Dec
15
2011
If you were born prior to 1930, in England or Western Europe, you know what contrails were. They were the thin white trails of ice-crystal clouds caused by hundreds of British and American heavy bombers attacking Germany from 25 to 30 thousand feet. If conditions were right, water vapor added to the exhaust from the planes caused the “contrails” to appear.
During “daylight” raids, if conditions were right, the anti-aircraft guns could see the bombers at the end of the contrails and quickly adjust their guns to their targets. It was a high priority job of the U.S.
Air Force Weather forecasters to try to guide our planes to fly at safer altitudes where conditions would not produce “Contrails”.