Love it. Thanks Kevin and Russ.
Here is an excerpt from a reply posted to an article on the phenomena of āblue smokeā from powerplants back in 2002, again printed on paper.
Power Magazine September 1, 2002
The phenomenon of SO3 and blue smoke [in powerplant exhaust] (āOne flue over the cuckooās nest,ā July 2002, p 26) has been well understood and in fact intentionally practiced in another industry for more than 40 years. In the late 1980s, as a young engineer starting a career in Cold War defense aerospace, I was given an assignment to study aircraft condensation trails. Much of what I found had been declassified in the early 1960s.
The key to hiding the contrails left behind high-flying aircraft was addition of SO3 (or chlorosulfonic acid which doesnāt freeze in onboard tanks) to the exhaust. The SO3 creates such a high concentration of nuclei for condensation of combustion-product ā¦
It continued explaining how it made the contrail invisible by scattering light blue with many tiny droplets rather than white with fewer larger droplets.
So the irony is that there may be chem-trails but you canāt see them and they would only be from military stealth aircraft. What you can see is just water. The same was true at a coal fired powerplant before scrubbers removed SOx to avoid acid rain.
It really isnāt rocket science (contrail forecasting and analysis). It isnāt any different than the HVAC psychrometric charts or the aviation weather science that gives temperature-dewpoint spread. You look at the fuel air mixture for combustion, the resulting temperature and water vapor pressure and then mix in cold air and see how it drops the temperature and the water vapor pressure fall with mixing ratio. From there the calculations from the combination of temperature and water vapor pressure is no different than HVAC and temperature-dewpoint spread, though HVAC calcs are usually for atmospheric pressures closer to sea level than the tropopause where contrails are most prevalent. This methodology even predicts if it will be transient or persistent as the mixing ratio increases.
It turns out contrail formation tendency varies with the fuel composition slightly, but not much with jet vs. piston. All of the energy and combustion products are dissipated in the wake. Anyway, the science is will understood by those who have reason to understand it. Obviously the folks in the tin-foil hats donāt.
Kevin, you missed one. As writer Douglas Flint once put it in his āMechanicās Taleā column, they should outlaw gravity so we can all fly for free!
@bobd: Extremists believe in chemtrails not because theyāre liberal or conservative, but because they donāt trust the government or science. That kind of distrust exists on both sides.
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I think the photo of the āchemtrailsā switch is a phony. All the Chemtrail switches Iāve seen had red toggle guards over them.
@Tom_Waarne: Red toggle guards? Luxury. Ours had biometric locks and required a blood sacrifice under a full moon.
Am I reading an old Flying magazine here? Back in our day we had to wait for our printed copy of our favorite magazine to show up in the mail box. I and many others immediately flipped to the back pages where we would find Len Morganās monthly entertainment pages. After that we went to another very enjoyable read, the authorās name being āPeterā Garrison. Could it be? Donāt get me wrong Iām not accusing you of any sort of plagiary or the like. Itās just that I enjoyed those articles so much. Reading them actually drew me to aviation and learning to fly. I still read Lenās articles when a close freind of mine picks them off the Braniff web site and passes them on. We can generate days of chat of any one of them.
Your writing style is very close to those two and Iām anxious to see more articles from you. Thanks for the memory jogger and the putting a little humor in a very annoying subject.
This reminds of the time when some legislative branch (in Indiana?) discussed (but I donāt think it passed) a law to make pi = 4. If memory serves, the reasoning (if such a thing exists among legislators) was the pi = 3.14159ā¦ is too difficult to for children (and politicians) to learn. I could be mistaken about the āreasoningā.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. I think it was Daniel Patrick Moynihan who stated that āYou are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.ā
Circles will remain circular regardless of the opinion of humansā¦ and donāt get me started on the flat-earthers.
Sorry to disappoint, but Pete and I are not related. I did get to see his Melmoth way back in the 1970s when he flew it into KLAL when I was a fuzzy faced line boy. Be sure to write to Flying and tell them that I am ready for the big show. BTW, the Flying guy i miss the most is Gordon Baxter. best, kg
Yah but then do own science.
Conspiracy theorists refuse to examine facts such as photos of contrails from high-flying B-29s over the Pacific in WWII.
They slide-by-you. They mis-represent what seem to be facts, for example one major claim that an objective person fell for said that country executives had decided on a certain date in a meeting - but the quoted meeting did not occur until well after the decision.
Skepticism is good.
(Research reported by the Seattle Times found that elementary school children were quite good at spotting errors AI software, because they had thinking skills and used them.)
Best op-ed ever in AvWeb! Bravo! Iām so embarrassed about how stupid humans have become.
Sorry I forgot to mention Gordo. He certainly deserves to be there.An oversight on my part. It comes with age. Wherever you go, Iāll be looking for ya and Iāll put in a good word at Flying for you.
It was Len Morgan of Braniff who was in the back of Flying Mag. I never knew him when I was at BNF.
Evidence? You want EVIDENCE?
Whatās wrong with you? Havenāt you seen the YouTube and Fakebook videos?
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You apparently havenāt been on āXā lately.
Gee, Iāve got to startā¦ if itās on the internet, it must be true! Nobody would ever fake a youtube videoā¦
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For decades Iāve managed to eat breakfast, go through my day and get to bed without having a stranger ask me if the earth was flat. This year itās happened three times. Each time I mention that we can all observe the Earthās curvature by watching a sunset, distant clouds, etc. Twice the people asking about flat earth theories have accused me of being part of a vast conspiracy involving government agencies, etc. as they mutter something rude.
The upshot is it makes someone like me, a person who has to comment on public forums, feel very important. So at least my ego gets a boost, right?
What I think is worth mentioning is what many peopl believed in the 1970s: psychic powers. Telekinesis. Ghosts. All of that junk was in style then. Seances and such in the 20s and 30s. So if we reflect on how silly we were in years past, we may not be at some kind of nadir. It may be that we are more aware of our historically normal amount of human fallibility.
I always keep my favourite spoons hidden in steel containersā¦
When asked, what are you spraying? I reply, it is a chemical that, when mixed with the THC in your blood stream, makes you gullible enough to fall for anything on the internet.