Great photo of F-22 breaking the sound barrier

Hi everyone,
I thought I would post this link to show this awesome photo of an F-22 Raptor breaking the sound barrier. This occurred on June 22nd, 2009 in the Gulf of Alaska over the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis. They are conducting the Northern Edge military drill right now. Please let me know if you all have trouble with the link Enjoy!

Here is the photo:



[edit on 6/26/2009 by wrangell76]

Link to Photo:
www.adn.com...

[edit on 6/26/2009 by wrangell76]

Nice mach cone symmetry.

This reminds me of one of the images in APOD which shows the same phenomenon in the hornet.

APOD

reply to post by peacejet

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I love that picture you posted.
It reminded me as well of this new one. Thanks for posting that

reply to post by wrangell76

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Excellent picture, I love pictures like this, showing advanced science at work!

reply to post by wrangell76

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I heard the F-22 can break the sound barrier WITHOUT afterburners
turned on!
They keep making those engines better and better.

reply to post by Eurisko2012

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Yea, it is called "Supercruise", it is what separates the Raptor from everything else. The F22 is the worlds first gen 5 fighter.

One thing I noticed on the "Superman Returns" movie. There is a clip where superman flies into the sky and they actually thought about putting a sonic boom cone around him.

On topic. Great pic.

feel so sorry for the fake pilots flying these around while other pilots are flying the AG crafts.

reply to post by Eurisko2012

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Yes.



F-22-wikipedia

Firstly great pic
Don't you think it is amazing what can be made in these times.



Whats is a gen 5 fighter ? And what else is thing capable of?

You make it sound like the Raptor is the only aircraft capable of supercruise. I believe the English Electric Lightning was the first, and that was made back in the 50s. There are a number of fighter planes today that can supercruise.

GREAT shot but my hart will always belong to the SR71 THE most sexiest plane made ever, and those engines an engineering feat.

Nice pic !!!!!

Now cue the guys that think the F-22 has anti gravity

It is a lovely pic, well posted.

But, a fighter that can supercruise without burners? We did that in 1954, since then us Euros built an airliner that can supercruise at mach 2 fully loaded, flew it for 30 years and got bored with it. come on America, catch up!

[edit on 27-6-2009 by waynos]

Actually supercruise is defined as not only being to cruise supersonically without afterburners but also to be able to break the sound barrier without afterburners. The first part is easy, it's been done for years but the last part is unique to the F-22. It actually takes a lot of energy to get through that trans-sonic region between 0.9 and 1.1 Mach which - before the Raptor - required afterburners.

Actually, the Raptor is still not the first aircraft to do that - that honour does infact sit with the English Electric Lightning, and even that isnt the only other aircraft to do it.

Concorde certainly could supercruise, only it never did because it was more economical to get through the transonic area on reheat as it used less fuel (it stayed in the high drag area less time on reheat).

Even the F-14 could supercruise in low weight configurations, but these configurations were pointless to use so it never did it.

But still, I am surprised that no one has mentioned the Eurofighter! One of its core abilities and features is supercruise, and it became operational before the F-22 did, so it certainly counts. Come on Waynos, what were you thinking?!

So the F-22 is not unique in this ability, and it isn't the first either.

Aircraft with supercruise include:

English Electric Lightning (The first aircraft capable of supercruise)
BAC TSR-2
Eurofighter Typhoon
JAS 39 Gripen[8] [9]
F-4 'Super' Phantom II[10]
F-14D Super Tomcat[citation needed]
F-22 Raptor
F-104 Starfighter[11]
YF-23 Black Widow II
XB-70 Valkyrie
Concorde
Tupolev Tu-144S

Supercruise

When the English Electric P.1 (the proto-Lightning) first achieved mach 1.5 it wasn't even *fitted* with afterburners, so 'unique' is slightly inaccurate.

Also, how can supercruise be defined as accelerating through the sound barrier? It has the word 'cruise' in it. Or is this a case of the US trying to redefine the word to fit the F-22?

OED entry for 2011;

'Supercruise - the ability to maintain a speed of at least mach 1.5 (1.4 isn't enough) having accelerasted through the sound barrier without the use of afterburners in an aeroplane, unless said aeroplane is not American, stealthy, and cost a bloody fortune to develop.'



At one time, in plain english, Supercruising was sustaining a speed greater than mach 1 on dry thrust alone. At least until the USAF realised this had already been done

Richard, I didn't want to fan the flames too highly

[edit on 29-6-2009 by waynos]

This is what Lockheed says:



From Air Force News:


From what I am reading, what makes the F22 unique regarding supercruise is that it can remain in supercruise for very long periods of time and during normal combat operations due to the fact that the engines are highly efficient or something like that.



[edit on 6/29/2009 by WhatTheory]

reply to post by WhatTheory

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Yeah, funny how they put that completely arbitrary figure of 1.5 in there isn't it? The P.1 supercruised on its 3rd flight, so unless each of the two preceding flights was about 150hrs long I think we can see why the 1.5 figure is used.



Concorde has spent more time in supercruise than all other aircraft capable of the feat added together, cruising at mach 2 for 2 hours at a time, daily, over a 26 year career That sort of figure makes the F-22 look like an amateur.

Trust Americans to turn a joke into an argument, rely on a Brit to keep it going





[edit on 29-6-2009 by waynos]