T-38 - NASA shock waves - Tyler Rogoway

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has used an upgraded aerial camera system to take the first air-to-air picture of the supersonic shockwaves from two different planes interacting with each other. NASA will use this same system to gather data to support the development of the experimental X-59A Quiet Supersonic Transport, or QueSST, and for future research into aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound.

NASA released the image, and others from the same series of tests using the new airborne camera system, on Mar. 5, 2019. A Beechcraft B-200 King Air carrying the improved imagery equipment had taken the shots of two T-38 Talon jet trainer aircraft as part of the fourth phase of the Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren program, or AirBOS. The planes had flown the missions from the Armstrong Flight Research Center, which is situated within Edwards Air Force Base in California.