Con trail over Bristol Channel
 

Hi

I had a few days in Devon this week and yesterday, 30th , saw an unusual, well to me,con trail. The aircraft seemed to be routing on a line from Lundy to N.Devon ( best I could do with an atlas!) when it performed a perfect 180 degree turn and headed back to sea until out of sight and the con trail dissapeared.

Seeing as its next stop would be about 8 hours away I was just curious if anyone could tell me what it may have been... military maybe?

Thanks

Give me a time of the trail and I will try and find out.

Air test...?

Thanks for the answers ...

I am guessing it was about 1245 - 1300 . I knew I should have written the time down !!

airtest? ... quite possible

Cheers

Perhaps unrelated, but I have seen 757's flight testing there that had been under mod/maintenance at London Luton in the recent past. The very same looping backwards and forwards. Did the contrails have 2 trails ?


SHJ

Project Aurora?

Aurora (aircraft) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Poss a tanker ? Did a trip many years ago in a VC 10 over Lundy.

The aircraft was almost certainly Fedex B757 N917FD out of Luton, flew to north Devon/Cornwall coast arriving at about 11.30, did about 8 circuits at initially 39,000 gradually descending to 25,000 then back to Luton, one of the circuits is almost exactly as you described East from Lundy to north Devon, about turn and out to sea. Hope this helps.

Air tests over the SW peninsular are a regular daily occurrence. They tend to operate between Ilfracombe and The Isles of Scilly. Indeed, London Military even operate an advance booking system for such flights and require 24 hours notice because of demand. Checks usually involve flying level at around FL170 and FL350 and include manual reversion. Such flights tend to be of about 2 hours duration. Similar test flights take place over East Anglia, again working London Mil.

Guys...

Thanks so much for your efforts and explanations.... It sounds like you have it sorted!!

Flight testing certainly fits the bill, I just hadn't seen that before.

Cheers
M