16 Photos Of Fighter Jets Breaking The Sound Barrier
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft. Fighters are small, fast, and maneuverable. Many fighter aircraft’s can travel with the speed of sound which creates sonic boom. The term sonic boom is commonly used to refer to the shocks caused by the supersonic flight of an aircraft.
When an aircraft breaks the sound barrier an incredible ‘vapor cone’ surrounds the aircraft. This effect is called Prandtl–Glauert singularity (sometimes referred to as a “vapor cone”), which is the point at which a sudden drop in air pressure occurs, and is generally accepted as the cause of the visible condensation cloud that often surrounds an aircraft traveling at transonic speeds.
Today we have gathered a collection of 16 fighter jets breaking the sound barrier and creating vapor cones around them. Enjoy these stunning photos of these flying machines.
* Photo sources and actual description of each photo is also given.
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1.
Off the coast of Pusan, South Korea: An F/A-18 Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron One Five One (VFA-151) breaks the sound barrier in the skies over the Pacific Ocean. VFA-151 is deployed aboard USS Constellation (CVN 64).
2.
Pat Maloney, an engineering planner, photographed an F-4 Phantom II at the mment it broke the sound barrier at the Annual Point Magu Naval Air Station Air Show.
3.
August 8, 2005—A U.S. Navy photographer with lightning-fast reflexes captured this image of a fighter plane blasting through a “sonic boom cloud” as the jet broke the sound barrier.
4.
F-15i breaking the sound barrier.
5.
U.S. Navy Capt. Norbert Smurf Szarleta breaks the sound barrier in an F/A-18F Super Hornet strike fighter during an air power demonstration aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington in the Atlantic Ocean, April 17, 2008.
6.
United States Fighter Jet from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 (VMFA-314), January 29, 2004, Pacific Ocean.
7.
F14-B Tomcat Fighter Jet, United States Navy, Mediterranean Sea, April 22, 2003.
8.
A F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet is pictured with a ring of water vapour around it as it comes within 200mph of breaking the sound barrier.
9.
This photo released by the US Navy shows an F-14D Tomcat making a near supersonic fly-by above the flight deck of USS Theodore Roosevelt in a July 28, 2006.
10.
Steve Roy captured this amazing shot in an air show with his Canon EOS 5D with 100-400L zoom.
11.
A US Marine Corps (USMC) F/A-18C, Strike Fighter Squadron 195 (VFA-195), Naval Air Station Atsugi, Japan, breaks the sound barrier during the Freedom through Friendship Air Show at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea.
12.
The shockwave from breaking the sound barrier follows an F/A-18 Superhornet during an airshow for the crew during the USS Ronald Reagan’s maiden deployment.
13.
Chuck Yeager, flying the Bell X-1, became the first man to travel faster than the speed of sound, he was flying at about 700 mph at an altitude of 43,000 feet — or Mach 1.06.
14.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft assigned to Carrier Air Wing Five breaks the sound barrier during an air-power demonstration practice aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) Sept. 11, 2006, which is under way in the East China Sea.
15.
An F/A-18C Hornet attached to the “Raging Bulls” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 37 punches through a cloud of water vapor while breaking the sound barrier during an air power demonstration on board the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS.
16.
An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to the “Diamondbacks” of Strike Fighter Squadron One Zero Two (VFA-102) completes a super-sonic flyby as part of an air power demonstration for visitors aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63), which is off the coast of Southern Japan.
Comments (91)
actually, the entire world uses nautical miles per hour (knots) for aviation. Dont be such a dick.
I use the metric system, but he still needs to qualify that. Imperial is stupid yes but is he talking kmph or m/sec?
flyer: fyi sound travels waaaaay slower than light. your argument is entirely invalid and irrelevant.
These replies just go to show the absolute stupidity of most Americans. Why don’t you do yourself a favour and open your eyes once in a while. Realise that there is a whole world out there beyond your cesspool of a cuntry. If you were anymore up your own arse you’d be inside out. You make the rest of the world ashamed to be human…
What does it matter what unit of measure they use? I thought the pictures were awesome enough without needing explanation of the speed of sound laws and differences between measurements in United States vs. the rest of the world. That’s just my two cents anyways.
As a former navy seal, your all a bunch of pussys
Why can’t we see photos of jet fighters simply breaking ?
How fast is sound in space?
Well am very impressed with these perfomances and i sincerely look foward to a day man kind would produce a space craft that can zoom same way the UFOs do, then we can reach their world and know what edxactly they are made of.Now this, is my concern
If you’re so “ashamed to be human” because of us, why don’t you go nuke yourselves and save us the trouble. The U.S. would be a a lot better off without you!
your two cents? are you talkin cents in terms of 1/100 of a euro, or 1/100 of a dollar?
This goes to show the ignorance of some obnoxious non-Americans. Comments like this bring you down to the level of those you seek to mock.
Anyone that’s been to the US knows that it’s quite a diverse place. Sure, there are some loudmouthed blind patriots, but there are plenty of good folks as well.
