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FLIGHT PATH No.22 | 2018 WINTER
<In Pictures>
This photograph was taken during a flight test to visualize shock wave locations on the main wing of “Hisho,” JAXA's jet flying test bed, using pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) measurement technique. The faint red luminescent patches are PSP sheets applied to the wing surface. When they are exposed to violet illumination light, molecules in these PSP sheets are excited and emit red luminescence. As the luminescent intensity changes according to the variation of pressure, shock wave locations can be visualized using differences in pressure before and after the shock waves. Since the red light emitted by PSP is extremely faint, the flight tests were conducted in the twilight through the night.