It’s the same white smoke that comes out of your tailpipe when you turn on your car on a really cold day. A plane just produces who whole lot more of it. It happens depending on the temperature and other weather conditions.
Although water/water vapor is a product of combustion, actually the white "smoke" that leaves a trail from a plane in the sky does not necessarily come from the engines. It is caused by the supercooled water vapor in the atmosphere at high altitudes being condensed into water (just like a cloud) because the airplane moving through the air has disturbed the supercooled water vapor and caused it to condense into water droplets. Sometimes, you can actually see the white trails being formed from the wings of an airliner if you are sitting behind the wing and look out the window. Clouds are also formed by water vapor condensing out of the air, in the case of the common puffy clouds which we often see (they are called cumulus clouds), they are usually formed by a surface on the ground such as an asphalt parking lot heating up and the warm mass of air rises until it reaches a cool enough air at altitude that the water vapor condenses out (just like the warm moist air in your bathroom condenses on the cool mirror and fogs it).
February 26th, 2010 at 6:44 am
It is actually condensation of steam into
water droplets. The steam is a product of
fuel combustion.
Why some planes and not others?
I would guess this is a function of
altitude and atmospheric conditions.
February 26th, 2010 at 6:44 am
It’s water vapor.
It’s the same white smoke that comes out of your tailpipe when you turn on your car on a really cold day. A plane just produces who whole lot more of it. It happens depending on the temperature and other weather conditions.
February 26th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Although water/water vapor is a product of combustion, actually the white "smoke" that leaves a trail from a plane in the sky does not necessarily come from the engines. It is caused by the supercooled water vapor in the atmosphere at high altitudes being condensed into water (just like a cloud) because the airplane moving through the air has disturbed the supercooled water vapor and caused it to condense into water droplets. Sometimes, you can actually see the white trails being formed from the wings of an airliner if you are sitting behind the wing and look out the window. Clouds are also formed by water vapor condensing out of the air, in the case of the common puffy clouds which we often see (they are called cumulus clouds), they are usually formed by a surface on the ground such as an asphalt parking lot heating up and the warm mass of air rises until it reaches a cool enough air at altitude that the water vapor condenses out (just like the warm moist air in your bathroom condenses on the cool mirror and fogs it).
November 17th, 2011 at 12:26 am
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