So you're cruising along in your F14 Tomcat after a hurry-up lunch of re-fried beans and a couple of burritos, when suddenly, it hits you in the guts like a Mike Tyson belt level reverse punch. You figure better out than in, roll slighty onto one cheek (hoping this doesn't overwhelm your oxygen system or stain your underwear) and cut loose.
Who knew a photographer would capture the moment on film?
Okay, so it's actually a picture of an F14's sonic boom. At sea level a plane must exceed 741 mph to break the sound barrier (the speed at which sound travels). The change in pressure as the plane outruns all of the pressure and sound waves in front of it is heard on the ground as an explosion or sonic boom. The pressure change condenses the water in the air as the jet passes these waves. Pretty interesting effect. If anyone's interested on how the photographer captured the picture, I can post same.
Through the viewfinder of his camera, Ensign John Gay could see the fighter
plane drop from the sky heading toward the port side of the aircraft carrier
Constellation. At 1,000 feet, the pilot drops the F/A-18C Hornet to increase
his speed to 750 mph, vapor flickering off the curved surfaces of the plane.
In the precise moment a cloud in the shape of a farm-fresh egg forms around
the Hornet 200 yards from the carrier, its engines rippling the Pacific
Ocean just 75 feet below, Gay hears an explosion and snaps his camera
shutter once.
"I clicked the same time I heard the boom, and I knew I had it", Gay said.
What he had was a technically meticulous depiction of the sound barrier
being broken July 7, 1999, somewhere on the Pacific between Hawaii and
Japan. Sports Illustrated, Brills Content, and Life ran the photo.
The photo took first prize in the science and technology division in the
World Press Photo 2000 contest, which drew more than 42,000 entries
worldwide.
"All of a sudden, in the last few days, I've been getting calls from
everywhere about it again. It's kind of neat," he said, in a telephone
interview from his station in Virginia Beach, VA.
A naval veteran of 12 years, Gay, 38, manages a crew of eight assigned to
take intelligence photographs from the high-tech belly of an F-14 Tomcat,
the fastest fighter in the U.S. Navy. In July, Gay had been part of a Joint
Task Force Exercise as the Constellation made its way to Japan.
Gay selected his Nikon 90 S, one of the five 35 mm cameras he owns. He set
his 80-300 mm zoom lens on 300 mm, set his shutter speed at 1/1000 of a
second with an aperture setting of F5.6. "I put it on full manual, focus and
exposure," Gay said. "I tell young photographers who are into automatic
everything, you aren't going to get that shot on auto. The plane is too
fast. The camera can't keep up."
At sea level a plane must exceed 741 mph to break the sound barrier, or the
speed at which sound travels. The change in pressure as the plane outruns
all of the pressure and sound waves in front of it is heard on the ground as
an explosion or sonic boom. The pressure change condenses the water in the
air as the jet passes these waves.
Altitude, wind speed, humidity, the shape and trajectory of the plane - all
of these affect the breaking of this barrier. The slightest drag or
atmospheric pull on the plane shatters the vapor oval like fireworks as the
plane passes through, he said everything on July 7 was perfect.
"You see this vapor flicker around the plane that gets bigger and bigger.
You get this loud boom, and it's instantaneous. The vapor cloud is there,
and then it's not there. It's the coolest thing you have ever seen."
Hey Mac, I ran this information through one my "consultants" and here are his comments and some more pics.This was a good test for him; it tells me what he's learning! :lol:
Yeah, it's true for the most part, I don't know how accurate the "outruns all of the pressure and sound waves" is though. Basically, when the fluid crosses the shock, pressure drops drastically, causing the boom and the condensation. I don't think it's just when it passes through the sound barrier though, anytime the plane is going faster than the speed of sound there is going to be a sonic boom, and the condensation (if the conditions are right). It just travels along with the plane, but if you're standing still, it just sounds like one boom when it flies by. Here's some more pictures like this one ... http://www.efluids.com/efluids/gallery/saab37.htmhttp://www.efluids.com/efluids/gallery/phantom.htm
Hey Mac, I ran this information through one my "consultants" and here are his comments and some more pics.This was a good test for him; it tells me what he's learning!
And how is your son doing? Today was my son's 11th birthday, so I have a few more years before I get to brag about him as much!!
Hey Mac, I ran this information through one my "consultants" and here are his comments and some more pics.This was a good test for him; it tells me what he's learning! And how is your son doing? Today was my son's 11th birthday, so I have a few more years before I get to brag about him as much!!
Mac, hope your son has a great 11th birthday, he has a long road ahead of him! :steering: My son is twice as old at 22. He recently finished his first semester of graduate school and came home for Christmas break. Two weeks ago, he went for a job interview with NLX Corp, which manufactures flight simulators.
They offered him a full time job with all the bells and whistles, which was to start on January 13th, at a starting pay of $56K a year! :smash: Not too bad for a "kid".
The "bad" news is that he turned it down and went back to grad school last week! :cry :cry I thought I was financially off the hook, but it's up to him. Raising kids is a big responsibility; you can never let your guard down for a second. :cheers:
Passing up a 56k a year job is hard thing but I think he made the right decision.I work full time for a airline and it has gone to hell here.Im getting out of there as fast as I can. :banghead:
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