- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 410
They are actually travelling just below the speed of sound - at about 0.99 or so. The disc that you actually see in the first couple of passes is actually condensation (or "vapes") whic are a result of the condensation in the air at that point. The bigger the vapes, the greater the amount of condensation that is in the air. The shock wave forming around the plane is visible if you look hard enough, but its presence can be seen if you look at the water directly underneath the Hornet as it travels.
The condensation (Please don't use vapour in this example, as one might think wrongly that you are talking about vapour trails, which are caused by the change in temp from the engine exhaust.) is caused by a change in pressure in the air (PV=nRT suddenly comes to mind...argh, what you remember from university) directly in that point. This is caused by the shock wave. Not unlike the condensation one would see over the wings of an aircraft after they do a quick turn.
As for the Tomcat pass, if you go frame by frame, you will see a dispersion of the water as the plane hits mach 1.0 (or close to ).
Wether real or not, you'd never see them pulling something like that at an airshow in Canada. Slightly illegal.