for the flood.
Vapour cones are a function of local flow speed and humidity - they will appear before the aircraft as a whole reaches sonic speed - usually around M=0.8-0.9, where small shocks that begin to appear on the aircraft trigger the singularity.
These do NOT mean that the aircraft has just passed through Mach 1. It does, however, look cool.
this article is going around Facebook too, pathetic media not knowing what they're talking about. On the Fox page that host this article, 2 SH pilots from Oceana replied back. It's amazing how many people just believe what they read...
National Geographic has also posted 25 tips for air to air photography, then they post a Caravan with it's prop dead stopped...
Vapour cones are a function of local flow speed and humidity - they will appear before the aircraft as a whole reaches sonic speed - usually around M=0.8-0.9, where small shocks that begin to appear on the aircraft trigger the singularity.
These do NOT mean that the aircraft has just passed through Mach 1. It does, however, look cool.
One of the Hornet pilots that flew this years Navy flight said they usually fly at .97 for the sneak pass but being the cocky pilots they are, they'll push it sometimes to .99 A Demo pilot back in the last 90's said he flew at Nellis for an anniversary for the Thunderbirds and had to rock the house at .99
Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 24,712Dart
Measured in Llamathrusts
Dart
Measured in Llamathrusts
Lifer
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 24,712
Alabaster, AL USA
It's a myth, like the Moon "landings."
Anybody with a brain can see all the "supersonic" propaganda is baloney. For instance, the "pilots" who are "flying" at "faster than the speed of sound" are also supposed to be speaking into radios while they are doing it. Riddle me this, fakers: how can we hear the pilot's voice in real time if he's going faster than the sound itself? The microphones are always in front of the pilot's mouth, and there's no way the sound could reach it since it is going faster than the sound the pilot is allegedly producing.
The opinions of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Dave, that Nat Geo pic is embarrassing! I can't believe they'd even put that out there.
it was so funny reading the posts from these really good photogs just going after them for the specs he took on this shot. They need to stick to their nature shots...
And flawless argumentation by dart, I mean.. what more evidence do you need for the fact that us jets are actually run with allien mind control tech from roswell. Oooh I see black helos outside.... ;=)
Total failure on the part of that website for their subtitle. If you read the quotes from the photographer, he never says anything about jet breaking the sound barrier. Hopefully it was just the article writer's mistake and not his as well.
It's also funny that the article implies that the jet broke the sound barrier at the air show, which I would imagine would result in some very unhappy attendees.
PS - I'm 10 miles away from my wife as I post this, but I'm pretty sure her nerd-dar just picked up some strong signals. I'm sure she's rolling her eyes right now.
In a very nasally voice as I press on the bridge of my glasses "Well, actually, you see - while the jet is getting close to the sound barrier it isn't actually breaking the sound barrier. The visible moisture you see is a combination of many factors including humidity levels..."