Visible wingtip vortex!

"Tony Goetz" wrote

As for the tiles
being as hot as ****, I don't think it's unusual for the ground support
guys
and even the crew to wander around the shuttle not long after landing,
even
touching the tiles, so I doubt they're still too hot.

by the time the shuttle touches down they've likely cooled to
somewhat just cooler than ****.

chuckle You are most likely right. I remember seeing people pick up a
cube of tile material, just a few seconds after they came out of a furnace,
glowing red hot. Amazing stuff, for sure.

--
Jim in NC

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 21:34:59 GMT, "Tony Goetz"
wrote:

A great example of this is when the space shuttle lands, particularly at
Edwards (at KSC it tends to be humid so water vapor forms in the vortices
and masks the refraction). I've noticed it a few times and it is mainly
visible in video pointed right down the runway. Super high wing loading, I
would guess. I searched for a while but could only come up with one decent
video showing the phenomena. Pictures don't really demonstrate it. This
video is in quicktime *.mov format, so my apologies if you can't view it.

http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/FIL/FIL101/EV0116.mov

The physics of it are just those of compressible flow. Change in density
leads to change in the index of refraction of the gas. Visible, as someone
else said, via the Schlieren optical system often used in
transonic/supersonic wind tunnels. I've seen such a setup in action at the
supersonic tunnel at my school. Pretty cool stuff.

http://www.ae.su.oz.au/aero/super2d/ssflow3.html
http://web.mit.edu/edgerton/people/v...schlieren.html


-Tony Goetz
Rocket scientist in training.


Yep, that's it, except the one from the AA5 was tiny. It seemed to be
no more than a 2" cone.

Notice how you can't see it at ALL until it gets down into line of
sight along the vortex. Same as my flight.

Guys, I'm gonna get video...it will be on the site. It's just amazing
looking.


Bill Strahan
------------
Find a new reason to fly
www.adventurepilot.com

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Where was the sun relative to your view? There is an effect called a
"schlieren visualization" that describes why we see
mirages and the like, sort of like seeing the heat rise off a candle. I once
watched a shock wave dance around on the
nacelle of a DC-10. The sun was the "coherent light source" low on the
horizon. It was pretty strange to see. I have
also read that NASA and DARPA have used high power optics from the ground to
observe airflow around an aircraft at high
altitudes.

Dan D.





I once watched the shockwave on the wing of a 757 in flight for quite a
while. It was visible as a noticeable line of refraction in the air over
the wing and it cast very distinct shadows on the wing. The shadows took
the form of arcs similar to shadows cast on a stream bottom by ripples
in the water. An airline pilot friend said they used to see them on the
wings of 727's when they would get up close to their highest cruise
speed.

"Bill" wrote in message ...
On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 18:56:44 GMT, ".Blueskies."
wrote:


The sun was ahead, and above the wing. Not so bad that it was
blinding us though. If I had to guess....draw a line from us as
observer to the wingtip. The sun was 20-30 degrees higher than that.
It definitely wasn't close to head on.

FWIW, this was about 5:30 yesterday, Paris, Tx area.

Bill Strahan
------------
Find a new reason to fly
www.adventurepilot.com


Found mo http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/n...-033-DFRC.html