quote:
Originally posted by Swerv:
how do u explain that picture... is it a sonic boom? i didnt know it was visable.. hehe
Read this before checking out the picture. Knowing the history helps to
appreciate it.
Through the viewfinder of his camera, Ensign John Gay could see the
A/F18 drop from the sky as it headed toward the port side of the
Aircraft Carrier Constellation at 1,000 feet. The pilot increases his
speed to 750 mph, vapor flickering off the curved surfaces of the plane.
At the precise moment of breaking the sound barrier, 200 yards form the
carrier, a circular cloud formed arourd the Hornet. With the Pacific
Ocean just 75 feet below the aircraft being rippled by the aircraft's
pass, Gay hears the explosion of the sonic boom and snaped his camera
shutter once.
"I clicked the same time I heard the boom and I knew I had it." What he
had was a technically meticulous depiction of the sound barrier being
broken on July 7, 1999, somewhere on the Pacific between Hawaii and
Japan. Sports Illustrated, Brills Content, and Life ran the photo.
The photo recently took first prize in the science and technology
division in the World Press Photo 2000 contest, which drew more than
42,000 entries worldwide. Because Ensign Gay is a member of the military
he was ineligible for the cash prize. "In the last few days, I've been
getting calls from everywhere about it again. It's very humbling." Gay,
38, manages a crew of eight assigned to take intelligence photographs
from the high-tech belly (TARPS POD) of an F-14 Tomcat. In July, Gay had
been part of a Joint Task Force Exercise as the Constellation made its
way to Japan.
Gay used his personal Nikon 90 S, set his 80-300mm zoom lens on 300mm,
his shutter speed at 1/1000 of a second and the aperture at F5.6. "I put
it on full manual," Gay said. "I tell young photographers who are into
automatic everything, you aren't going to get that shot on auto. The
plane is too fast. The camera can't keep up."
At sea level a plane had to exceed 741 mph to break the sound barrier.
The change in pressure as the plane outruns all of the pressure and
sound waves in front of it is heard on the ground as an explosion - the
sonic boom. The pressure change condenses the water in the air as the
jet passes these waves.
Altitude, wind, speed, humidity, the shape and trajectory of the plane -
all affect the breaking of the barrier. On July 7 everything was
perfect. "You see vapor flicker around the plane. It gets bigger and
bigger, then BOOM - it's instantaneous. One second the vapor cloud is
there, the next it's gone."
Now, go ahead, open the picture.