Ferrari Mailing List: Re: A real low level

[Rick Moseley (ramosel]

Six hundred knots on the deck is approaching the speed of sound; we called it the speed of heat.  The vortices, called wing vortices, ie, the white condensation coming off the wing tips, will start coming up the fuselage as one approaches the mach.  You may recall seeing pictures of Navy F-14s doing this while buzzing Carriers.

 

Seen it? Done it!

On the "Wet Deck" if seas are calm and humidity is high at high subsonic you control it and drag it for miles.  It's even more spectacular when you drag it up into low cloud cover.    What you don't see in most of the videos (because the camera is always focusing on the plane) is the disturbance this causes on the water. 

A few rare glimpses of what Luke is talking about in this video.  Note how fast and quiet the Tomcat approaches when at/near mach 1

Supersonic Flight, Sonic Booms

Supersonic Flight, Sonic Booms Sound travels at about 760 miles per hour, or 340 meters per second and about 661 knots on an average day at sea...