Blue Angels Over San Francisco Bay: How Low Can You Go?

When I’ve seen pictures of that effect in the past, I’ve heard that it’s what happens when a plane passes the speed of sound (which is also what creates the sonic boom). I don’t know if this is accurate, it’s just what I’ve read/heard in the past.

been there for fleet week and seen them practice before 9/11. i saw them do daring things throughout the city, including close to the water. i cannot speak for this photo. watching them that week was amazing- and i heard several sonic booms then. i had not heard them since i was i a child–grew up near a nike missle base.

There’s no way this could be real.

Could be real, could be fake, don’t know for sure. One thing I do know is that there was a bit of controversy over the Blue Angels being in Fleet Week at all, some San Fran supervisor did not want them there because he felt they posed a safety risk to people on the ground and around the area. After that kind of unwanted attention, I highly doubt the Blue Angels would risk doing anything like this; to them it may be totally safe and as risk free as it can be but that doesn’t mean it isn’t any less dangerous than other maneuvers, and impressions are everything my friends.

i saw the video of this, and the video look real.
although it did not create a sonic boom, would have shattered a lot of windows if it did. it did however create that vapor cone because it was flying about 25-50 ft above the water.

It’s not photoshopped, nor is it a sonic boom. It is a vapor formation that happens when jets fly close to the surface of the water.

Wankers.

What a total fucking nuisance that is. Dangerous, irresponsible and a complete waste of time.

Not fake and not breaking the sound barrier. The Blue Angels routinely fy close to the speed of sound very low as it generates a wake and small rooster tail over the water. What you see is the Prandtl-Glauert condensation cloud, something that you can see on any airplane at any altitude. It helps greatly if it is humid out, and if there is a fairly significant pressure differential, so you are likely to see it from military aircraft in a steep turn or at a high rate of speed, or from your local airliner coming in to land (with the flaps down). It also has a tendency to “flash” – appearing and disappearing very quickly.

Kristian Twombly said what I woulda said if I wasn’t being responsible and working and got here sooner.

It’s probably a camera trick, but I don’t think the plane should be flying that close to the boats. Other than that, the picture is 100% possible and doesn’t have to be a fake.

Your tax dollars at work…

That is not a rooster tail, not even close to being one. Here is an example of a rooster tail: http://www.teshio.com/JetBoat/images/Beismeyer_Rooster_tail.jpg

I think it is real… F18 Hornet Creates Vapor Cone (VIDEO)

in the 50′s and 60′ there were missile bases throughout the country guarding key cities and vital areas–these missiles were called nike. they were capable of being armed with nuclear warheads. i live in northwest indiana.
the base 10 miles from me, did have nuclear capability. guarded the gary/east chicago steel works–vital to the country, plus the oil refrineries. also covered chicago.
if you know what you are looking for, you can find remains for 2-3 of them in chicago public parks. when the us closed the bases, they kept one open as a museum–in san fran–in the marin head lands—. took the tour , my hubby a geek, amazing how many were around us. mine finally going to me torn down for a subdivision–young people never believe when i tell them what it was, but we old timers still use it, when we give direction–it isn’t tofar past the old nike base.

looks like its pretty figured out, i think its real but not a sonic boom, when planes fly from about mach .95-1.05 control surfaces so i doubt they would fly so low with pretty much no control. im pretty confident its real though. those things are amazing.

Oh yeah… looks real to me… the compression shock from the wing causes the water in the air to condense momentarily until the atmosphere rushes back in… and makes a cloud trailing the plane.

Here’s another example from the web: http://wohba.com/2005/06/visible-sound-barrier.html

–Mike–

Haha reading the responses from everyone on here makes me laugh so hard. There is one person on here that is right, i am a chemical engineer and an USAF pilot. This is not Photo shopped, It is not fake, It is not anything to do with breaking the sound barrier or the resulting sonic boom, it is approx 25ft above the water, it is not during the show, and there is an extremely simple explanation for THIS particular vapor cone. I, however, will not explain it because a very simple google search and less than 10 minutes of reading can inform anyone, who takes the time to read, how and why this phenomenon occurs. I ran across this forum while collecting pictures for a presentation and couldn’t help but make a comment. Use your resources folks, thats why we have them.

Listen people there wa no sonic boom. its against flight regutaions to fly that fast especially wit people around. another the photos is fake. look at the shadow. on top of that they cant fly that low cause u cant accuratly judge how far u are oof the water cause water constantly move. if so he would have to have made in flight adjustment that could save him or kill him. beside nothing i think below 1000 ft off the flight deck during a show over people or next to them. not if it was a runways then yea he could fly that low. peace.

SKEPTICS !!! Check out all these photos from Fleet Week on San Francisco Bay. Some HIGH SPEED LOW PASS shots are here, too! Same place, different year…

http://home.comcast.net/~bzee1a/FleetWk07.html