What makes the vapor over a wing?

T

turbojet28

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,

Just a quick question; many times you can see when an aircraft is taking off (and seen a lot on fighter jets when they do very steep/tight turns - sorry for the "non-technical" way of describing it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ), there is condensation above the wing and off of the wingtips (almost in the vorticies). What exactly makes this? If I had to take an educated guess, it seems that it usually happens in flight conditions at high angles of attack (such as takeoff or tight turns while holding altitude), so my thoughts were that it is from Bernoulli's Law and when these high angles of attack are made at high speeds, the pressure lowers enogh to allow the air to cool to saturation and condensation. Is this correct? Thanks!

P.S. - I would just "google" the subject, but its more fun to discuss it here! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Correct. They are called contrails and are nothing more than condensed water vapor. The wing is creating it's most lift during takeoff or like you said during maneuvering flight and this causes a drop in pressure. That drop in pressure causes the air to cool and water vapor in the air to condense.
 
Actually they're chemtrails, and they consist of various chemicals that we spray over the population to further government experiments and population control programs.

We also have dark beam weapons that shoot out the front, but I'm not supposed to talk about those.

Actually, you probably better forget you read this altogether.
 
You are correct, sir. The same principle is at work in the formation of upslope fog and standing lenticular clouds.

<--actually learned something from my IR Gleim book! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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Actually, you probably better forget you read this altogether.

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Just stare at this light for a moment....*flash*
 
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<--actually learned something from my IR Gleim book!

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Snoop Dogg has an IR?!??! Who knew. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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my thoughts were that it is from Bernoulli's Law and when these high angles of attack are made at high speeds, the pressure lowers enogh to allow the air to cool to saturation and condensation. Is this correct?

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Exactly correct...
 
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Correct. They are called contrails and are nothing more than condensed water vapor. The wing is creating it's most lift during takeoff or like you said during maneuvering flight and this causes a drop in pressure. That drop in pressure causes the air to cool and water vapor in the air to condense.

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I thought contrails were the result of the jet exhaust at high altitudes. Does this term also apply to the situation described above?

G
 
Contrail=condensation trail. The difference is the manner in which they are produced.

When they form on the wing as a result of pressure differentials, they're called aerodynamic contrails.
 
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