Looks like it’s been sitting around for quite a while wot with all those cobwebs
Sure as hell don’t want to meat the spider that can catch one of those! 
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Just been reading an article on “shock diamonds” or sometimes “mach diamonds”.
They are the visible standing wave patterns seen in thrust plumes of supersonic engines when afterburners are on.
Not the most exciting post I’ve ever made, but interesting none the less.
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I dunno Stu, it has to be a strong contender
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Cue the Jim’s farts jokes 
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Not material for humour in my (thankfully limited) experience.
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Also a decent name for a band. The Shock Diamonds.
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The yearly duo flanker display @ RIAT is always pretty spectacular.
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I think they were quite surprised when the one that was landed in Japan by a defector turned out to be full of valves 
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Big beast. The missile it carried was huge too
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6.3m long and a foot in diameter - for an air to air missile!
Designed to take out B52s and U2s at over 30 mile range.
Mach 3 and 89000 ft, made from stainless steel. What a plane. Still holds numerous performance records.
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I wondered if something similar would make a comeback now but just as a missile launch platform now medium range missiles are pretty foolproof
Still no Astra though
I doubt it. The Russians have excellent ground based radar systems and missiles to go with them. Streets ahead of us on the radar front when it comes to their dispersed systems.
Also the threat moved from bombers to ICBMs, at least no one is pretending they are survivable.
They’re well-ahead with hypersonics as well. As are the Chinese.
Meanwhile the US has just procured 140 new F-15EXs - tweaked F15Es.
Remember the F-15? First flew in 1972? Obsolete? Zero stealth features? No hypermanoeuvrability features? &c. &c.
Still smokes anything it will realistically meet in combat.
SMOKES!
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We’d better hope so - can’t see me learning Mandarin this late in life…
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