Supersonic

In Supersonic, the beauty of aerodynamics is captured by the artist Kevin O’Connor. The plane on top of the picture looks like a bird, with wings spread in the background. The patterns of airflow around the plane with “Bally” on its tail show the magic of flight that’s faster than sound.

The artwork makes reference to the Concorde, a British-French passenger turbojet which used to fly between the US, Paris and London at Mach 2.04. Mach 1 breaks the sound barrier at 767.269 miles per hour. While the quick flight times were attractive, the costs, complications, and low passenger demand made operating the Concorde profitably difficult and led to its retirement in 2003. However, several companies have announced plans to operate supersonic passenger flights in coming years.