Ever wondered what the “BOOM” sound from fighter jets piercing the sound barrier looks like? Well, now you can courtesy of NASA.
Researchers have captured high-resolution images of the shock waves generated from that exact moment.
NASA Scientists used a technique called schlieren photography which is around 150 year old. By flying thousands of feet above the fighter jet, equipped with a high-speed camera, the scientists revealed how air flow formed around it at the exact moment of the blast.
Air-to-air schlieren is an important flight-test technique for locating and characterising, with high spatial resolution, shock waves emanating from supersonic vehicles, said Dan Banks, NASA Neil A Armstrong Flight Research Centre’s principal investigator on the project. It allows us to see the shock wave geometry in the real atmosphere as the target aircraft flies through temperature and humidity gradients that cannot be duplicated in wind tunnels.
It is hoped that the AirBOS images can be used to validate or improve current design techniques, said Brett Pauer, Commercial Supersonic Technology project support manager at Armstrong. In addition, this research technique may be used to validate design models of future prototype and demonstrator low-boom aircraft.
Awesome stuff!
Check out the full story and details on NASA’s site here.
