It immediately explodes, transmitting a compression shock wave into the crew compartment, where it strips off "spall" -flakes of metal, some the size of a frisbee-that fly into occupants.

The upper portion of the air intake is incorporated with an intake ramp designed to generate a rearward leaning oblique shock wave to aid the inlet compression process.

Vector analysis and shock wave theory are applied to the initial phase during which the contact periphery expands more quickly than the compression wave fronts in the droplet.