Message posted by Skeet (Member since 06/29/2022) on November 07, 2023 at 16:17:16 PST:
I stumbled upon this episode of the Team House podcast with a former RRC operator where he details a recent fast mover sighting he had over "the desert out west" during a training exercise with the 24th Special Tactics Squadron. It's mentioned after 2:06:55: https://youtu.be/jWh2gBWNXRM?t=7604 He describes the sighting as looking like a "boat ripping across the sky leaving a wake behind it" and "moving from horizon to horizon in a matter of seconds, but it was way up there" with no sound. He goes on to mention reaching out to an ex-pilot buddy of his now working at Skunkworks confirming that they have manned hypersonic's. That echo's Dr. Mark Lewis' comments on the Def & Aero Report podcast. Make of that what you will. Nevertheless, I found the "wake" part of the account most interesting. My question to the more knowledgeable members of this forum is would a visible "wake" be expected when viewing a hypersonic aircraft fly by? Worth noting he states he was wearing "31's" night vision at the time (AN/PVS-31 likely the C model the USAF use) which can see the near infrared end of the spectrum. Would a wake be visible in either visible light or near infrared?
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