Unusual Sharp Turn In A Contrail

[Weather-history]

Not sure how unusual this is but I can't remember seeing such a sharp turn in a contrail

The track looks unusual to me. That is looking west and the contrail before the turn appears to be parallel to the horizon ie a north-south trajectory then it makes a turn and is travelling with an easterly component.

Taking into account of distortion, it is still looks unusual to me as I don't recall seeing a contrail in these skies taking a track like that.

[johnholmes]

I would imagine its a military aircraft

[Pennine Ten Foot Drifts]

Or a UFO ofcourse

[Roo]

Or a UFO ofcourse

Or a pilot who discovered Jeffrey Archer was onboard and wanted to meet the captain?

[Louby]

Never seen anything like that before! surely its got to do with angles and trick of the eye Would love to hear an explaination for it

[Cookie]

looks like someone changed their mind fast!

[Candice]

I live in an area where there is a lot of military aircraft activity - have seen this before when a Tornado (not a mini-tornado - heh heh) comes over and then turns and climbs fast.

[Azores Hi]

A classic sign of OCD, they couldn't remember whether or not they had checked that the iron was unplugged.

[shuggee]

Or could it be an indication of a sudden change of direction in upper winds?

[Weather-history]

A close up of that turn

[Andy Bown]

As mentioned by Candice, military aircraft (Tornado, Eurofighter etc) can and do fly at angles like that, however they don't usually produce contrails - well not around here anyway - unless training for an air show where (sometimes coloured) smoke is emitted for display like with the Red Arrows.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

A close up of that turn

As others have said, military aircraft can and do perform that sort of manouevre, especially the latest generation of fighters such as the Eurofighter Typhoon and the American F-22 Raptor, both of which use vectored thrust technology and active flight surfaces to perform manouevres thought of as impossible just a few years back.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

ive seen a few to my west in the evenings in spring with help of setting sun, going north then turned round the western side and ended up going south

the trail not as effective as that one but ive seen 3 of 4 going north then turning round to head south, but right in the extreme west

[Grimsby Snow Lover]

Looks to me like the pilot forgot to lock his house or switch the kettle off. Quite a strange contrail!

[Ghost]

Agree with lou, and say the angles maybe tighter than they look. but...

If I was to put money on it id say its military aircraft?

however they don't usually produce contrails

this is a photo is of two Typhoons…

[Rustynailer]

Its a matter of perspective Mr Data, IMO although it looked like a sharp tern from where you viewed it, from another angle it could have looked much less so.

I am always looking through long zoom lenses, the photo you took has the familiar characteristics(to me)of being compressed by angle of viewing and distance.

Of course I could be totally wrong, in which case I would go for the small fast jet option <_<

Regards,

Russ.