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Breaking the Sound Barrier
As for how I got the shot. I was in a chase F-16 being flown by Maj "Bernie" Cassidy. Between test points we would try to capture the condensation on still film. The camera I was using was a Hasselblad with a power winder (equates to about 1 frame per second) and the vapors only happen briefly and sporadically. As you can imagine, there was a little "spaz action" going on, trying not to take any unnecessary photos that would cause the power winder to be busy when I needed to be actually shooting.
We were fairly low in altitude when the shot was taken, and heading home from the mission.
There is enough moisture over the ocean to actually cause that phenomon to happen at various speeds, not just supersonic. That is why people on the navy carriers can get that shot more often than most land-based aircraft photographers.
Originally posted by Low Orbit
this might be true at night but during the day it would probably resemble a cloud.