Anyone have a Snopes link debunking the pictures of aircraft breaking the sound barrier with visible shockwaves?
I don’t know if it’s on their main site, but here’s a message board thread on the subject.
I don’t know about jets, but I attended a seminar a couple of months ago by the guys who developed the airplane-mounted cameras which now monitor every shuttle launch from two directions. The seminar was about some of the technological hoops they had to jump through in order to be able to get high-definition, high frame-rate video on a rapidly-moving shuttle from two rapidly-moving airplanes. It was incredible. They showed us two or three dry runs, and then an actual launch. During the launch, one can easily see shock waves forming at the noses of the boosters, the tank, and the shuttle itself as the shuttle passes through the sound barrier. The engineers specifically pointed these out during the presentation, and mentioned that the footage had been turned over to several university physics departments for study, since the frame rate was so high that it enabled detailed study of the phenomenon.
Fantastic footage. I wish I could find it on the web.
Thanks, Earl!
No debunking in that link. I never heard anything stating its false.
Here is a site that explains the whole thing, and contains this quote:
I have actual photos of the sound barrier, she is gorgeous but doesn’t hear a thing I say.
Ooops wrong sound barrier.