Photos of Planes and Contrails (That you took yourself)

How did you do that! Have you mixed a FlighAware track into Google Earth? Looks cool whatever it is!
You can get the FlightAware track in KML format by clicking on the Goggle Earth link (it appears after the flight is completed):
Screen Shot 2016-10-03 at 22.20.30.png
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL405/history/20161003/0855ZZ/LFPG/KJFK
KML files of the flight tracks are also available from FR24 (only to the subscribers).

I've just opened the DAL405 file (attached) in Google Earth and looked at it from your location. The opaque (black) section is for the time interval from 10:22 to 10:23 UTC, the Sun position is at the 10:23 as well.
 

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You can get the FlightAware track in KML format by clicking on the Goggle Earth link (it appears after the flight is completed):
Screen Shot 2016-10-03 at 22.20.30.png
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL405/history/20161003/0855ZZ/LFPG/KJFK
KML files of the flight tracks are also available from FR24 (only to the subscribers).

I've just opened the DAL405 file (attached) in Google Earth and looked at it from your location. The opaque (black) section is for the time interval from 10:22 to 10:23 UTC, the Sun position is at the 10:23 as well.

I worked! Thanks for teaching me a new trick.

I think I am beginning to get my head around in-line shadows.. If the plane is travelling in a straight line, the shadows are in the plane of the trail and sun. If the airplane passes over the sun at the observing position then the observer is also in that plane, and whichever way you look the trail and shadow will be in line. If the track is a curve then the shadow and trail will be in line if the tangent to the trail extrapolates back through the sun.. I think..
 
A new plane in the skies. The Boeing KC-46A, being built to replace the aging KC-135's. As of May 27, 2016:
Boeing continues to demonstrate its commitment to the USAF and the Tanker program with 5 aircraft now in test (including the first production aircraft), 7 aircraft in final production build, and 8 aircraft in the supply chain – up to tail number 20. The KC-46 Tanker will play a vital role in America’s Air Mobility Forces providing both global power projection and unrivaled global reach for decades to come.”
Content from External Source
http://www.boeing.com/defense/kc-46a-pegasus-tanker/

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this looked cooler in real life (my camera sucks). "HAARP" clouds produce a morse code contrail

1:46pm
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1:48pm

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and another plane, neat contrail shape
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and i actually got a pretty clear zoom in!
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Although Delta 1209 is similar.

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Edit: And more consistent with the overall shape and the blue paint underneath tapering to the front.

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Not wanting to clutter up other threads with my photos, here's a thread just for posting your own photos of planes and contrails.

Here's one I got by accident - a turboprop leaving a quadruple helix of prop contrails.

Was that picture taken with your 800 mm lens? Do you remember how high up it was?
 
Was that picture taken with your 800 mm lens? Do you remember how high up it was?

Yes, a 500mm lens on a Canon 7D which has a 1.6x crop (so 800mm equivalent). It was taking off from LAX, so probably under 1000 feet. Bit of crop and contrast. Here's the original overlaid with info.
20161021-055257-v9poe.jpg
 
Distrail over Henley this morning.

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And (unrelated) departure from Heathrow:

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Tourist fact: the gateway in the background is the entrance to Friar Park, former home of George Harrison from the Beatles. (We're staying just over the road for the weekend.)
 
This morning I could tell that conditions were right in the San Francisco area for persistent contrails:

730am.JPG

At work I snapped a picture at 10:45 of what I thought was a trail left by UAL6 (Tokyo to Houston flying at 35,000 ft). But then I realized later that trails outside my office window are farther north than they appear, so after going to FR24 I think a more likely candidate is AAL7 (Dallas to Hawaii).
1045am.JPG

By 12:30 there was pretty extensive coverage:
1230pm.JPG

I know I'm going to get an earful about all the spraying that was going on today :(
 
The engines on the Swiss plane seem to be more slender than most. I wonder if they result in finer contrail initiation comparedDSCF3036 crop.jpg to others on the same day eg.
 
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The engines on the Swiss plane seem to be more slender than most. I wonder if they result in finer contrail initiation compared to others on the same day eg.

I do not think that the engine cowling size matter. However, different planes do have different engines:
Swiss Airbus A330 HB-JHF Engines 2 x RR Trent 772B-60
Air France Boeing 777 F-GSPR Engines 2 x GE GE90-90B2
 
I do not think that the engine cowling size matter. However, different planes do have different engines:
Swiss Airbus A330 HB-JHF Engines 2 x RR Trent 772B-60
Air France Boeing 777 F-GSPR Engines 2 x GE GE90-90B2

I imagine they try to match the velocities of the turbine exhaust, and bypass air, but this might depend more on operating conditions than engine type.
 
A nice example of how foreshortening can fool the eye: what looks like a sharp, almost right-angled turn is actually a fairly gentle course correction. (And not over town as you might think, but way out over the sea)

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EasyJet Airbus A320-214 G-EZOY flight 6466 to Newcastle via Moon at around 15:20 UTC today. A crop from yet unpublished video.
Screen Shot 2016-12-04 at 18.15.07.png

Edit:
Here is the video

Source: https://youtu.be/HC7rBqoMTE8

Note that at the moment of passing the edge of the Moon disk, the exhaust trail in the gap between the engine and the beginning of contrail briefly becomes visible.
 
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