Super Hornet High Speed Pass Vapor Cone, MCAS Miramar 2009

[jcmegabyte]

Great shockwave condensation - thanks for the show! :-)

[MongoWongo777]

Super sweet! Thanks for sharing!!!

[USNERDOC]

Awesome! Notthing like a high speed F18 fly by. Thank you sir!

[AirShowFan22]

nice

[xftr321]

Interesting ... I've heard others pass this off as a supersonic/ breaking the sound barrier event ... glad you didn't. In my experience as an old F111A pilot, and the supersonic T38 trainer, in the times I flew supersonic I never experienced this. So the humidity must be a key here in the cone developing. Thanks for posting this one!

[TallSky]

@xftr321 Thanks - Yes, you're of course correct - the sound barrier is not directly associated with the cone, but with the amount of moisture in the air. I heard a sound barrier break once at Salinas,CA - The pilot may have been lectured by an attending FAA rep later that day. It will be great for photobuffs if at this Oct '10 shows we have humid weather. And by the way it is a pleasure and an honor to meet an "old" F111A pilot - thanks for taking the time to comment for this "old" videographer.

[nexus1g]

@TallSky The cone is somewhat related to the sound barrier. It does require at the minimum transonic flight to create the Prandtl-Glauert singularity that makes such a cone possible. The actual condensation from the singularity is, as you said, dependent on atmospheric conditions.