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Almost unbelieveable photos of jets and the condensation clouds

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FlyingJets

Active member
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
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34
Almost unbelievable photos of jets and the condensation clouds

There are a couple of links to a healthy number of spectacular "Prandtl-Glauert singularity" condensation clouds making the rounds. Since I haven't seen the addresses posted at FlightInfo.com (that's surprising), let me pass them on to you:

August 17, 2004 (part 1)
http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20040817.htm

August 18, 2004 (part 2)
http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20040818.htm

August 2004 archive and page with archive links
http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-2004-08-Tenjos-August.htm
http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw.htm

So as the forum's serious discussions resume, lets remember that when a lighter moment is needed those stunning photos are a few keystrokes or mouse clicks away.
 
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What are you getting at?
 
Most of these photos are transonic Hornets. I wonder if there is something in the drag profile of that jet that tends to create spectacular effects? Notice too the little bubble of con behind the Hornets' cockpits, indicating there is a disturbance in the airflow at that particular spot.


There's nothing quite like seeing a direct overflight of a supersonic airplane. One Cold Lake Canada exercise, way too long ago, I was out on the range at a threat site (simulated bad-guy radar). The operator says "Here comes 2 FB-111 from the South. They'll be here in 20 seconds. Go look."

I went outside, spotted the two-ship on the flat terrain, heading almost for us. No sound. They're getting bigger. No sound, deathly silent. Now they're 500 yards away. Absolutely silent, the spookiest thing I have ever seen. At that point I went "ohhhhh $hit....", ducked and covered my ears. Moments later I was lashed by the shock wave. It was the coolest thing I have ever witnessed, aviation wise, from the gound.
 
enigma said:
Is this fake?
http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20040823.htm


The picture shows a B1 flying very close to the pyramids in Egypt. I find it hard to believe that the Egyptians would allow American nuclear bombers to get that close to their pyramids.

enigma
Click to expand...
While it's a nuke-capable bomber, the U.S. no longer flies nukes around. The photo is real, I want to say it's from an exercise called "Joint Star" or "Bright Star", something like that, U.S. and Egyptions having some fun. There's similar photos of MiG's, F15's F16's, etc in dissimilar 4-ship formations of the the pyramids.
 
Another interesting aspect of the photo collections are the images from the perspective of the jet's engines, showing the jet partially in or out the cloud, or, pulling the cloud, or exiting the cloud--I'm not sure what's going on. See photos 6 and 7 at http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20040818.htm (August 18, 2004). In photo 8 the jet appears to be at least half-way out of the cloud, and the cloud is still intact. And for comparison purposes look at photo 2 at http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20040817.htm (August 17, 2004).

Photo 2 of the B-1 Lancer at http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20040818.htm (August 18, 2004) was puzzling. I wasn't sure what that thing on top was--thought it was a condensation cloud, but was uncertain. Then an explanation was published at http://GalleryOfFluidMechanics.com, pointed to in the "8/20/04" update at the "What's New" page (http://GalleryOfFluidMechanics.com/what.htm), which began to provide some answers. It's a Prandtl-Glauert condensation cloud. But the B-1 bomber is pretty high up, right? And the condensation cloud is not surrounding the jet but hovering above it, intact? Remarkable.

After reading the this forum's discussion about the effort to get the Concorde in the skies again, I wondered: Did Prandtl-Glauert condensation clouds form over or around the Concorde while it was in transonic flight? Were photos taken and published? If so, it would be very interesting to see them in light of the spectacular photos in the August 17 and 18 photo collections.
 
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There are two new photos in the August 17, 2004 photo collection: http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20040817.htm , Photos 5 and 6. If the photo credit for Photo 5 wasn't an authentic U.S. Navy source or site, frankly speaking, it would be difficult to believe that it's real. But it is real and looks a bit eerie (at least to me it does). That said, these photos are really impressive.
 
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A refresh/reload of the pages shows a "Remarks" link has been added to certain photo captions and credits. Of interest are the remarks for Photo 5 at http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20040817.htm and at http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20040818.htm Photo 2's remarks. Reading through the remarks for Photo 7 at http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20040817.htm shows, in a certain way, the challenge in explaining these very impressive clouds.

