INTERACTIVE FLOW LAB
Expose any airframe in the archive to adjustable airflow. Watch streamlines divide at the nose and follow the aircraft’s own outline, increase angle of attack until the wake breaks open, introduce cross-flow, push the tunnel through Mach 1, and inspect an approximate pressure field.
Illustrative visualisation, not engineering-grade CFD. Every line, colour, and reading on this page is a teaching aid produced by a simplified visual model. Nothing here is a calculated or measured aerodynamic result, with one stated exception: the speed of sound, the Mach number and the Mach-cone angle are calculated from the ambient temperature you set, and are marked = where they appear.
F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. SWEPT WING. Air is flowing smoothly around the aircraft. Air moves left to right past the airframe at 250 knots, Mach 0.38. The flow divides at the nose, follows the silhouette, and closes into a narrow wake. All of this is an illustration, not a measurement.
HOW TO READ IT
Cyan traces represent freestream air, and follow the outline of the model currently on screen — orbit the aircraft and the flow re-reads its shape. Gold traces identify the disturbed wake and approximate vortex activity behind the airframe.
Warm and cool regions are qualitative cues that react to speed, density, and angle of attack. Contour lines are dashed on the high-pressure side and solid on the low-pressure side, so the field can be read without relying on colour. They are not calculated surface-pressure measurements.
Each airframe is drawn using a profile for its configuration — swept wing in this case. Swept surfaces delay the separation cue and shed a tighter, faster wake. Profiles change how the picture behaves, not what any aircraft can really do. Stall onset and the Mach number at which compressibility cues appear both come from that profile, so a delta and a trainer do not behave alike.
The speed of sound is calculated from ambient temperature using the standard relation for a perfect gas, and the Mach cone is drawn at asin(1/M) — the one angle here taken from physics rather than chosen. Shock placement on the airframe, the supersonic pocket over the wing and the condensation cloud are illustrative cues. Condensation appears only in a humid atmosphere and is a moisture effect, not proof of supersonic flight.
This educational display uses visual models rather than watertight engineering geometry, and a closed-form drawing model rather than a flow solver. It is not CFD. Do not use it for design, performance prediction, or flight planning.