The trajectory of the spray is studied theoretically and experimentally when a round liquid jet is injected into a supersonic crossflow vertically. A solid model of continuous liquid column is established in three-dimensional space. The cross-section deformation equation of the continuous liquid column along the injection direction is established using a method of micro-element analysis. The stress analysis of cross section is simplified into a two-dimensional droplet. The shape of the cross section is considered to continuously change from circular to elliptical shape. And the bow shock wave in front of the jet column is simplified into an oblique shock wave with a known shock angle. Based on this, the calculation of aerodynamic force is greatly simplified. A dimensionless parameter named effective deformation time of liquid column (the logogram is ${t_{\rm valid}}$ ) is defined and used to judge the end point of the liquid column quantitatively. The liquid jet trajectory and cross-section deformation can be calculated using MATLAB software. The instantaneous images of continuous liquid columns in supersonic crossflow are captured using high-spatial-resolution microscopic imaging methods. The microscopic imaging system is composed of a double pulse solid-state laser, computer, CCD camera, synchronous controller, microscope lens and laser diffuser. After passing through the laser diffuser, a plane background light with uniform distribution is formed on the scattering plate. The mean filtering method is used to filter the original image. After filtering, the range of gray distribution in the background area is obviously reduced. The distribution of gray value is more concentrated, and the background of the image is more uniform. Then the image edge detection function is used to obtain the near-field jet trajectory. The parameter variables studied include liquid injection pressure drop (1–2 MPa), liquid nozzle diameter (0.5 mm/1.0 mm), and liquid gas momentum ratio (3.32–7.27). The results show that the continuous liquid column model can better predict the jet trajectory on the center plane and the shape of the liquid column in three-dimensional space. It is indicated that the predictive result matches well with the experimental result. This study is of great significance for establishing the solid-particle coupling model of liquid jet in supersonic crossflows.