Die Engineering Wonders; Part 3

This fascinating picture shows how condensation of ambient water vapour occurs when air is suddenly subjected to low pressures. You see this often (although less spectacularly) as vapour trails left by commercial aircraft.
Its is made special as the aircraft is travelling close to Mach 1, and the Prandtl-Glauert singularity has amplified all pressure perturbations. As a result, the regions of expansion (low pressure) above the wings and cockpit correspond to much lower pressures than we would expect in an incompressible flow.
Now if there are any budding engineers out there, thinking "Hmm… Prandtl-Glauert singularity. That sounds fascinating! I think I’ll learn more"…DON’T! You will hurt your head. Even I could not understand all the maths despite wearing my glasses and a very knowing frown. Alas, that knowledge lies exclusively in the field of the brilliant, such as our co-writer Tom-ato who it appears (bored of waiting for Moira to take over the World) has started to make a play at taking over the universe.