Contrails
 

It is common for jets to have contrails, but higher flying piston engine airplanes also leave contrails. I'm thinking Jimmy Stewart in Strategic Air Command, also, some bombers during WW2 left contrails.

Do P skymasters, flying high, leave a contrail? If not, is it because they don't fly high enough, or the engine is too small?

just curious

Contrtail
 

Larry, A contrail is a vapor ether condensed water or ice crystals and depends on temperature and atmosphere conditions. As such, it seems to me that it is possible for any aircraft to make a contrail. Don't know where speed or size has anything to do with it.
Jerry:confused:

understand
 

I understand how they are formed, but I wonder if altitude is a significant factor. Have you ever been aware that you were creating a contrail, Jerry?

No rear view mirror
 

No! No rear view mirror and I never looked.
Jerry:D :D

size does matter
 

I think you could make a contrail, but it would not be like what you see from jets, or from the WWII bomber formations. A jet or a big radial engine burn a lot more fuel, and put out a lot more water vapor than our little TSIO-360's. If we do make a contrail, it would be small, and it wouldn't last very long.

The only contrail I've ever made was at 2,000 feet in a Seneca, when a fuel line started leaking. Actually, I guess I was more like a crop duster!

Mark

I thought so
 

I thought that the 360 may be to small to produce a contrail. Also, I think that the rear engine may have something to do with it, mixing the air coming from the exhaust on the rear engine.
I was thinking of all this the other day, when we had incredibly blue skies, and very cold air. There were a lot of planes producing contrails.

contrails
 

bad piston rings can cause "blue" contrails" .
Lots of contrails around OSH during showtime.....

Interesting to note that when the moisture is up (RH) is when you see contrails... usually denotes a wx system moving in (as in tropical air mass). Sometime you can see the contrails starting and that " transitional zone" will move eastward over a period of time. It is just a bunch of frozen ice particles (moisture) reflecting in the sun. If the moisture (RH) is less (as in artic air mass with low humidity the crystals sublimate and no crystals will be seen.

Great predictor (one day or so) to detect a change in the wx locally.

think i have it right...

bob

FWIW: I don't know much about contrails, but I can use a search engine. :)

Contrail Forecasting:
http://www-pm.larc.nasa.gov/sass/con...rediction.html

Contrails can be formed by propeller or jet turbine powered aircraft.
http://www.af.mil/environment/contrails_contrail.shtml

The usual temperature range for the formation is -34°C and -40°C. Between the ice saturation level and near ice saturated conditions in conditions which are cirrus clouds do not usually form.:
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/postgrad/ledson/project.htm