How a Photographer Finally Captured a Jet Breaking the Sound Barrier

It's not easy to capture the split-second when a jet breaks the sound barrier.

Check out the story of the shot a photographer finally captured at the moment the barrier was broken after years of attempting it.

According to grindtv.com:

A photographer spent five years attempting to photograph the moment a jet breaks the sound barrier and finally succeeded, capturing the split-second moment the aircraft reached “transonic velocity,” or the speed of sound at 766 mph.

A 61-year-old man named Joe Broyles was at an air show at the Oceania Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and picked a spot in the sky and snapped eight images in less than two seconds, hoping he’d get lucky.

“They move so fast it’s near impossible to time when to start pushing the shutter button,” Broyles told Caters News Agency.

Bingo! Broyles captured the moment an F-18 Super Hornet 2 jet broke the sound barrier, forming a vapor cone around the jet that lasted tenths of a second.

He had been to several air shows in the past attempting to capture this elusive moment.

It's difficult because of the speed of the aircraft but also because it's hard to judge the height that the jet will pass overhead.

“I didn’t know if he would come in high, low, or somewhere in the middle,” he said. “I have experienced all three.”

See his photograph here.