Weird Fin Fluttering Rocket Video
Peter Clay’s U.S.S. Bakula rocket fins flutters and wave like flags as it enters and exits the speed of sound and was captured with an Aiptek DV4500 onboard video camera.
Click for the video (4.5 MB WMV)
The video has been examined frame-by-frame by some experts and resulted as “not fake”.
The video has inspired many theories as to what was captured but these are the only known facts.
- USS Bakula is PML Quantum Leap with some “enhancements” Peter added for extra strength
- This flight used a AT K550 to a K185
- The G10 fins are VISIBLY intact and feel solid (see the post flight exam) with only a minor fracture at the base on two opposing fins
- The G10 fins were built with an extra “tip to tip” layer of 3oz fiberglass making their final (average) thickness 3/16″
- The fins did flutter in some capacity
- The anomaly occurred entering and exiting Mach
- The footage is unaltered except for where altimeter data is added
- The lower section of the sustainer rotates from it’s original orientation with the camera / upper sustainer.
- The Sustainer recovered without incident
The fins in the picture are the ones “featured” in the video captured. Click the image below for the fin exam video (WMV small)
How weird, is there any indication of similar occurences with other types of rockets or airplanes (thinking of the rear fins on a jet fighter).
Comment by Peter walker — November 23, 2005 @ 3:49 pm
Definetly strange one. Ive been a keen aircraft/rocket
enthusast for 15years and ive never saw fins do that.
I think nasa would have discovered this with the tests they do on rockets.
It appears to turn to jelly. now if it does that at faster than sound,
i wonder what happens when we break the light barrier??
very very starnge one this….TJ
Comment by sasarchiver — November 23, 2005 @ 5:12 pm
it looks to me that the wing flutter was an optical distortion caused by the
air pressure coming off the cone reaching a maximum right before the rocket
went supersonic
Comment by xenorph — November 23, 2005 @ 6:57 pm
so xenorph, you’re saying that the air around the
craft was moving at close to the speed of light?
Moving fast enough at least to BEND light, fast
enough to distort the light recieved by the camera?
I don’t think so.
Comment by WW2 — November 23, 2005 @ 11:58 pm
that’s not what i’m saying at all have you ever watched a
slow motion video of a bullet? you can see all the
distortions in the air around it
and the “waves” created on a hot road certainly aren’t
caused by anything moving at near the speed of sound
Comment by xenorph — November 24, 2005 @ 12:50 am
air pressure differential will cause light to bend. density of an optical medium determines the speed of light, when light travels
between two optical medium of two different densities, light will predictablly bend at certain wavelengths.
Comment by soyuz — November 24, 2005 @ 5:29 pm
The air pressure causing the image to distort seems very possible. But, i don’t understand why it would only distort the fins, and not parts of the rocket. There dosn’t appear to be any bending at the very base of the fins or on the rocket itself.
Comment by Drg0nzo — November 25, 2005 @ 5:29 am
It is plausiable that the air pressure over and around the fins was substantially greater than the pressure at the base. If the picture included the cone, then we might see it distorted as well.
Comment by Leo Benedict — November 25, 2005 @ 6:10 am
the could be a sonic boom from a weird veiw. if have every seen a picture of a jet at or above the speed of sound you know sometimes a cloud like thing can been seen this could explain it.
Comment by dp462090 — November 25, 2005 @ 7:23 am
Don’t you think maybe the rocket would’ve gone a bit out-of-control (hell, it’d probably have broken-up in spectacular fashion) if the fins actually bent like that?…I think the phrase “If you hear hoofbeats, think horses…not zebras.” is accurate here. As cool as it would be for the fins to have bent like that, i think soyuz & Leo have the right idea.
Comment by runswithscissors — November 25, 2005 @ 8:54 am
I’m thinking the same thing about air density distorting the picture, much like a mirage.
But the picture behind the fins doesn’t seem to bend along with the fins.
curious indeed.
Comment by Cy Brown — December 7, 2005 @ 10:18 pm
It isn’t just the fins, the rocket exhaust undergoes a lot of distortion too. Maybe the reason we don’t see the ground distorting is because the view is spinning quite fast. Although one thing is near certain in my mind - it’s an optical effect caused by hit/cold gas around the body of the projectile.
Comment by b0dhi — December 11, 2005 @ 7:05 am
If it was caused by distortion in the air, would that explain why the flat plains of the fins come in and go out of shot rather than just the image of the leading edge of the fin fluctuating?
I’m not saying it isn’t possible, but it would have to be a rather severe distortion for it to show a side of the fin that is basically perpendicular to the lens of the camera.
Comment by Jim — December 12, 2005 @ 3:14 pm
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