A good clear day, cold and crisp and blue, the air full of ice and the condensation trails made by aeroplanes weaving to and fro across the sky.Contrails, as they’ve become known, are the artificial clouds made from the trails of condensing water vapour caused by the cooling of the exhaust fumes from aircraft engines as hot gases hit the surrounding air and cool. Usually they are a cloud of microscopic water droplets, but if the air is cold enough the trail can be made of tiny ice crystals – like today.
Just think, less than a hundred years ago there were no contrails. These straight, linear, clouds were first noticed in the 1920’s when experiments in high altitude flying began. A hundred years ago they would have been just another unusual cloud, now you can’t look into the sky without seeing one.
Yes, these days they are inescapable - and sometimes they even spell out your initials (well mine anyway!)
When I'm rich, I'm going to buy the red arrows and make them play Os and Xs for me.
ReplyDeleteNick Jones commented on Facebook:
ReplyDelete"Great stuff. But since when was your name Andy Ieight? "