NASA Captures First Air-to-Air Images of Supersonic Shockwave Interaction in Flight

NASA Captures First Air-to-Air Images of Supersonic Shockwave Interaction in Flight



This is pretty neat. NASA has some new upgraded equipment that lets them capture better quality images of an aircraft's shock wave. The image above is a colorized AirBOS image and it looks pretty cool.

This imaging system will be used to help with the design of the X-59 QueSST. And I hope that it helps so we can finally have supersonic travel again.

Using the schlieren photography technique, NASA was able to capture the first air-to-air images of the interaction of shockwaves from two supersonic aircraft flying in formation. These two U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School T-38 aircraft are flying in formation, approximately 30 feet apart, at supersonic speeds, or faster than the speed of sound, producing shockwaves that are typically heard on the ground as a sonic boom. The images, originally monochromatic and shown here as colorized composite images, were captured during a supersonic flight series flown, in part, to better understand how shocks interact with aircraft plumes, as well as with each other.

The X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane, or QueSST, will test its quiet supersonic technologies by flying over communities in the United States. X-59 is designed so that when flying supersonic, people on the ground will hear nothing more than a quiet sonic thump – if anything at all. The scientifically valid data gathered from these community overflights will be presented to U.S. and international regulators, who will use the information to help them come up with rules based on noise levels that enable new commercial markets for supersonic flight over land.

a reply to: grey580

This information will one day lead to humans understanding how to break through the fabric of space!

Maybe....it might...

a reply to: scraedtosleep


Mankind must first acknowledge the aether before breaking through the membrane.

a reply to: grey580

The pictures look great.

I always imagined the shock wave would be more curved or possibly tear drop shaped, it’s crazy how strait it is.

If I’m not mistaken schlieren photography compares each frame to the next and creates a visualization of the difference. That could be oversimplified I’m no expert.

For anyone interested check out SmarterEveryDay on YouTube. He’s explained it much better and used it in a couple videos, including using it to look at the pressure wave created by civil war era cannons.
www.youtube.com...

Could the testing of this aircraft be responsible for the booms heard through out the world?

a reply to: Quantumgamer1776

The system also included a memory upgrade for the cameras, permitting researchers to increase the frame rate to 1400 frames per second, making it easier to capture a larger number of samples.

You might be right. At 1400 frames per second. That's a lot of data to look at and compare. So minute changes are probably graphed.

en.wikipedia.org...

In classical schlieren photography, the collimated light is focused with a converging optical element (usually a lens or curved mirror), and a knife edge is placed at the focal point, positioned to block about half the light. In flow of uniform density this will simply make the photograph half as bright. However, in flow with density variations the distorted beam focuses imperfectly, and parts that have been focused in an area covered by the knife edge are blocked. The result is a set of lighter and darker patches corresponding to positive and negative fluid density gradients in the direction normal to the knife edge. When a knife edge is used, the system is generally referred to as a schlieren system, which measures the first derivative of density in the direction of the knife edge. If a knife edge is not used, the system is generally referred to as a shadowgraph system, which measures the second derivative of density.

If the fluid flow is uniform, the image will be steady, but any turbulence will cause scintillation, the shimmering effect that can be seen on hot surfaces on a sunny day. To visualise instantaneous density profiles, a short-duration flash (rather than continuous illumination) may be used.

a reply to: Violater1

The idea is not to boom with the aircraft.

More like a low rumble.

originally posted by: Violater1
Could the testing of this aircraft be responsible for the booms heard through out the world?

Only if the sound waves somehow found a way to propagate through the entire globe. And at unnatural speeds.

It's kind of shocking just how much a fighter jet looks like a missile with a cockpit. LOL

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: grey580

This information will one day lead to humans understanding how to break through the fabric of space!

Maybe....it might...

No it won't.

futurism.com...

Not until they figure out how to negative inertial mass.

Or create Warp drive.

Unsure if anyone has brought this up, but maybe this accounts for the strange noises people here throughout the US?

Sometimes I wonder if people actually comprehend what they read? Several people have asked if "this" could be responsible for whats causing booms heard throughout the world. Well "this" is testing a new photographic processing technique, its not an aircraft. Military aircraft carry out supersonic flights all over the world every single day, so no surprises there. Lightning strikes probably cause more supersonic booms around the world in 10 seconds than all the aircraft sonic booms in a year combined. If you somehow misunderstood it and thought this was something to do with the NASA commissioned and Lockheed build X-59 QueSST, well they haven't even finished designing it yet, let alone built it or flown it. And it is specifically being designed to NOT be heard.

originally posted by: thebozeian
Sometimes I wonder if people actually comprehend what they read? Several people have asked if "this" could be responsible for whats causing booms heard throughout the world. Well "this" is testing a new photographic processing technique, its not an aircraft. Military aircraft carry out supersonic flights all over the world every single day, so no surprises there. Lightning strikes probably cause more supersonic booms around the world in 10 seconds than all the aircraft sonic booms in a year combined. If you somehow misunderstood it and thought this was something to do with the NASA commissioned and Lockheed build X-59 QueSST, well they haven't even finished designing it yet, let alone built it or flown it. And it is specifically being designed to NOT be heard.

Nope fully understood the entire article. I know the aircraft mentioned in the article is still being designed. What I’m referring to is the testing that led up to silent sonic booms.

a reply to: thebozeian

It's not X-59 specific, no. But it is data that is needed to help with quieting it as it goes supersonic.

a reply to: grey580

Give it a colour/shade and much can be learned.. First time I was introduced to this methode of analyzing what is going on was when I worked with Philips in the early eighties. Working at the research, development and design department a coloured fluid was dripped on a microchip die to see the change of colour which was caused by different currents running through the microchip. This simple idea made it possible to find swifftly where design flaws or manifacturing errors occured. Btw..this simple idea was awarded a serious acknowledgement.