Talk:Contrail

Ectoplasm example photo
The recent Blue Angels show in San Francisco provided some nice examples of the ectoplasm effect described on this page. I'm wiki-challenged or I'd try to add one to the main page; here it is on Flickr:

http://flickr.com/photos/fitzhugh/263984025/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 15.243.233.68 (talk) 19:18, 11 October 2006

ECTOPLASM? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.235.154.34 (talk) 10:07, 15 April 2015‎

Two causes?
I don't get it. Are there two causes for contrails? The article seems to say so. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 06:57, 13 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Contrails are visible trails of condensed moisture in the atmosphere. They are associated with aircraft and rockets. So there is only one criterion for what constitutes a contrail. However, there are numerous phenomena that can cause a visible trail of condensed moisture in the atmosphere. Firstly, the long contrails we see at great height are caused by moisture from the engine exhausts. These contrails can extend over a great distance and can persist for many minutes. Secondly, short contrails that are usually only visible around aircraft near the ground can be caused by wingtip vortices from the wings (or propellers) of aircraft. These short contrails extend only over a short distance and rarely persist for more than a few seconds. Thirdly, a localized region of "cloud" above the wing of an aircraft is also condensed moisture in the atmosphere so it almost meets our criterion for a contrail. This cloud above the wing persists for such a short time it appears to be attached to the aircraft and follows it around. Dolphin  ( t ) 12:59, 13 December 2017 (UTC)

Vapour trails
Is "contrail" a neologism or a military phrase? Back in the 70s and 80s, they were called "vapour trails". I've only heard the phrase contrail for the last five or maybe ten years, right around the time the "chemtrail" conspiracy crap started to blossom.

Contrail seems to be a contraction. Even if this word has been accepted by the scientific community, the commonly used phrase vapour trail should still be mentioned, in bold, in the article lede. On top of that, the etymology of the word contrail should be explored in the article. --82.2.5.153 (talk) 12:37, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Picture looks out of place in the 'See also' section
In my opinion, the picture looks out of place in the 'See also' section of the article and should be re-located to a different section in my opinion. Xboxsponge15 (talk) 18:36, 15 November 2021 (UTC)
 * The pics are actually in the gallery section. Mobile devices or different browser sizes can sometimes alter the perception of a page layout. But I did remove one image in the 'see also' section since there isn't a need to illustrate See also items. - LuckyLouie (talk) 19:02, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

Citation Problem
This article claims that up to 30% of jet exhaust can be unburnt jet fuel. I thought this seemed unlikely to be true, so I looked up the source (Ritchie et al. 2003). Sure enough, the paper says that, but it's not an original source. Ritchie et al. cite that figure from a 2nd paper (Kelly et al. 2003). However, this paper is not found in the bibliography at the end of the paper Ritchie paper. Therefore, there is no real source for the 30% figure that I can find. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.161.251.136 (talk) 05:09, 24 April 2022 (UTC)