Fleet of contrails flying due north at round 1100am today??

[Ashto70]

Hi

I'm totally new to this forum, and hope you can help me identify what looked like a squadron or fleet of airliners flying north over Staffordshire airspace this morning.

They flew over between about 1045 to 1115.

My son (20 yeas old) noticed several contrails flying relatively close together (maybe 1 to 2 miles apart behind one and other). Over a period of about 20 minutes we must have seen 9 - 12 aircraft all flying in what appeared to be some unit or fleet. It was very difficult to make the aircraft clear in 20x80 binoculars, but it looked like there were possibly aircraft of two types, and most certainly of an airliner design. The fuselage looked white or grey and the tail section appeared to be mostly red. Any ideas warmly received!

I live in Stone, just south of Stoke on Trent, and the aircraft were probably flying at around 30,000ft and some 10-15 miles east of our location.

If anybody is able to enlighten me and my lad on what these aircraft were and what they were doing we would be very grateful. I've looked at the time lapse playback on the Flightradar24 software, but cannot identify them. This leads me to believe they are probably non-commercial aircraft, or even military airliners?

Any help is truly appreciated.

Best regards,
Craig

[Amper]

This is just a guess but after reviewing the playback and with info you provided,I think what you saw is normal traffic mostly by American Airlines,Delta and United from LESTA to RODOL.
You have to understand that although planes appear to be on the sam ALT they are not. And depending of angle of sight they appear to be one behind another due to the altitude difference,and they are not

[Ashto70]

Hi

Thanks very much for your reply.

I think I agree with your line of thinking. There is certainly some distance between my pov and the planes themselves. I was also thinking that this is a very busy flight path and due to weather being fine (for once) the air quality made for excellent contrails. In actual fact I've seen numerous plane contrails going in the same direction (south to north).

Cheers for taking the time out to reply to my message. Mystery solved - it seems!

Craig

[Amper]

Exactly.
Because of atmospheric conditions you are able to see alot of contrails.
For the better understanding of the routes over you visit Skyvector Where you have World Hi, World Low and World VFR options of map.

Nenad

[Ashto70]

I just realised your not in the UK!

Fyi, it has been quite sunny today in these parts. A huge difference from the storms and rain of the last two months.
The quality of the air this morning was still, crisp, and the sky was very blue. The high amounts of moisture in the air must have made conditions for spotting excellent. I was able to see the contrails of planes that were more than 20 or even 30 miles away. I suppose, like you inferred, such distances will blur the capability of us to differ between altitude, perspective, direction, angles and all sorts of other things.

One thing is for sure, it was very unusual to see so many aircraft in the sky at the same time and going in what looked like the same direction.

I'm a bit peeved really, because I've just noticed an Airbus converted transporter, like the old Guppy, was earlier flying over Lincolnshire. What I would've given to see that!

Cheers for your help Nenad, and thanks also for the Skyvector link and info. I will definitely take a look.

Are you going to be attending the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) this July?

Cheers and hvala na pomoći moj prijatelj.

Craig

[Amper]

No, not from UK

Are you going to be attending the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) this July?

Not in my planner

[KBP]

if you fly from Europe to America or back in any moment at daytime you can see several planes flying parallel, the numerous contrails look like some _ski_ tracks at a popular resort

[Tony15]

Hi Ashto70,
The Belugas (Airbus Guppies) fly daily into Broughton airfield near Chester, not too far from you. I see them on every clear day flying N/S over South Devon. I am a contrail spotter and on a very clear day I have seen aircraft up to 70 miles away but with the thicker air where you are, 30 miles might be good; that is my normal daily view.