Supersonic in the context of Dew point

Deflagration (Lat: de + flagrare, 'to burn down') is subsonic combustion in which a pre-mixed flame propagates through an explosive or a mixture of fuel and oxidizer. Deflagrations in high and low explosives or fuel–oxidizer mixtures may transition to a detonation depending upon confinement and other factors. Most fires found in daily life are diffusion flames. Deflagrations with flame speeds in the range of 1 m/s differ from detonations which propagate supersonically with detonation velocities in the range of km/s.

Detonation (from Latin detonare 'to thunder down/forth') is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves with speeds about 1 km/sec and differ from deflagrations which have subsonic flame speeds about 1 m/sec. Detonation may form from an explosion of fuel-oxidizer mixture. Compared with deflagration, detonation doesn't need to have an external oxidizer. Oxidizers and fuel mix when deflagration occurs. Detonation is more destructive than deflagration. In detonation, the flame front travels through the air-fuel faster than sound; while in deflagration, the flame front travels through the air-fuel slower than sound.

Detonations occur in both conventional solid and liquid explosives, as well as in reactive gases. TNT, dynamite, and C4 are examples of high power explosives that detonate. The velocity of detonation in solid and liquid explosives is much higher than that in gaseous ones, which allows the wave system to be observed with greater detail (higher resolution).

In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a medium, but is characterized by an abrupt, nearly discontinuous, change in pressure, temperature, and density of the medium.

For the purpose of comparison, in supersonic flows, additional increased expansion may be achieved through an expansion fan, also known as a Prandtl–Meyer expansion fan. The accompanying expansion wave may approach and eventually collide and recombine with the shock wave, creating a process of destructive interference. The sonic boom associated with the passage of a supersonic aircraft is a type of sound wave produced by constructive interference.

An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume of a given amount of matter associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Explosions may also be generated by a slower expansion that would normally not be forceful, but is not allowed to expand, so that when whatever is containing the expansion is broken by the pressure that builds as the matter inside tries to expand, the matter expands forcefully. An example of this is a volcanic eruption created by the expansion of magma in a magma chamber as it rises to the surface. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known as detonations and travel through shock waves. Subsonic explosions are created by low explosives through a slower combustion process known as deflagration.

The Tupolev Tu-22M (Russian: Туполев Ту-22М; NATO reporting name: Backfire) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. The bomber was reported as being designated Tu-26 by Western intelligence at one time. During the Cold War, the Tu-22M was operated by the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) in a missile carrier strategic bombing role, and by the Soviet Naval Aviation (Aviatsiya Voyenno-Morskogo Flota, AVMF) in a long-range maritime anti-shipping role.

In 2024, the Russian Air Force had 57 aircraft in service, according to the 2024 Military Balance report by International Institute for Strategic Studies. However, in 2023, Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence estimated that Russia had only 27 aircraft in operable condition.

The SEPECAT Jaguar is a British-French supersonic jet attack aircraft originally used by the British Royal Air Force and the French Air Force in the close air support and nuclear strike role. As of 2025, the Jaguar remains in service with the Indian Air Force.

Originally conceived in the 1960s as a jet trainer with a light ground attack capability, the requirement for the aircraft changed to include supersonic performance, reconnaissance and tactical nuclear strike roles. The aircraft were manufactured by SEPECAT (Société Européenne de Production de l'avion Ecole de Combat et d'Appui Tactique), a joint venture between Breguet and the British Aircraft Corporation, one of the first major joint British-French military aircraft programmes. It was also later license produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in India for use of the Indian Air Force. Various single and two–seater variants of the aircraft have been developed over the years, including a maritime strike version. A carrier-based variant was also planned for French Navy service, but this was cancelled in favour of the cheaper, fully French-built Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard.

Schlieren photography is a process for photographing fluid flow. Invented by the German physicist August Toepler in 1864 to study supersonic motion, it is widely used in aeronautical engineering to photograph the flow of air around objects.

The process works by imaging the deflections of light rays that are refracted by a moving fluid, allowing normally unobservable changes in a fluid's refractive index to be seen. Because changes to flow rate directly affect the refractive index of a fluid, one can therefore photograph a fluid's flow rate (as well as other changes to density, temperature, and pressure) by viewing changes to its refractive index.

The Dassault Mirage IV is a supersonic strategic bomber and deep-reconnaissance aircraft developed and produced by the French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation.

