Steam & Excursion > Good Morning From Ely, Nevada

Getting ready for the day on a fine February morning in 2018 (or 1935).

Ed

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Nicely done!

Poster quality.
Bob

Hard to imagine everything in color back in '35. :-D

Thanks for the fine image.

-John

Okay, here's 1935.

Ed

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Wow...... VERY good photo --- another super photo! Thanks for the B&W version, toO!

Both great photos, with and without the vapor trail. Made me wonder, when did airplanes start making vapor trails ? Thanks, Photo shop .

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

Contrails started appearing behind airplanes when they could fly high enough to get to low enough temperatures and dry air. This was made possible by supercharged engines during WW II that allowed planes to fly above 25,000 ft or more. I remember seeing contrails as a child (late 40's) from several types of bombers and fighters. The water vapor in the exhaust condenses (as seen above a steam engine smoke stack). Conspiracy theories about contrails started about 1999. I frankly liked the days when airliners flew at 10 to 15 thousand feet, you could see everything that was happening on the ground below you. Contrails proved useful to us Navy fliers when crossing the oceans. Our navigation equipment was so pre-historic that we would often follow the contrails ahead of us instead of trying to get star fixes with a sextant. Hopefully the aircraft ahead was going to the same city/country as us.

Ed

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