Supersonic Jets Break the Sound Barrier, Schlieren View
Schlieren view of two Northrup T-38 Talon supersonic jets breaking the sound barrier. This image was captured during the fourth phase of Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren flights, or AirBOS, which took place at NASAE??s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The flight series tested an upgraded imaging system capable of capturing high-quality images of shockwaves, rapid pressure changes which are produced when an aircraft flies faster than the speed of sound, or supersonic. Shockwaves produced by aircraft merge together as they travel through the atmosphere and are responsible for what is heard on the ground as a sonic boom. One of the greatest challenges of the flight series was timing. In order to acquire this image, originally monochromatic and shown here as a colorized composite image, NASA flew a B-200, outfitted with an updated imaging system, at around 30, 000 feet while the pair of T-38s were required to not only remain in formation, but to fly at supersonic speeds at the precise moment they were directly beneath the B-200
