Bizarre doughnuts on a rope contrail over Nevada

originally posted by: Springer
a reply to: boomer135

It's not.

Well if it's authentic then I'd say he took a pic of a newer model it looks like. Just based off of the tightness of the donuts. It doesn't exactly look like the older pics where they are more spread out in a line. Perhaps they've made the technology better and to a point where it actually makes sense to put in an aircraft. Maybe they increased the efficiency

Without distance/height info hard to determine size.

Looks to me like someone tested a smoke system on a piston aircraft, oil injected into exhaust will show pulses from the engine firing. Check out some slo-mo footage of a pitts special or such. Although there would normally be a trailoff.

a reply to: Springer

I think it may be a conventional contrail through a temperature inverted wet air-stream that is at 90 degrees to flight path.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yeah, I remember that now, a ram/scram is a genuinely naturally aspirated engine where a PDE is not, could this image be of a new hybrid of the two? (I know I'm reaching but it's fun to speculate)...

a reply to: Springer

There is some wild new engine technology that's been bench and tunnel tested. This could be a small scale test of it, or even an early AETD test.

Well, that is the point of this thread, to see if ATS' aircraft experts could get to the bottom of it.
Let's find out what it is!

a reply to: Springer

Interestingly the Air Force just jumped their new cruise missile development up two years. A PDE would work well for a cruise missile system.

Come on, folks. This isn’t rocket science. Hmmm...Then again, maybe it is. Sorry... Anyway, what we have here is quite clearly a case of some black project hyperdimensional craft, utilizing a propulsion system of alien design, embarking on a top secret intergalactic mission. The reason the contrail ends abruptly is so obvious that only a child could see it. And luckily I happened to have one around who explained it to me. Where the trail ends is the point when the craft instantly transitioned out of 3D space, phasing into a higher dimensional realm where FTL travel is allowed. So, it’s simply a matter of “now you see it - now you don’t”.

There you have it. The world as seen through the eyes of a 21st century 6 year old girl. This kid’s goin’ places!

Frankly, I wasn’t thinking along those lines, but her explanation made as much sense as anything I could come up with...

Nice thread...

a reply to: Zaphod58

That would make a mean LRSO

a reply to: aholic

A PDE on any kind of ALCM would be impressive. You'd get a mid Mach missile instead of a mid subsonic missile.

a reply to: netbound

Tell "Miss 6" I agree with her thinking in as much as it's LOTS more fun than presuming this is just another black project test caught by sheer happenstance.
Awesome post.

Several years ago on a sunny day whilst shopping I looked up and saw a long white vapour trail with white rings all along it..the aircraft by now was too far away and just appeared as a white dot in the far distance .

It certainly looked just like the doughnuts on a rope pictures i'd seen and I was really chuffed to actualy see it for myself. A couple of years after that whilst out walking, again a nice sunny day..I watched a clearly visible commercial airliner (looked like a jumbo jet) as it flew overhead and off into the distance. It's vapour trail was entirely normal...what made this memorable was I actualy witnessed the vapour trail turn into a white line with rings evenly spaced apart all along it...exactly like the other one.

I felt disappointed on the day to realise the doughnuts on a rope weren't misterious in their origin but actualy produced by wind currents etc way up there in the cold air. What I'm not saying is all odd looking trails are made by airliners..just that some definitely are.

a reply to: BlueGlow

You're absolutely correct, but they are fairly scarce because of the required conditions to make one that way. I'd still be chuffed that you not only saw one, you got to see yet another form out of a standard contrail.

Did you know a little fairy dies a painful death when someone mentions Aurora?

originally posted by: CovertAgenda
Without distance/height info hard to determine size.

Looks to me like someone tested a smoke system on a piston aircraft, oil injected into exhaust will show pulses from the engine firing. Check out some slo-mo footage of a pitts special or such. Although there would normally be a trailoff.

I kinda suspect this is the case where in a jet engine one gets microstalls and an incomplete compression cycle has occurred and therefore excessive exhaust at a temperature that triggers sudden vapourization once the incompletely burned exhaust hits the outside air....almost like the backfire I get on my dirt bikes...from what I understand of a jet engine compression cycle this can cause a lot of damage within the combustion chamber and to compressor blades...think of a process similar to engine knock where improper fuel air mixturing cause pressure overloads and underloads in the combustion chambers...oops!!!...there goes two or three million dollars for new compressor blades!!!
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The many milliseconds between microstalls within the engine gives the doughnuts on a rope appearance. The only thing i can think of as to WHY the microstalls occur is probably a buildup of hard deposits within the feeder fuel lines that would restrict fuel flow for a short period during the combustion cycle of a jet engine...something similar to a clogged fuel injector on your car!

Easy, flying Police cruiser, he keeps the donuts on the rope in case he drops one..

Sorry, rare case of levity from me...

a reply to: Blackfinger

Here is a little tidbit to add to the fire in the sky...
One new technology for aircraft propulsion is to add golf ball like dimples to the outer hull of a secret aircraft so that a laminar airflow boundary layer is created that keeps the atmosphere AWAY from the outer hull thus removing aerodynamic friction. BUT INSTEAD of a rough eddy layer of AIR, a heated plasma is created using microwaves generated by many small cavity resonators which force inject the heated plasma through tiny openings at the bottom of the outer hull's concave dimples so that the hull dimpling creates a rough boundary layer of super heated gas plasma that sticks to the hull via plasmadynamic micro-eddy currents which keeps normal atmosphere away from the hull thus allowing the aircraft to go into high mach speed territory (Mach 15+).
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My guess is onboard fuel cells power microwave generators to superheat probably nitrogen gas (maybe argon too?) to a plasma state which is then force injected outside the craft hull to force the outer atmosphere away from the outer hull thus reducing aerodynamic friction. Forward propulsion is possibly liquid methane pumpjet ... Not sure tho!
Liquid methane pumpjet would also explain doughnuts on rope contrail!!!
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This is a tidbit from some aerospace engineers
I know who have a working knowledge of plasmadynamic-oriented aircraft propulsion systems.
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Plasma injection is actually an old technology from 1986 ... The hull dimpling is from patents filed by Porsche in 1985 used on race cars to improve aerodynamics via laminar airflow management! ... Imagine how far this technology has come to this year 2015 for high speed aircraft !!!

a reply to: StargateSG7

I think Northrup was working on something similar to what i have previously described
As early as 1991....

a reply to: Springer

several years ago - i attempted to explain why PDE engines will not form visible " doughnuts on rope " contrails - the explaination still stands

and as noted - such contrails are witness from conventional platforms

origional thread

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Well there you go, so what do you think created the one in the image?