Many of us have heard a sonic boom – the loud crackle that reaches your ears when a supersonic aircraft flies overhead. The resulting shockwaves caused by breaking the sound barrier are incredible to witness even without the sound. For NASA has released awe-inspiring images marking the split-second sonic boom shockwaves as they ripple from supersonic planes – in a world first.
The photos are more than 10 years in the making, relying on cutting-edge air-to-air photographic technology necessary needed by NASA to develop its pioneering “quiet” supersonic plane.
J.T. Heineck, of NASA’s Ames Research Centre said: “We never dreamt that it would be this clear, this beautiful. I am ecstatic about how these images turned out.
“With this upgraded system, we have, by an order of magnitude, improved both the speed and quality of our imagery from previous research.”
US space agency NASA took the iconic images during the fourth phase of Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren flights (AirBOS), at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Centre, California.
NASA researchers were able to capture the precise moment shockwaves shot from a pair of supersonic planes as they broke the sound barrier after their imaging system received an upgrade.
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NASA employed a pair of T-38 aircraft from the US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base as they flew mere metres apart.
The shockwaves can be seen eventually merging together as they crackle through Earth’s atmosphere.
Neal Smith, a research engineer at NASA Ames’ fluid mechanics laboratory said: “We are looking at a supersonic flow, which is why we are getting these shockwaves.
“What is interesting is, if you look at the rear T-38, you see these shocks kind of interact in a curve.
“This is because the trailing T-38 is flying in the wake of the leading aircraft, so the shocks are going to be shaped differently
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“This data is really going to help us advance our understanding of how these shocks interact.’
NASA has been working to develop its own supersonic craft with a quieter sonic boom, with intentions to perform supersonic flights over land.
The X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane (X-59 QueSST), will reportedly produce more of a sonic “rumble”
NASA will use the data acquired from these fantastic photographs to design of its craft, enabling shockwaves that do not emit the characteristic boom.
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Dan Banks, senior research engineer at NASA Armstrong said: “We are seeing a level of physical detail here that I don’t think anybody has ever seen before.
“Just looking at the data for the first time, I think things worked out better than we had imagined. This is a very big step.”
The incredible photographs were captured from a NASA B-200 King Air plane using a cutting-edge camera system.
NASA also developed a new installation system to cut the time it takes to fit the aircraft with the upgraded cameras.
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Capturing the split-second sonic boom wasn’t easy: the NASA King Air flying a pattern around 30,000ft (10,000m) had to be in the exact right spot as a pair of T-38s raced past at supersonic speeds, 2,000ft (660m) below.
Heather Maliska, NASA AirBOS sub-project manager, said: “The biggest challenge was trying to get the timing correct to make sure we could get these images.
“I am absolutely happy with how the team was able to pull this off. Our operations team has done this type of manoeuvre before.
“They know how to get the manoeuvre lined up, and our NASA pilots and the Air Force pilots did a great job being where they needed to be. They were rock stars.”
