Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@markfingar/RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP via Getty Images
People have been captivated after footage of a fighter jet seemingly 'activating its cloaking device' surfaces.
It might sound like something out of a fast-paced action film that Tom Cruise would star in but no, this is actually real.
The fighter aircraft in question is a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, also known as an F-22 Raptor.
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The video was shared online that captures the plane nearing the point of breaking the sound barrier.
When it reaches this point, it becomes clouded in what people have called its “cloaking device”.
The twin-engine aircraft was designed by the United States Air Force to be an all-weather stealth fighter jet.
It took six years to develop before taking its first flight in Georgia in 1997. In 2021, it was announced that the plane would be fully retired by the end of the decade.
Since then, the Air Force has upgraded the jets, meaning they’ll likely have a lifespan into the 30s.
The jets can hit speeds of 1,500 mph - 2.2 times the speed of sound - and burn around 5,000 pounds of fuel every hour.
But despite what it might look like, the jet doesn't come equipped with a ‘cloaking device’.
Instead, the plane creates what's known as a vapor cone in the moments before it breaks the sound barrier, and some people have - fairly accurately - compared this online to a 'cloaking device'.
In the video posted to Instagram by Mark Fingar, one of the planes can be seen being engulfed by a vapor cone, making it difficult to see to the naked eye.
The clip left social-media users floored when it was shared online, with one person sharing the video on X, formerly Twitter, and writing: “Mark Fingar captured an F-22 Raptor activating its cloaking device.”
Another user joked: “It's how they play peekaboo in the clouds.”
Vapor cones occur because of condensed water that can sometimes form around an object moving at high speed through moist air.
When localized air pressure around an object like an F-22 Raptor drops, so does the temperature. Then, if the temperature drops below saturation temperature (the temperature for a corresponding saturation pressure at which a liquid boils into its vapor phase), a cloud will form.
Speaking to the BBC, Rod Irvine, the chairman of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s aerodynamics group, said: “If you see a vapor cone, you’ve got a shockwave, because you’ve got a change in pressure and temperature.
“The aircraft isn’t necessarily traveling faster than the speed of sound, but the air traveling over the wing is accelerated and locally breaks the sound barrier.”