-A Canadian living in America.
you spelled favor wrong. :p
Any idiot can comment here.
Even me.
cheese compliments any food.
I’m not sure about the F/A-18 or F-4, but I do know for a fact that the F-15, fully loaded, can easily hit mach 2+ in level flight near sea level. Source: my brother was an F-15 crew chief in the Air Force. He said if it couldn’t hit over mach 3 clean and over mach 2 loaded, it wasn’t working right and needed to be fixed.
One other thing, the Air Force’s newest bird, the F-22, is designed for sustained mach 2+ flight. Yes, it super-cruises.
I like pictures.
these are not breaking the sound barrier
its caused by water in the air it happens to all planes, even the airlines when they have there flaps down coming into land…. idiots
I’m sorry, where are your supersonic fighter jets Raj? Hmmm? Oh thats right, the rest of the world lags behind the U.S. with military aviation, which is why they buy our stuff. Given the content of every single photo up there, I’d say you are a step out of line, don’t you think?
+100 points for Prandtl-Glauert and for good physics facts.
Get with the program yourself. Of course it needs to be qualified, regardless of anyone’s country of origin. Is he talking 343 m/s, km/s, mph, or even light-years? You can’t just throw a random number out there without giving some sort of context. If I said I would pay you 45 to do some work, you’d damn well want a qualifier there to make sure you weren’t being paid 45¢ for something that should pay $45.
Not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet or not in the comments, but these aircraft themselves are not actually flying faster than Mach 1.0. In many cases, their speed is in the Mach 0.92 region and are nowhere close to breaking the sound barrier. However, due to aerodynamics, there are numerous transonic shock waves on the aircraft, and given the right conditions of humidity and temperature, they become visible.
I have created very similar effects on a KC-135 even! That is far from a supersonic aircraft, but small areas (adding G-loading at high speeds) can make those shock waves.
I have a great picture of a B-1B doing the same thing. I should upload it!
And there are numerous aircraft capable of breaking the sound barrier at sea level, but for the most part they are not ALLOWED to do it. And just because it takes a moment for the sound to catch up (like in the F-14 video) is not breaking the sound barrier, just close to it. Sound travels slowly compared to light so you are just experiencing a very pronounced Doppler effect with the compression of waves prior to the aircraft’s arrival.
Man, I wish people would actually learn stuff instead of mindlessly repeating things they have only been told by non-experts…
Dumb American comments again. Melelin, you don’t realize that Americans are not a race?? dooH! go an watch some simpsons. bloody Americans your attitude makes you hated across most of the world. quicker you learn this the happier we will all be. donuts!
Well, given that a lot of those captions are wrong – especially the one about the X1 – that is NOT the x1, which was more of a rocket than a jet.
Also given that ‘military air technology’ in the right world isn’t really necessary.
“Doubtful. There are numerous reports of Mustangs, Spitfires, ME-262, and Komets breaking the barrier long before Yeager.”
Perhaps you could post some links to those “numerous reports”?
I had no idea prop aircraft were capable of supersonic flight….perhaps portions of the fuselage when hit by high explosives ?
Hmmm… yeah may have been a bit harsh. I have American relatives and have also lived in the states for 2 years. Known a lot of good’uns but from my experience most are obnoxious wankers lacking the intelligence of a door… like some on this page. Anyway whatever… these machines are still sweet.
In Australia (Canada and England too I think) We spell favor with an extra u. Color is also colour. Aluminum=Aluminium. Meter=Metre. Etc… etc… etc…
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WOW, awesome shots!!
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Actually someone DID break the sound barrier at sea level (or came close) with a complicated rocket-car/railroad track device. It was for publicity and I can find no record of it.
The “sound barrier” was first broke by a physical device by Robert Hutchins Goddard in New Mexico in the 1930s. It was not acknowledged till afterwards because it was hard to tell how fast his experimental rockets were going in that era. Especially since most crashed as intended.
Since no one was in them they are not used for speed records of any kind, but what is odd here is that even when Yeager (et al) came to do their flights, there were still “experts” saying that it was impossible to break the sound barrier. Goddard’s primitive devices were public knowledge by then and many of his rockets went faster than sound even at low altitudes. “Experts” do not read enough news!
wonderfull photo
Oh, common. Photoshopped
“Fighters are small, fast, and maneuverable.”
American fighters long ago became very un-maneuverable, they are simply, bullets in the air that you can take off and land with.
If they miss their target, they will not be turning around anytime soon, hence the reason for the heat-seeking missiles.
PS, the instructors at Top Gun always win, always.
A bunch of sand-eating arabs kicked your ass. You can shove your airplanes in your ass, hahahaha.
Amazing compilation. great Photos Of Fighter Jets Breaking The Sound Barrier
I can’t believe nobody’s said “Photo shop” yet….
What can you say other than amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this.
blast like sound during the barrier breaking of sound…..
wwwwwwwwwwww..amazing technology.and speed is i think 3500 km/hr.