Shockwave) ) ) ) ) )?

Question

Could the shockwave, caused by a low flying jet hitting the speed of sound, extinguish a forest fire?

Answer 1

As the shock wave passes, the static air pressure drops very slightly, as does the air density. Forest fires are much too extensive and generally much too severe to be affected by such a small perturbation.

Answer 2

The shock wave consists of more dense air than usual, rather than more rarefied air.  Thus it would tend to intensify the fire, rather than to extinguish it.

Think of it this way:  A sonic shock wave is just a thunderclap caused by the leading edges of an airplane overcompressing the air.  Have you ever heard of a peal of thunder putting out a fire?

Answer 3

yes it can

Answer 4

in my opinion, no.

Answer 5

The speed of sound is a frequency boom, theres not a lot of wind involved

Answer 6

I wont say no for definite but even if it was theoretically possible flying l that close to a forest fire would be difficult for a jet for a few reasons.

1. The updraft caused by the heat of the flames would cause a problem

2. The heat would cause stress on the body of the jet. A supersonic aircraft is already very hot at the leading edges due to the shock waves.

3. The fumes and hot air would affect the engines performance thus making it difficult to reach supersonic speeds.

Answer 7

I'm not sure, I would have thought it would spread it quicker like how wind does, good q though...

Answer 8

That's an intriguing question.  In theory if you upset the necessary, air/fuel ratio the fire will extinguish.  That's why oil fires are often put out with explosives.  However the shock wave is of such short duration it would probably reignite once the ratio stabilized.  Especially if the temperature was still above the ignition point.

This site has really good explanation of the physics behind a sonic shock wave, http://www.sky-flash.com/boom.htm

Here's some great pictures of it and a video clip. http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/tels...

This is a 10 second clip of Blue Angel 5 stirring the waters of San Francisco Bay, http://jumpcut.com/view?id=C009AF7275521...

Answer 9

No.  

In the 1950s there were experimental attempts to cause structure damage with such shock waves.  The waves weren't too damaging.