certainly a thrill
It is likely that the interstate leading by Virginia Tech will, this night, be clogged with traffic containing students returning from their long weekend. Probably a car accident or two, maybe some blown tires. Flashing lights, sirens possibly. Good for them.
The campus was still deserted today, despite the gorgeous blue sky, completely unscathed by clouds or cloud impersonators. During this period of perfect view and while waiting for a friend at a coffeeshop outdoors area, I spotted some planes high up. We are used to seeing planes overhead here, partially due to the airport nearby but also due to the fact that there must be a domestic air travel turn nearby Blacksburg. At a specific point a few miles west of the town, all west-traveling plane paths seem to divert by about 10 or 12 degrees towards the north. Anyways, seeing contrails is nothing new. But today it was.
The planes I saw weren’t intersecting at different heights as is common; they seemed to be on a level with each other. With one of them taxiing the other along. Or guarding. Here is a shot I took with zoom. On closer inspection, thanks to many megapixels, it seems one is a military jet, it seems. If anyone has information as to whether Air Force One or Air Force Two were traveling over southwestern Virginia today, I’d be interested in hearing.
Later tonight, while waiting for a dinner comrade, I was watching another plane’s contrails in the sky. As it moved further away, I saw something fall from it, or appear to fall from it. The object was at first a very small dot that reflected light in the same way that the underbody of the large jet did. The object kept getting larger and larger and eventually its brightness equaled that of the jet. But, quickly, possibly only 20 seconds after having appeared, while at full brightness in the sky, the object entirely disappeared. How odd. I imagine either an ejection pod was launched from the plane, or by fluke of perspective I had actually witnessed a meteorite coming into the atmosphere to eventually destroy itself in the stratosphere. If anyone hears of jet emergency ejection news or hears of large meteorite news, I’d be interested in hearing.
What a day! I should look skyward more frequently. Or, at least, ask for less cloud cover.
October 9th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Facial hair.
FACIAL HAIR.
YOWZA.
October 10th, 2006 at 12:12 am
Sorry. It was gone as of last Thursday. I don’t even have pictures of its final moments. Right before it met the sword, it had a glorious disposition.
November 27th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
The aircraft in the picture are likely on the same airway at different altitudes. The large aircraft appears to be something in the category of a Boeing 767. The contrails appear to be that of a two engine aircraft, and not that of a Boeing 747 commonly used as Air Force one. Air Traffic Control routinely separate aircraft on airways by altitude. The smaller one may simply be a corporate jet going the same direction as the larger one, but at a different altitude.
You may have seen some space junk drop into the atmosphere and burn out. No idea, really, regarding your other observation. I have seen a spectacular scene from something burning up coming into the arctic years ago.
I flew Boeing 767’s, not that it makes me an expert in photo identification.
regards,
Harold
November 27th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Harold - A friend and I actually confirmed that it was Air Force Two. He gave me some quick news snip-it that mentioned the goings of Mr. Cheney and I also realized that Air Force Two has the two-engine set-up I saw and same underbody color of the sky (at least Photoshop told me the color data was almost identical, from what my camera grabbed, barring any unexpected red shift).
Flying 767s has got to be great.