First-ever photos of two jets sending off supersonic shockwaves are released by NASA
Two supersonic T-38 jets took off and flew 30 feet apart as they broke the sound barrier, both jets creating a shockwave that, for the first time, NASA caught on camera, the agency says.
NASA researchers captured “the first-ever images of the interaction of shockwaves from two supersonic aircraft in flight,” the agency says, using a camera on another plane nearby.
“I am ecstatic about how these images turned out,” NASA scientist J.T. Heineck said. “With this upgraded system, we have, by an order of magnitude, improved both the speed and quality of our imagery from previous research.”
“We never dreamt that it would be this clear, this beautiful,” Heineck said.
The shockwaves caught in the images are what create the sonic boom people hear when a plane breaks the sounds barrier, according to Popular Science magazine. The new NASA images are, essentially, what a sonic boom looks like.
The jets took off from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. Another plane flying overhead was able to capture the images, NASA said.
The images were taken in black and white, then NASA added color to the composite images.
“We’re seeing a level of physical detail here that I don’t think anybody has ever seen before,” senior research engineer Dan Banks said. “Just looking at the data for the first time, I think things worked out better than we’d imagined. This is a very big step.”
The NASA project is part of the work to build a new plane that “will fly supersonic, but will produce shockwaves in such a way that, instead of a loud sonic boom, only a quiet rumble may be heard. The ability to fly supersonic without a sonic boom may one day result in lifting current restrictions on supersonic flight over land,” NASA said.
The end goal is “dramatically reducing travel time in the United States or anywhere in the world,” according to NASA.
This story was originally published March 7, 2019 at 3:10 PM with the headline "First-ever photos of two jets sending off supersonic shockwaves are released by NASA."
