This is one of those pictures that don’t need much words.
Taken on Oct 18, the photo in this post features Lt. Cmdr. Mark Tedrow, Blue Angels #5 and Lead Solo with the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, performing aerial acrobatics during the 2015 Kaneohe Bay Air Show and Open House at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
What makes this image so unique is the condensation cloud that surrounds the wings of Tedrow’s F/A-18 Hornet: even though spectators usually think that such clouds represent a visual manifestation of a “sonic boom”, actually they are the effect of the quick depression on the flight surfaces that brings the water vapour contained in the air at the condensation temperature.
It is a common phenomenon in high-G maneuvers, like those typically performed by Blue Angels #5, when the depression on the upper side of the wing increases (as the lift does); it can be observed even at sea level, when the amount of moisture is significant and air temperature is quite hot.
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Image credit: U.S. Navy
