Key Points and Summary – That dramatic “smoke” around the F-22 isn’t a sci-fi cloaking device—it’s a vapor cone.
-During high-G or near-transonic maneuvers in humid air, pressure drops cause moisture to condense briefly around the jet, then dissipate.
U.S. Air Force Capt. Nick “Laz” Le Tourneau, F-22 Raptor Aerial Demonstration Team commander, performs an aerial maneuver during the Hyundai Air and Sea show at Miami, Florida, May 25, 2025. The F-22 Aerial Demonstration Team highlights cutting-edge airpower, precision, skill, all while reinforcing public confidence in the Air Force’s ability to protect and defend. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Lauren Cobin)
-Some outlets wrongly tied the effect to breaking the sound barrier.
-Real F-22 stealth relies on shaping and radar-absorbent materials to delay detection by sensors, not the naked eye.
-Vapor cones appear on many aircraft—including airliners and F/A-18s—whenever conditions line up.
-The clip originated on Instagram and keeps resurfacing, but the physics are well known: condensation, not invisibility, explains the viral F-22 footage.
The F-22 Has No Cloaking Device, Sorry
Viral footage of an F-22 Raptor fighter jet has emerged again, with articles wrongly claiming that the aircraft demonstrates its “cloaking device” technology.
The clip in question first went viral in 2023, with outlets claiming – in successive reports that same year and in 2024 – that the aircraft’s pilot deliberately activated a “cloaking” system that engulfs the jet in smoke.
However, the video actually shows the aircraft flying through a vapor cloud formed as a result of the aircraft maneuvering upwards.
The clip, which was originally posted by Mark Fingar on Instagram, shows the aircraft from behind. As the F-22 turns attempts a high-angle attack maneuver, moving almost vertically into the air, a cloud of vapor quickly emerges from the nose of the plane and engulfs its wings and tail. As the aircraft continues to move upwards, the vapor gradually begins to clear.
The latest report to publish the video once again wrongly claimed that the vapor was the result of cloaking technology, with reporter Keelin McNamara repeating additional inaccurate claims that the vapor is the result of the American fighter jet breaking the sound barrier.
“Flying an F-22 through an area of high humidity produces bursts of condensation around the jet,” the outlet reports. “And in the video above, you can see the F-22 Raptor activating its cloaking device as it breaks the sound barrier.”
The F-22’s Real Capabilities
The F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation air superiority fighter that leverages stealth technology – not science fiction “cloaking” – to reduce detectability.
The aircraft uses carefully contoured geometry and radar-absorbent materials to scatter and absorb radar waves, minimizing its radar cross-section and making it difficult to identify. The technology is not necessarily designed to make it invisible to the naked eye, but to the equipment typically used to identify aerial threats.
Stealth aircraft are typically still visible – assuming a pilot is close enough to be able to see it – even when powerful radar systems struggle to keep track of them. The Raptor’s strength lies in its ability to delay detection, rather than erasing itself from sensors entirely, or even making itself invisible using clouds of vapor.
No aircraft uses vapor cones to cloak themselves – and for multiple reasons. First, there is little benefit to being briefly engulfed in clouds of vapor. While it is conceivable that a high-speed, extreme maneuver like this may be attempted during a dogfight (a close-range aerial battle between two fighter aircraft), the viral video mentioned above demonstrates just how limited the “cloaking” really is. Vapor quickly engulfs the plane before dissipating about as quickly as it appeared – meaning the plane is only partially obscured from view for a very short period of time.
Here’s What’s Really Happening
What the video really captures is in fact a well-understood aerodynamic effect known as a “vapor cone.”
When a jet maneuvers steeply at high speed – such as the F-22 in the footage – it pushes into regions of low pressure that form around the aircraft as air is rapidly displayed.
For context, the F-22 is capable of speeds up to Mach 2.25 – roughly 1,500 mph.
If the surrounding atmosphere is humid, the drop in air pressure lowers the local temperature enough for water vapor to condense into visible droplets around the aircraft. The result is the sudden appearance of a cloud that can envelop the plane, making it almost invisible. The cloud does not, however, make the aircraft difficult to identify; it is, after all, easy to identify by simply looking for the jet-shaped cloud around it.
The phenomenon is sometimes known as “shock collar” or the “Prandtl-Glauert singularity,” and it is most commonly seen when aircraft approach transonic speeds near Mach 1. It can, however, also occur during high-G maneuvers where rapid pressure changes develop around the wings and fuselage.
Responding to an image of an F-22 Raptor surrounded by a vapor cloud in 2008, Peter Coen of the Supersonic Fundamental Aeronautics Project at NASA described the effect in some detail.
“Since the plane is thick, it has to push the air ahead of it out of the way” he said. “The shock waves the plane creates, they’re actually fairly strong. Some of the air moving around the plane is going at supersonic speed, even if the plane isn’t.”
“And if there’s humid, moist air around it, you get what you see in the picture,” he added.
Vapor cones are not unique to the F-22, however. They have been observed around commercial airlines, Blue Angels F/A-18s, and even experimental aircraft during airshows, whenever the right mix of speed, pressure, and humidity is present.
Photographs of the effect have long circulated online, often sparking speculation about secretive “cloaking” technology. However, these dramatic clouds are simply physics in action, and not the result of classified programs or new technology.
About the Author: Jack Buckby
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York who writes frequently for National Security Journal. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
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