Given that it's not every day you open the house or apartment front door, look up, and see a fighter jet or bomber creating a Prandtl-Glauert singularity condensation cloud, it's no wonder there are people that believe some, if not all, of the photos are artificially created (fake)!
 
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enigma said:
Is this fake?
http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20040823.htm


The picture shows a B1 flying very close to the pyramids in Egypt. I find it hard to believe that the Egyptians would allow American nuclear bombers to get that close to their pyramids.

enigma
Click to expand...
It's real. There have been a number of USAF/Egyptian exercises in Egypt over the last 20 years, you can find a picture like that of almost every USAF airplane.

We used to train their F-4 crews at the old George AFB, I heard lots of interesting stories from the instructors who flew with them.
 
JimNtexas said:
It's real. There have been a number of USAF/Egyptian exercises in Egypt over the last 20 years, you can find a picture like that of almost every USAF airplane.

We used to train their F-4 crews at the old George AFB, I heard lots of interesting stories from the instructors who flew with them.
Click to expand...
The B-1B flying over the pyramids in Egypt was such a nice picture that I went looking for more. Found two at "http://www.af.mil/photos/search.asp?q=pyramids", one of which has already been mentioned in an earlier post, the other has two F-15E Strike Eagles. If you happen to run across any more, feel free to post the addresses. By the way, catch the nice photo of a NASA space shuttle Challenger astronaut "levitating", with no strings, over Earth: http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20040902.htm (September 2, 2004).

As I've looked through the different photos, one conclusion I've drawn is that the U.S. military photographers take some excellent pictures. Glad they make them public for the rest of us to appreciate.
 
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B1-B Video of "Prandtl-Glauert singularity" condensation cloud?

This may or may not be the "Prandtl-Glauert singularity" effect in action (and it would be nice to have more info about the video's source):

1) http://www.globemaster.de/airextreme/jets.html

2) Look for the photo captioned "B-1B high speed pass at RAF Mildenhall MPG4 794 k"

3) Click or download the movie clip.
 
Prof. Mark S. Cramer's "Sound Barrier" tutorials

Just a heads-up about the collection of Sound Barrier tutorials (http://fluidmech.net/tutorials/sonic/sonicboom-intro.htm written by Dr. Mark S. Cramer, a professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (http://www.vt.edu). He covers the phenomenon of these visually stunning Prandtl-Glauert condensation clouds in the Prandtl-Glauert Condensation Clouds tutorial (http://fluidmech.net/tutorials/sonic/prandtl-glauert-clouds.htm]http://fluidmech.net/tutorials/sonic/prandtl-glauert-clouds.htm). It'll now be harder to claim that the P-G singularity clouds are caused by "breaking through the sound barrier", but a bit easier to understand their physical origin.
 
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Excellent!

While doing my night requirement flight from Allen County (AOH) to Toledo Express (TOL), we were with Approach and he was getting us lined up with 5. It was a solid overcast a couple thousand above us. I was tooling along in the 152 when I thought I saw the moon poking through.

After looking at it for a couple more seconds, I realized that it was an aircraft up in the clouds going the same direction as I. I then heard over the radio, "C17, turn 320 until established on the localizer (blah blah... I'm not instrument rated)". HOLY CRAP!!

He ended up landing about 5 minutes before us, but we were on a much shorter final. While on base, he went right through his wake and it was a bit bumpy. While we were coming down on final, tower told us that we may want to make the touch-and-go quick as to be up before runway middle. The C-17 had stopped on the taxiway and had those jets blowing directly across.

We did a low approach and headed out of there. As we were going, I tipped to the right a bit to catch a glimpse of it. Man, that was massive.

When I got home, I found some more photos of the C-17. That is a monster aircraft. Beautiful.

:)
 
You should see the shock condensation off my 172's wings... just wait till I get the photos developed.
 
USAF B-1B Lancer bomber sequence of photos

The links:

http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw.htm and/or http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20041216.htm (Dec. 16, 2004)

Completely off topic now: The C-17 Globemaster III is one fine machine. No,take that back it's the F-14 "Tomcat"- nah, scratch that one too. Definitely the B-1B. No,no it's gotta be the SR-71 "Blackbird". Hold on, that can't be it's retired, so it's the F-15 "Eagle", F-117, B-2 . . . Enough of playing favorites: They're all great aircraft!
 
