Exhaust trail leaves 45 degree turn, caught on camera.

Well, this is a bit of an odd one.
Was not really sure where to put this thread but due to the possible connection I thought this would be a good place for the experts to get their teeth onto this.

I was out at Bovisand, near Plymouth UK this day at around midday. Was with some family when my dad pointed up to the sky and asked what I thought could have left contrails such as we could see.

Well, to say the least we were both a bit stunned by it.
My dad's ex navy and ex police force.. so he's not exactly a bad witness, but sometimes photos speak louder than words.

We were looking at contrails that run at 45 degrees.... Which known aircraft can do that? over civilian space too?

Is this a freak of natural occurences on man made emissions?
Or are we both witness to something out of this world, on this world..??
Here is the picture; (I did take a few others just in case this was not clear enough, but they do not reveal much else. Please notice the new contrail being created by the aircraft that was, at the time, flying to the left out towards the Atlantic) Your thoughts and opinions would be greatly appreciated.


Resized it so you dont have to scroll too much..

reply to post by Extralien


Looks like a maneuver capable of many modern day jets?

Just a thought.

reply to post by Soloro


I was thinking that too, but we'd been on the beach for two hours or so and we heard no figter jets overhead. To make such a turn would require a rather lot of engine power.

Yes, Plymouth does get the occasional, and i mean occasional (3 or 4 times a year), jet go over but nothing like this.

You don't even hear large cicilian aircraft go over as they're way too high alread as can be seen by the new contrail being formed. Concorde was only ever heard by it breaking the sound barrier. Plymouth airport is currently closed and that's only small. Only other aircraft are helicopters.

reply to post by Soloro


I don't think the turn is as sharp as it appears, I've seen many planes turn like this and leave similar contrails.

I think your perspective exaggerated the turn.
Had it been more overhead it would not have appeared as acute.

reply to post by Phage


That came to mind too, but it is still one heck of a turn that I've never seen before

I think the distance does not have too much of an effect on this as we can clearly see an angle that is not normal for our aircraft.

...

It looks like a flight made a turn en route to it's destination. Judging by how sprawled out it is compared to the fresher contrail in the pic, it had been up there for a bit, and subject to potential odd wind conditions.

Still, looks pretty cool

reply to post by Extralien

I think the distance does not have too much of an effect on this as we can clearly see an angle that is not normal for our aircraft.

A simple experiment: Hold a circular object over your head. Now hold it out at a distance. Does it still look circular or does it look elliptical?

cropped it and resized for a bit of clarity and better observation..


kinda helps and hinders at the same time

reply to post by Phage


oh yes, i fully understand what you're saying and do have a certain amount of agreement with you.
The curve on the trail on the left kinda hints at the craft making a turn, but then we see a sudden much sharper turn to the right and a direct, straight trail...

I'm assuming the trail on the left was made first due to the way it has dispersed, whilst the left trail has more 'freshness' in its formation.

I used to live near Heathrow airport and have never seen anything like this.

Here is a similar one someone from Houston submitted to CoastToCoast in 2009.



Unusual Contrail

Originally posted by Phage
I think your perspective exaggerated the turn.
Had it been more overhead it would not have appeared as acute.

Could also be two different short contrails that happen to appear to be connected. Actually, they look like they overlap a little.

reply to post by Zarniwoop


oh wow.. very nice..
Thanks for posting that. Looks like one of those pictures of a completely still lake reflecting the sky
Very good pic..

Thank you for providing something very similar.

reply to post by Blue Shift


That's possible too.. and maybe conditions up there cut them both off at the cross over point.. so, warmer air pockets stopped the formation of any further contrails emerging from that point..

Could be pure chance that they crossed at that moment.

reply to post by Extralien


You bet

I've never seen anything like that myself.

I would have likely been without a camera and only a story to tell.

reply to post by Extralien


Hi there, looking at the firset photo it looks like the centre section of the trail has either been blown less to the right or more to the left than its other parts. It doesn't look fresh so it would have been travelling a while.

Converging air currents and at different heights would make even a dead straight contrail wobbly and bent over time.

cheers, and nice photo.

Looks like an old contrail of a jet that was traveling away from the camera, making a gentle turn.

Not exactly dramatic.

Your thread caught my attention because my hubby & I saw the same thing a week or so ago here in the U.S.
We had just come home, were walking toward the house & both of us happened to look up & see it.
We both said, "Look at that", at the same time!!!

We saw the 'jet'? as it made the turn! Lower than usual, no noise, is it called 'banking'?, sharply. The wings would have been at 11 & 5 from our perspective. The 'U' that the trail made was even tighter, as the ends were parallel. If we hadn't watched it, I don't know if we would have believed it was possible! And it was like it was in slow motion.

We wondered what was going on, if they had a medical emergency or something. The people must be scared stiff turning like that!
That's when we noticed another, older trail, farther behind that one, same turning shape!

My husband wondered if something had happened while we were out, that all aircraft were ordered down like on 9/11! We hurried into the house, turned on the TV, but nothing. I checked ATS off & on, but nothing either.....until today!!!!

So what do we know?

We don't live near a big airport.
Not under a major flight path. Most trails we see are pretty high up.
We are not over-the-hill, but at least on the crest of it, & in all that time never saw a turn like that before!
Close enough to clearly see the wings, yet couldn't hear it, even though we usually hear those much higher up.
Lived for 4 years near an international airport, so we have seen a lot of flights.

What we don't know?
How & why!!!!!
And we are very observant!
WOQ

reply to post by Extralien


I will tell you what it is... airplane contrails. I was once going in the mountain to snowboard and I saw in a clean day sky almost vertical contrails, I said ... no way, what plane flies like that.

Then I realized the contrails if heavy or as a result of the wind or humidty may fall, (like clouds 'fall' on lower altitude) and so the trails can be curved or look vertical as a result of that, Also - it eventually seemed it was not even vertical, it was hortizontal and curved, only looked vertical from my position.

I am saying this because there were some who thought some CHEMTRAILS or contrails were vertical and too unnatural. A lot of the contrails can change shape and look as if by smth else