Researchers flew the Orion on its first flight into the intensifying hurricane over the Caribbean on Tuesday and recorded footage of the Category 5 storm.
Irma was generating 300km/h winds before 2pm on Tuesday and has been upgraded to a category 5 storm, the highest intensity, as it approaches the US coast only days after Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas.
The NOAA time-lapse footage shows the plane approaching the storm during a smooth flight.
As the pilots edge closer to the wall of the storm, vision becomes obscured, clouds darken and the plane shakes violently.
More footage from the reconnaisance flight shows the Orion battered in severe winds and rain.
It begins inside the plane, showing the instrument panel, then shows one the plane's engines, under intense pressure from intensifying wind and rain.
Finally the plane breaks through the wall of the storm and into the clear air of its eye, surrounded by a huge swirl of clouds, which hurricane experts call the "stadium effect".
The National Hurricane Centre forecasts the storm will approach Cuba and Florida by day four or five on Saturday.
