I would like to address a concern I have with the Aerodynamic forces involved with creating vapor cones and passing the sound barrier. While there are instances where a vapor cone is created while passing the sound barrier, this would necessitate the moisture content of the air being perfectly balanced to allow this. Because air is a gas, the moisture will only become visible under a vacuum created by some drag profile or behind the line of pressure created by an object compressing air. This can be seen in many videos on the internet as large aircraft come into land at slow speed creating a negative pressure “fog” above the wing under high AoA and wing loading. These aircraft are nowhere near the speed of sound on final approach and this proves my point that “moisture cones” as an aircraft crosses the sound barrier are rare instances when atmospheric conditions are just right to allow them. In fact, cones can be seen at speeds much slower than the speed of sound once air pressure begins to build up. I believe that the addition of them into the game makes it incredibly difficult to see when flying transonic speeds in jets. This creates a very difficult experience when dogfighting at transonic speeds. Not only are they not very common and therefor gimmicky to include in every transition through the speed of sound, I believe gameplay would be improved if there was an option to turn off this feature in the options menu.
2 Likes