Take a look at these photos of “shock collars” forming around an F-35 during an airshow

Stunning photographs of vapour cones generated by the RNlAF F-35s during “Luchtmachtdagen 2016” airshow.

On Jun. 10, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter made its international airshow debut with an Air Power Demo performed during an airshow at Leeuwarden Air Base, in the Netherlands.

The first two Dutch F-35A aircraft, AN-1 (F-001) and AN-2 (F-002), simulated a series of attacks on the airfield and conducted some high-speed passes that were made particularly interesting because of the condensation clouds that appeared around the JSF: known as shock collar or vapour cone, these cloud are generated by a sudden drop in pressure associated with high speed that allows water vapour to condense as vapour.

Although many believe that these clouds appear when aircraft “break” the sound barrier, they can appear when the planes fly at subsonic speed, in humid air.

The photographs in this post were taken at Leeuwarden by The Aviationist’s Jacek Siminski.

F-35 condensation cloud

Salva

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.