Development of the Mirage IV began in the mid-1950s in response to a need for a supersonic carrier aircraft for France's independent nuclear deterrent. Dassault competed with other aircraft manufacturers, such as Sud Aviation and Nord Aviation, to have its proposal built, which was viewed as being both cheaper and simpler to develop in part due to it drawing upon the earlier Dassault Mirage III fighter. While originally intended as a dedicated bomber, a reconnaissance variant would also be developed. The first prototype, Mirage IV 01, performed its maiden flight on 17 June 1959; it set a new world record for speed over a 1000-kilometre closed circuit of 1,822 km/h (1,132 mph) on 19 September 1960. The first production-standard aircraft was completed during December 1963 and the Mirage IV entered service with the French Air Force in October 1964.

Shock diamonds (also known as Mach diamonds or thrust diamonds, and less commonly Mach disks) are a formation of standing wave patterns that appear in the supersonic exhaust plume of an aerospace propulsion system, such as a supersonic jet engine, rocket, ramjet, or scramjet, when it is operated in an atmosphere. The "diamonds" are actually a complex flow field made visible by abrupt changes in local density and pressure as the exhaust passes through a series of standing shock waves and expansion fans. The physicist Ernst Mach was the first to describe a strong shock normal to the direction of fluid flow, the presence of which causes the diamond pattern.

John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. Following his retirement from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a U.S. Senator from Ohio; in 1998, he flew into space again at the age of 77.

Before joining NASA, Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II, the Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War. He shot down three MiG-15s and was awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen Air Medals. In 1957, he made the first supersonic transcontinental flight across the United States. His on-board camera took the first continuous, panoramic photograph of the United States.

A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is a variant of a ramjet airbreathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow. As in ramjets, a scramjet relies on high vehicle speed to compress the incoming air forcefully before combustion (hence ramjet), but whereas a ramjet decelerates the air to subsonic velocities before combustion using shock cones, a scramjet has no shock cone and slows the airflow using shockwaves produced by its ignition source in place of a shock cone. This allows the scramjet to operate efficiently at extremely high speeds.

Although scramjet engines have been used in a handful of operational military vehicles, scramjets have so far mostly been demonstrated in research test articles and experimental vehicles.

Theodore von Kármán (Hungarian: (szőllőskislaki) Kármán Tódor [(søːløːʃkiʃlɒki) ˈkaːrmaːn ˈtoːdor], May 11, 1881 – May 6, 1963) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer, and physicist who worked in aeronautics and astronautics. He was responsible for crucial advances in aerodynamics characterizing supersonic and hypersonic airflow. The human-defined threshold of outer space is named the "Kármán line" in recognition of his work. Kármán is regarded as an outstanding aerodynamic theoretician of the 20th century.

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, supersonic, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH. The NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, representing the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, manages the project and is the prime customer.

The aircraft's development began in 1983 with the Future European Fighter Aircraft programme, a multinational collaboration among the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Previously, Germany, Italy and the UK had jointly developed and deployed the Panavia Tornado combat aircraft and desired to collaborate on a new project with additional participating EU nations. However, disagreements over design authority and operational requirements led France to leave the consortium to develop the Dassault Rafale independently. A technology demonstration aircraft, the British Aerospace EAP, first flew on 6 August 1986; a Eurofighter prototype made its maiden flight on 27 March 1994. The aircraft's name, Typhoon, was adopted in September 1998 and the first production contracts were also signed that year.

The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is an American twin-engine, jet-powered, all-weather, supersonic stealth fighter aircraft. As a product of the United States Air Force's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, the aircraft was designed as an air superiority fighter, but also incorporates ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence capabilities. The prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, built most of the F-22 airframe and weapons systems and conducted final assembly, while program partner Boeing provided the wings, aft fuselage, avionics integration, and training systems.

First flown in 1997, the F-22 descended from the Lockheed YF-22 and was variously designated F-22 and F/A-22 before it formally entered service in December 2005 as the F-22A. It replaced the F-15 Eagle in most active duty U.S. Air Force (USAF) squadrons. Although the service had originally planned to buy a total of 750 ATFs to replace its entire F-15 fleet, it later scaled down to 381 and the program was ultimately cut to 195 aircraft – 187 of them operational models – in 2009 due to political opposition from high costs, a perceived lack of air-to-air threats at the time of production, and the development of the more affordable and versatile F-35 Lightning II. The last aircraft was delivered in 2012.