Something interesting just flew over

Today is a crystal clear cloudless sky and out of our roll up doors i've got a good view of the western sky and air traffic was pretty normal usually all I see out thay way is the nearly due n/s flights along the west coast corridor.
About ten minutes ago, as I was walking back into the shop , walking due south, I looked up and there was a single aircraft going from se to nw at a high rate of speed. It was twin engine or maybe a pair of pairs, but it was hookin it up, it covered two thirds of the visible sky in maybe 60-90 seconds. Its was its odd contrails that drew my attention, very short and pointy and didn't linger like the contrails of all the aircraft that usually fly over.
By the time I ran inside to get my phone and got back outside it had all but disappeared to the nw.
What ever it was it was haulin A.

Pulse detonation engine?

a reply to: punkinworks10

It could have been at a different altitude as the normal air traffic but still at an altitude that produced a con-trail for a short time. Could you make out any kind of planform for it? What city are you in?

a reply to: Cynic

PDE/PDWEs only really work for cruise missiles. The bigger the platform the less effective they get.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thanks. Wasn't sure.

a reply to: Zaphod58

You forgot that Long-EZ

a reply to: Barnalby

No I didn't. Tiny, lightweight aircraft that made one pass, and reached 120 knots. Even with something that small the PDE wasn't very efficient.

a reply to: Sammamishman
I'm in Fresno ca..
after I closed up shop I sat out and watched the sky for a while. About a dozen planes went by and today is a medium contrail day.
Nothing is lingering to long, trailing about a dozen or two lengths behind.
This thing had twin contrails that were nearly conical, instead of the diffuse vapory contrails of the other planes flying over . And it was fast

a reply to: Barnalby

That always seemed like a gimmick to me. Like saying, "Look at this thing we have. It doesn't work so good after all, so maybe don't worry about this stuff anymore, okay?"

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

The best they were able to get out of a PDE, even with a missile sized platform was a little over mach 2. There's no real point in using one when a regular engine will get the same speed, and better range and overall performance.

a reply to: Zaphod58

What was the donuts on a rope then?

a reply to: anzha

Air currents disturbing a normal contrail. I see it all the time. I saw five or six in one day, all having been left by commercial aircraft.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Interesting. I'd have thought the AvWeek guys would have realized that way back when.

Thanx. That eliminates the external combustion pulse detonation black project from likelihood then.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: anzha

Air currents disturbing a normal contrail. I see it all the time. I saw five or six in one day, all having been left by commercial aircraft.

I see them all the time here. It's kind of funny when people get excited about that.

a reply to: anzha

If you don't see it very often it's easy to mistake it for something else. I'm constantly traveling so see a lot of contrails under a lot of different conditions.

a reply to: punkinworks10

Interesting that a direct flight from Edwards to N. Korea and China crosses over Fresno and has a SE to NW track.

Just throwing that out there, not saying that it was an aircraft from Edwards but who knows.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I'm disappointed that it didn't catch on in the light aircraft market.

Cessna's that sound like deafening buzz-bombs powered by external combustion engines based on discarded compact car cylinder heads might just be the thing to revive recreational aircraft ownership!

a reply to: Sammamishman

perhaps from edwards south.




couldn't one throw something in the fuel to stop contrails from forming? I wouldn't want contrails telling people when and where I was going.

a reply to: Zaphod58

We get them all the time in New England. Real military aircraft, not so much, unless you count the ANG F-15's that use the Maine north woods as a training area.

I also saw an F-16 transiting alone at 40,000 feet or so a little over a decade ago when I was a sailing instructor. At least that's what I think it was, it was tiny, flying north to south at airliner speeds, and leaving a single, extremely, fine contrail.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Why use it all the time? If you see a contrail over California heading west, where's it going?