Computational analysis was carried out regarding the aero-optical effect induced by the turbulence field surrounding the hyper-speed aircraft.The transport equation of the variance of the index of refraction fluctuations was derived based on the scalar transport governing equations of the turbulence model. The refraction fluctuation variances and the fluctuations correlation and phase covariance function along the line-of sight were obtained. Using statistical methods, the turbulent modulation transfer function(MTF) and the refraction correlation function induced in the transmission direction for the refraction fluctuation was computed, which characterized the aero-optical effect in different aspects. Experimental results show that the amplitude response of the transmission function of the aero-optical effect can be characterized as a low-pass filter, which results blurring in the obtained image; while its irregular phase response results nonlinear shifts of the target in the image.And, the higher the Mach number, the more severe the distortion in the image. The correctness of the theoretical MTF was evaluated by wind tunnel experiment.