When I’m looking up at different airplanes (I live close to an airport) only some of the planes leave that telltale white smoke emission trail. Sometimes it seems as though 4 or 5 planes are flying close to the same altitude (in different directions) and usually I can see the trail from only 1 of the airplanes. Why?
Could my eyes be playing tricks? Perhaps the altitude differs by more than I’m thinking. Please clear this up for me - I don’t smoke inside my home, so I’m outside looking at airplanes on a regular basis and it’s starting to bug me.
Those are condensation trails from the engine, not smoke trails. They only show up when the outside air is at a certain humidity and density, which varies w/ altidude. I don’t remember exactly but you usually get them at around 33,000 - 40,000 feet.
Yeah, this is a hilarious conspiracy theory by the nutcases. One part of the theory claims that when you see two trails crossing, at the cener of the X is where the guv’ment bad guys make the chemicals come down and poison you, so be sure not to hang around under that X.
When I was a kid, in the 40’s, it was common for people, especially kids, to look up at planes as they were much rarer than today, especially jets. My father would sometimes say things designed to spark my imagination and I recall him telling me that if I could find a way to eliminate contrails I would be rich. The curiosity stuck w/ me, but I never did get rich.
I have an additional question though. Are stealth aircraft designed to minimize contrails?
Heh. I was at a family reunion once where every time an airplane flew over I looked up. My mom looked up. Dad looked up. Mom’s husband looked up. An uncle looked up. A cousin looked up. Someone said, ‘You can sure tell who the pilots are in this family!’
They will have been at different altitudes. Your human brain is not very good at judging altitude. There is no known size reference to compare the aircraft to. And one airliner may be literally twice the size of another so it is even difficult to tell relative altitude.
RickJay, there were some bombers that flew that high. The B17 had a service ceiling over 35,000’.
