It doesn’t get much cooler than this…… NASA photographed the supersonic shockwaves made by a pair of T-38 trainers.
CNET
NASA wants to make a supersonic airplane that rumbles instead of booms. To do that, the agency needs to understand the intimate details of how supersonic shockwaves work. Some mind-bending new images show for the first time how shockwaves interact in flight.
The images look unreal. They show two US Air Force T-38 training jets with lines radiating off to their sides and plumes extending out behind. This gives us a gorgeous visualization of the shockwaves that are heard on the ground as loud sonic booms.
“….[These are] the first-ever images of the interaction of shockwaves from two supersonic aircraft in flight.”
NASA
TOO AWESOME!
Calamity Jane