Footage of a fighter jet appearing to ‘activate its cloaking device’ resembles a scene from an action movie, but it’s entirely real.
Move over, Top Gun; there’s a new—or perhaps not so new—fighter jet that has captured our attention: the F-22 Raptor, officially known as the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.
Photographer and videographer Mark Fingar shared footage online showing an F-22 nearing the sound barrier, where it becomes shrouded in what people have dubbed its ‘cloaking device.’
The F-22 was once considered one of the most advanced fighter jets ever created for the United States Air Force.
It made its first flight in 1997 in Georgia, US, after six years of development. In 2021, a former Air Force chief of staff suggested the F-22 might be fully retired by the end of the decade.
Nonetheless, the Air Force has since planned upgrades for the jets, likely extending their service into the 2030s.
The F-22s can achieve speeds of 1,500 mph—2.2 times the speed of sound—and consume about 5,000 pounds of fuel per hour. Despite appearances, the jet does not possess a ‘cloaking device.’
What occurs instead is the creation of a vapor cone just before breaking the sound barrier, which some have likened to a ‘cloaking device’ online.
In Fingar’s video, one of the planes is seen being enveloped by a vapor cone, making it almost invisible to the naked eye.
The clip amazed social media users when posted online. One person shared the video on Twitter, writing: “Mark Fingar captured an F-22 Raptor activating its cloaking device.”
Someone else likened it to something from a Harry Potter film.
“It’s how they play peekaboo in the clouds,” another joked.
Vapor cones form due to condensed water that occasionally occurs around an object moving quickly through moist air.
When the localized air pressure around an object like an F-22 Raptor drops, the temperature also falls. If the temperature dips below the saturation temperature (the temperature at which a liquid boils into its vapor phase corresponding to the saturation pressure), a cloud will form.
This change in temperature can also produce a shockwave.
Rod Irvine, chairman of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s aerodynamics group, explained to the BBC: “If you see a vapor cone, you’ve got a shockwave, because you’ve got a change in pressure and temperature.”
Irvine added: “The aircraft isn’t necessarily travelling faster than the speed of sound, but the air travelling over the wing is accelerated and locally breaks the sound barrier.”
The science is fascinating, but the primary takeaway is that it looks incredibly cool.