Shockwave visible from cabin?

[ImbracableCrunk]

Today I was commuting home on a 757 and I was sitting in the exit row, over the wing.

I thought I saw something in the window, and malformation or something, but then I noticed it was moving forward and aft, may a few feet from the window. It looked kinda like a clear ribbon.

Not only that, but we were flying eastbound, and the shadow of the fuselage was on the wing. I saw a shadow/refraction of the shockwave from the fuselage, as well.

Now, I know I'm crazy (I'm an airline pilot) but was I hallucinating from my red-eye or has anyone else seen this?

 

[PeanuckleCRJ]

I've heard its possible to see it....never have personally seen it before, though.


"there's something on the wing...some.....thing!"

 

[crj567]

You probably did see a shock wave. There are parts of the wing that go transonic at well below mach speeds on many airliners.

I have a cousin who showed me a pretty neat video a few yrs ago... He works for a major and is an engineer of some sort....

Anyhow, this airline was taking delivery of a plane and flying it to the main hub. He shot some video of this trans-sonic stuff happening out on the wing in flight. In the video you could see all sorts of neat shock waves and spider-web-looking stuff out on the wing. The plane was pretty much empty-just him plus the pilots, so it was going a little faster than normal cruise when he filmed this stuff.

 

[ImbracableCrunk]

Huh, I just found a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duCHFaWm-ms

For some reason, I thought you had to have Schlieren filters or whatever they did to see them. I didn't think you could see them with the naked eye.

 

[~~~^~~~]

Used to see them frequently on L1011's.

 

[STL717]

I was watching the wing of a MD-80 one day with the sun behind us and the normal shock wave was bending the light creating a shadow on the wing. It would move forward and aft as the airspeed changed.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/airfoils/supercritical/transflow.jpg

 

[ofacegangsta]

You crossed the gay-sonic barrier. I wished I had your commute if I was staring at the wing.

 

[LR60BOY]

Saw it in a Falcon 900 the other day. Ran almost the whole length of the wing.

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

So what your are saying is the FAs were not hot.....

 

[islandhoper]

Yup, you can see it often on the 737 with winglets if the moisture is just right. You can see it balancing back and forth as the wing goes through slight bumbs...