VNugget said:
You should see the shock condensation off my 172's wings... just wait till I get the photos developed.
Click to expand...
Are you planning to post 1-2 photos here? Naturally, if they're like the B-1B Lancer Prandtl-Glauert cloud seen here (http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20041217.htm) or the specially tailored image-- http://www.velikov.com/92e.jpg --posted here (http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=38686&p=478101), we'll want to see more (before you send them off to a photo contest and win the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes)!
 
JediNein said:
That one has a caption:

"Guys, this isn't funny. Turn off the cloaking device now."
Click to expand...
They must be on impulse power alone...you can't travel warp speed cloaked...

...ah nevermind...

-mini
 
B-1B condensation...

We used to see this phenomena (sp?) a lot in the Bone, esp if there was any moisture in the air at all. Because typically we flew at .9 mach (because we almost had to) with our wings fully back, there was a lot of places mid body that the PG would form. I have seen interesting patterns around the nacelles. Also, for the 10th annversary of the B-1B (mid 1995), we stationed a USAF photo/video crew, plus an aviation photographer on one of the mountain peaks that we pass close to on a low level that we use a lot. Got some great video, and some great photos as well, including several with the PG cons. Some of the video, you could see the PG increase and decrease in size dynamically as the pilot would pull more or less G.

Also, the lowly T-38 would even generate the PG right around the front canopy...though not very much, more like a white occasional flash...around .9 mach...

One of these days I'll digitize that video...

Fly Safe!
FastCargo
 
FastCargo said:
We used to see this phenomena (sp?) a lot in the Bone, esp if there was any moisture in the air at all. Because typically we flew at .9 mach (because we almost had to) with our wings fully back, there was a lot of places mid body that the PG would form. I have seen interesting patterns around the nacelles. Also, for the 10th annversary of the B-1B (mid 1995), we stationed a USAF photo/video crew, plus an aviation photographer on one of the mountain peaks that we pass close to on a low level that we use a lot. Got some great video, and some great photos as well, including several with the PG cons. Some of the video, you could see the PG increase and decrease in size dynamically as the pilot would pull more or less G.

Also, the lowly T-38 would even generate the PG right around the front canopy...though not very much, more like a white occasional flash...around .9 mach...

One of these days I'll digitize that video...

Fly Safe!
FastCargo
Click to expand...
http://chamorrobible.org/images/photos/gpw-20041217a-processed-UnitedStatesAirForce-040116-F-0971G-129.jpg (
photo 1, http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20041217.htm)

http://chamorrobible.org/images/photos/gpw-20041216l-processed-UnitedStatesAirForce-040116-F-0971G-156.jpg (
photo 12, http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20041216.htm)

Can you see the P-G cloud from the cockpit? If so, what's it like to see it just show up, then stay with and perhaps almost engulf the B-1B? Is there a reason for not exceeding 0.9 Mach?

And here's my vote for digitizing the video: YES!
 
Are these B-2 "Spirit" Stealth bomber pics real?

B-2 with a P-G cloud
http://www.bugimus.com/stealth/b2-0.jpg
http://www.aerofiles.com/norgrum-b2page.html

B-2 with a yellow P-G cloud
http://ufologie.net/pics/b2nomhd01.jpg referenced in http://ufologie.net/htm/b2.htm

Off topic: To forum members and readers who lost family members and friends or are still searching for relatives from the tsunami and earthquake, my sympathies will continue to be with you. The human family also has suffered a very deep, painful, and incalculable loss.
 
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So, anyone know if the condensation off the tips of a propeller being cycled on the ground when the humidity is a high is a transonic thing (PG), or just a simple low pressure condition causing the misture to condense? Why does it only come from the tips? Must be related to spillage off the ends.
 
F-111 with a P-G cloud in Avalon

http://www.defence.gov.au/news/raafnews/editions/4502/images/avalon/F111%20breaking%20sound%20barrier_.jpg (www.defence.gov.au/news/raafnews/editions/4502/images/avalon/F111%20breaking%20sound%20barrier_.jpg)

From Australia's Department of Defence Airforce News feature story, On With The Show: The Avalon Experience, with more photos including one of an Eurocopter NH-90 helicopter flying (?) upside down: http://www.defence.gov.au/news/raafnews/editions/4502/features.htm (www.defence.gov.au/news/raafnews/editions/4502/features.htm)
 
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