Quantcast

Free High-Resolution Wallpapers

Wallpaper Details: Sonic Boom!!

High-resolution desktop wallpaper Sonic Boom!! by FlorinC
Select your desired resolution from the menu to the left, then click here to download.

Sonic Boom!!

January 26th, 2010

An FA/18 Super Hornet displaying a vapor cone during a sonic boom at the Jones Beach Airshow in Long Island, New York. Taken in continuous shooting mode. I was following it with my finger depressing the button... snap, snap, snap, then boom!! This was the loudest thing I've ever heard.

Canon EOS 400D, with a Canon EF70-200 f4L/USM lens.

Wallpaper Categories

This wallpaper has been tagged with the keywords:

airplanes » beige » canon » canon eos 400d » jones beach airshow » long island new york » new york » photography » sky »

Click a tag above to view other images in the same category.

Bulk Download Service

Quickly Download Every InterfaceLIFT Wallpaper!

Build Your Own Bulk Wallpaper Download →

Don't click on thousands of individual "Download" buttons.

Get all of our wallpapers at the precise image size you need for your display, in one custom download.

Comments from the Community

Posted By: lerch84
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Great! you were very lucky to catch the right moment!
Posted By: buck2825
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Great shot. Over the years I have seen the same picture, that someone had taken, of a sonic boom. The picture was generally crap, but they are so hard to catch, everyone put that picture everywhere. this picture is great. congratulations!!
Posted By: Petr Stefek
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Perfect moment! Dust on the sensor must be removed ... the photo

Petr
Posted By: stubulman
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Incredible. The sharpness of the aircraft is more than one ever could hope for. I wish there were more "lead room" to the left of the craft for compositional purposes; but working with such difficult circumstances, you take what you can get.

By the way, the loudest thing my wife ever heard was a Led Zeppelin concert. It was held in an enclosed sports arena in suburban Washington, DC. She heard the band from the parking lot as she was walking towards the arena.
Posted By: JVi
about 14 years, 1 month ago
This might be a "once in a lifetime" photo for you. The timing is perfect and quality even better. Lucky!
Posted By: WhiteDog
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Splendid shot. By the way, I don't see any dust artifacts in the picture. If there are any they would be simple to remove in just about any image editor. Lead space might also be added using Photoshop.
Posted By: Frostmint
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Awesome! You are very lucky to have gotten that shot :D

Thanks for the awesome submission :)
Posted By: WillLeech
about 14 years, 1 month ago
This is amazing!!!

For a long time i've following IFL and been very disappointed with a lot of the wallpapers, this one changes everything.
Posted By: Massimo Santoni
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Simply beautiful!!
Great job!!
Posted By: ckcallen
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Well this is definitely the coolest thing I've seen today. I've tried capturing jets at the annual Chicago Air and Water show, and continuous shooting mode is definitely the way to go. It must have been a pretty bright day to get such clarity!

Nice work - if only it was an F22!
Posted By: Deepblue
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Awesome !
Posted By: Jeffrey Picard
about 14 years, 1 month ago
I have a feeling this shot will be floating around the intertubes for a long, long time. A few months/years from now when you Google "sonic boom" this will come up. This really is a once in a lifetime shot. Very nice.
Posted By: Binaryian
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Fabulous! Love it!
Posted By: TheReal7
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Excellent capture! Nice post work too.
Posted By: bizlur
about 14 years, 1 month ago
This happens at a variety of speeds, not just supersonic speeds. Generally people consider it from a sonic boom however it is from varying air pressures not from sound waves. I have many pictures of this same occurrence from air shows at military bases over populated areas where supersonic speed is prohibited except after being several miles out at sea. This picture might very well be from supersonic flight... I'm just saying that it can occur at subsonic levels as well.
Posted By: Calmly Traveling
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Amazing. I thought supersonic was banned near people at airshows. I guess that's only direct overhead flights.
Posted By: bizlur
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Calmly Traveling - Yes... its illegal. The pilot would be in pretty big trouble after shattering all the glass in the surrounding area.

http://wilk4.com/misc/soundbreak.htm
Posted By: J.vanderHorst
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Nice Shot!
Posted By: Dragon20000
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Belle image fantastique

great picture abd good job :)
Posted By: Dragon20000
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Belle image fantastique

great picture and good job :)
Posted By: boomertsfx
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Cool pic! This isn't a sonic boom though... It's just a vapor cone... your ears would be bleeding if he broke the sound barrier =) This just happened because the humidity and pressures came together at the right time =)
Posted By: PoopChef
about 14 years, 1 month ago
SONIC BOOM!!!! Cool!!!!!

