F-22 in sonic transition

Thank you for the details. It was e-mailed to me by a friend who knows I
like aircraft, but I had no other details - it was just titled 'Photo of
the day #4'. I thought it was the best of the genre - condensation on an
aircraft - that I had seen. Thank you also to Dan, for the information on
the condensation. I thought it was triggered by local regions of low
pressure, most commonly observed at near-sonic speeds, but hadn't realised
how easily such extensive condensation could be seen at low speeds.


I just wanted to chime in.... condensation is quite common even at takeoff
and landing speeds. Check out the hundreds (thousands?) of pictures of a
Concorde takeoff and you will almost always see condensation trailing across
the wings. I've seen CF-18's cause condensation to form off the wingtips
even at landing speeds providing the conditions were right. Ditto for most
other types of aircraft.

Nick