Can a prop have contrails?
Posted:
Thu Sep 02, 2004 6:38 pmby jrpilot
When jets fly over my house sometimes they have contrails coming off there engines...well do prop aircraft have contrails...like the Dash and such commercial props?
Re: Can a prop have contrails?
Posted:
Thu Sep 02, 2004 7:39 pmby Nexus
Contrails are in general a subject to exhaust temperature and the the SAT. Depending on winds and SAT they will be visible for a longer time.
Props tends to fly at lower altitudes where the temp. is much warmer so there is one reason you don't see contrails after props...
But if a Dash-8 would fly at FL370 it would most likely produce contrails awell.
Re: Can a prop have contrails?
Posted:
Thu Sep 02, 2004 9:03 pmby OTTOL
I hate to be the one to point out the glaringly obvious but how many thousands of pictures have you seen with squadrons of B-17's producing contrails?
http://www.goodsky.homestead.com/files/gallery.html
Re: Can a prop have contrails?
Posted:
Thu Sep 02, 2004 10:02 pmby Nexus
Well, I haven't seen many B-17's on photo regardless.
Re: Can a prop have contrails?
Posted:
Fri Sep 03, 2004 1:06 amby OTTOL
Maybe it's just me..............BUT it seems like I've seen plenty of documentaries and read plenty of books with pictures of B-17's flying high enough to create a contrail. These type of photos seem, to me, to be more common, because they dramatically illustrate the high altitudes in which the aircraft flew.
Alright.............there is ONE picture, in the group of photos on that site, of some C-130's participating in wingtip vortice studies. As far as I remember, ::) ALL of the other pic's are of CONTRAILS(condensation trails created by the temperature differential between the hot exhaust and supercooled moist air mass).
The problem is...........you know English too well!!! ::) >:( ;D
Re: Can a prop have contrails?
Posted:
Fri Sep 03, 2004 2:26 amby Hagar
There seems to be some confusion over the definition of the word "contrail". I'm not sure when it was first used but I think it's comparatively recent. Trails in the sky caused by an aircraft were commonly called vapour trails during WWII (& when I was growing up in the 1950s). These famous photos show the "vapour trails" after combat over St. Paul's cathedral in London during the Battle of Britain. This was a common sight all over south-east England in the summer of 1940. They would be called contrails nowadays.
PS. Like the B-17 photos these trails were left by conventional piston-engined aircraft. It's worth remembering that the Dash 8 is powered by turboprops which are basically gas turbines (jet engines) driving propellers.
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