# Sound barrier pictures **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 3, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-barrier-pictures/402566 "2007-05-03T02:30:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-barrier-pictures/402566/1 "2007-05-03T02:30:08Z")
Anyone have a Snopes link debunking the pictures of aircraft breaking the sound barrier with visible shockwaves? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-barrier-pictures/402566/2 "2007-05-03T03:16:00Z")
I don’t know if it’s on their main site, but [here’s a message board thread](http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/get_topic/f/109/t/000938/p/1.html) on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-barrier-pictures/402566/3 "2007-05-03T03:28:37Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-barrier-pictures/402566/4 "2007-05-03T03:31:21Z")
Thanks, Earl! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-barrier-pictures/402566/5 "2007-05-03T03:37:32Z")
No debunking in that link. I never heard anything stating its false. ---
**Author:** ![St\_Ides](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@St\_Ides](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St_Ides)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-barrier-pictures/402566/6 "2007-05-03T09:34:36Z")
[Here](http://www.fluidmech.net/tutorials/sonic/prandtl-glauert-clouds.htm) is a site that explains the whole thing, and contains this quote: > [@](#): > > Because these clouds tend to be seen when the aircraft flies at near-sonic speeds, it is frequently said that they “visualize shock waves” or are due to the aircraft “bursting through the sound barrier”. Neither statement is true, although the second at least suggests that the phenomena occurs in the near sonic or, in the language of aerodynamics, transonic, regime. ---
**Author:** ![GawnFishin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@GawnFishin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GawnFishin)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2007, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-barrier-pictures/402566/7 "2007-05-03T14:32:27Z")
I have actual photos of the sound barrier, she is gorgeous but doesn’t hear a thing I say. Ooops wrong sound barrier.