By the way, to the armchair scientist naysayers here, if he heard a "BOOM" than the darn thing broke the sound barrier! You're right that a vapor cone can happen subsonically, but not the BOOM. ;) ;)
Posted By: PoopChef
about 14 years, 1 month ago
btw, this wins picture of the decade, so far.... ;)
Posted By: aetheldaeg
about 14 years, 1 month ago
It's a cool picture. Amazing in fact. I think you did a fantastic job capturing it.
Your ears don't bleed just because you hear a sonic boom. Glass doesn't shatter every time there is a sonic boom. It depends on the altitude of the air craft as well as size and mass.
Vapor cones can happen at both sub and super sonic speeds.
Posted By: Euphytose
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Definitely not my kind, but still a nice shot.
Posted By: Beginning
about 14 years, 1 month ago
^ what he said....
Posted By: bizlur
about 14 years, 1 month ago
But the boom could have just been the sound reaching you... You see the planes and hear it, but you get a wave of sound after it passes you...

Case in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wR32YYuddg (subsonic)
Posted By: rambo
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Awesome. As for the composition, it suited my desktop better when the plane is flying to the right (to allow for the icons on the left). So i flipped it horizontally. The best part is, the numbers on the plane go from 222 to 555 !! brilliant !
Posted By: MacPro
about 14 years, 1 month ago
great shot... one of the few recently that are worth being on here!
Posted By: liviuandrei
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Great moment.... great picture.... congratulations!!!
Posted By: driko
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Amazing shot! In the almost 20 years of air shows I've been too, I've never witnessed such a nice shock wave, much less actually captured a photo. Well done...
Posted By: mCm
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Awesome capture. I live on LI and I wish I went to the show last year. I am very surprised you were able to capture this with a 70-200mm. I'll be there next year with mine. Hopefully I'll be as lucky as you. Great shot!
Posted By: FlorinC
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Woah, thank you all for commenting and liking this shot!! I've put this up on Flickr and JPG Mag and got very mild reactions at best. I am not 100% sure the sound barrier was broken, but it was loud! Could of been right under it, and the humidity and air pressure was just right for this to happen. I also have a shot before this and one after, and this one was dead on, so I figured I'll try my luck and submit it here. I look forward to see some shots from some of your local airshows this year. Once again, thank you for the positive feedback on this shot! I greatly appreciate it.
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Not supersonic but a very nice shot of Prandtl–Glauert singularity.

The "vapor cone" happens with rapid change in air pressure and can happen in transonic(-) or supersonic(+) flight, since this picture was taken right on the beach you're more likely to see it than over dry land due to the moisture, happens all the time out at the Miramar show. This phenomena is basically the same thing that occurs around airplane/helicopter propellers, and the streaks that come off faster plane's wings. I've seen P-51's that have made vapor cones, and they're not supersonic. If that jet flying that close broke the sound barrier you and everyone out there would have blown out eardrums and be deaf for the rest of your lives and every bit of glass around there would be broken. Chuck Yeager used to break the sound barrier every few years out at Edwards AFB to kick off the open house but when he did it he was at least 30,000 feet up, and even that high it was still loud enough to startle you. They only do it now on very special occasions (at altitude) because people who live out around there have complained so much about the noise, and they live miles away.

Like I said, great shot but not of supersonic flight.
Posted By: FlorinC
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Although it is clearly a Prandtl-Glauert singularity vapor cone, I was unaware it is not a true sonic boom. This thing was loud! If I were able to remove my description of the image I would. Continued thanks to everyone explaining the vapor cone phenomenon and sharing their knowledge of it. There is more on my Flickr stream of the show if anyone is interested.

Thanks!
Posted By: s_e_brown
about 14 years, 1 month ago
Wow!! I immediately put this on my desktop. The only picture that I have that comes close (Not even) to this is a shot I took at Andrews AFB with the Blue Angels. I think that I'll post it so that you can see the difference.
Posted By: Woofa
about 13 years, 8 months ago
I"m pretty 100% sure the sound barrier wasn't broken. At the height of a flyover that you could take that photo from if it had been you would have really known it and so would all of the glass installers in the area. The last time I heard a sonic boom anywhere was back in the early '70s as all supersonic flight is banned over land from my understanding today. A true sonic boom is unmistakable, what you heard was a sonic shock that occurs sub-sonic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prandtl–Glauert_singularity

None the less, an awesome photo.
Posted By: Woofa
about 13 years, 8 months ago
Oops, I didn't even see the response that you had already figured out what you saw. I'm up too late.
Posted By: aihomicx2002
about 12 years, 7 months ago
Nice shot perfect I wished I was there. to greet u

Post a Comment

Use the form below to post a comment about this wallpaper. Please keep your comments on topic. Inappropriate or malicious comments may be removed or edited at the discretion of the webmaster.

Each comment can be rated by other InterfaceLIFT members and each user receives an overall score based on the sum of the ratings of all their individual comments. Users that have earned extremely negative cumulative scores may be barred from posting comments or their postings may require approval before appearing on the site.

email:
What I like about this image:
How I think this image could be improved:
(optional)