Aurora Contrails

For the first time I was able to see the famous donuts on a rope contrails believed to be from the aurora aircraft. Very unique looking. It was right before sunset as I was leaving a grocery market on my lunch hour. Anyone else seen these recently?

It can dedpend on high altitude winds and the like. I have seen what looks like a similar contrail before following the passage of what was clearly a commercial airlines and after a while the contrail had diffused and blown about enough that it looked like donuts on a rope.

The interesting thing about this is that they were tight not windblowen.

IIRC didn't NASA or the AF fit a few A12/SR71's with pulse detonation engines that leave donuts on a rope or pearl string contrails?

What exactly are these donuts on a rope supposed to look like? This is the first I've heard them being discussed.

I frequently see contrails that look "pulsed", where equally sized puffs of cloud come down from the bottom of the contrail and space in between each puff, at intervals of maybe a few plane lengths per puff. Maybe a third of them are like this around here, and they from commercial jets as far as I know. Am I describing what you saw or am I way off?

SR-71 with Areospike engine.



[edit on 17-9-2005 by ULTIMA1]

[edit on 17-9-2005 by ULTIMA1]

Originally posted by asawa
What exactly are these donuts on a rope supposed to look like? This is the first I've heard them being discussed.

I frequently see contrails that look "pulsed", where equally sized puffs of cloud come down from the bottom of the contrail and space in between each puff, at intervals of maybe a few plane lengths per puff. Maybe a third of them are like this around here, and they from commercial jets as far as I know. Am I describing what you saw or am I way off?

Heres a pic



Some claim these are the result of a advanced pulse-wave detonation engine

Whompa1 where did you happen to see this?

Originally posted by asawa
What exactly are these donuts on a rope supposed to look like? This is the first I've heard them being discussed.

I frequently see contrails that look "pulsed", where equally sized puffs of cloud come down from the bottom of the contrail and space in between each puff, at intervals of maybe a few plane lengths per puff. Maybe a third of them are like this around here, and they from commercial jets as far as I know. Am I describing what you saw or am I way off?

It is an effect created by wake turbulance

The idea that it is created by a pulse jet engine is not really supported by reality, since the puffs are clearly several hundred feet appart, and a pulse jet operates at very high frequency.

for instance the v-1 buzz bomb operated at slightly less than 50 cycles per second.

assuming that the plane moved 100 feet between each pulse that is 5000 feet per second. that would be 3,409 mph, or about mach 4.4.

Now since the cycle rate of the most modern pulse jet engines is somewhat higher than that, lets assume that it is around 150 cycles per second, then you are pushing mach 13.

I saw it in western montana. It wasnt anything I've ever seen from commercial aircraft contrails. From my view the "donuts" were strung very close together not spaced out.

Well, yes... you might have seen it, but don't forget, there's a big chanse that you saw something else...

Originally posted by Figher Master FIN
Well, yes... you might have seen it, but don't forget, there's a big chanse that you saw something else...

Thats true.

Thanks ShadowXIX, that pic is similar but not identical to what I normally see around here. My puffs are normally closer together. What I see I'm sure is just normal passenger and cargo jets because I'm within range of a major airport and that's where most of the jets I see are heading to/from. I still can't explain the effect though, and it alarmed me when I first noticed it.