Diagnosing vapor trails?

[Knarley-Bob]

When a plane has been hit, many times it is leaving a vapor, or smoke trail. What do the different colors mean as to what the plane is leaking?

Thanks,

KB

[Dragon1-1]

White smoke is water vapor, from a damaged radiator. Thin black trail is usually an oil leak, usually from the engine, possibly also from hydraulics (the P-38 has a hydraulic aileron booster). Some whispy black smoke is produced by normal engine operation, particularly with jets, or with a mixture too rich for the current altitude (WWI engines smoke regardless of mixture). Blueish is a fuel leak, may be thick or thin depending on how big a hole the fuel tank has. Very thick black smoke means the aircraft is on fire, it usually starts in the engine, but it'll quickly engulf the rest (you can usually see the flames after a while). Thick, persistent white vapor at high altitudes is just a contrail, not sure if we have those (and no, they're not restricted to jets).

[dannytherat]

3 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

 Thick, persistent white vapor at high altitudes is just a contrail, not sure if we have those (and no, they're not restricted to jets).

Yes, we have contrails in the game ?

[Drum]

Burning oil produces black smoke, while heated fuel or water generate white fumes and steam.  An engine being over fueled will emit dark exhaust because it's not completely burning all of the fuel put into the cylinders.  The electric fuel systems of to day are very fuel efficient and only put the exact amount of fuel into the cylinders by properly monitoring the air/fuel mixtures.  Even trucks today don't billow black exhaust like they did 30 years ago because of their computerized fueling systems; what caused the black smoke of yesteryear was over fueling the engine to the point the fuel was being exhausted before it could be completely burnt because not enough air is being mixed to ignite all of it, and even fuel that lands on a very hot surface will billow pure while smoke if it's not set aflame such as a turbo detonating or a rotory engine head being destroyed and the fuel is being sprayed onto the other hot cylinder heads without ignition.  Blue smoke is oil that has been fully burnt.

 

Smoke is caused by the heating of the fluids prior to igniting.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Drum

[Knarley-Bob]

I had thought I'd seen some greenish also, maybe just my tired old eyes?

[Drum]

Green would be caused by a burning chemical.

[Ram399]

1 hour ago, Knarley-Bob said:

some greenish also

Greenish vapor trails are caused by leaking fuel.

[cardboard_killer]

Wrong, wrong wrong! The white smoke is crystal meth the government uses to keep workers productive; the green smoke is the LSD they use to keep us confused about reality; and the black smoke is from the Wicked Witch of the West's broomstick.

 

That's what V told me anyway.

[SYN_Ricky]

8 hours ago, Drum said:

Green would be caused by a burning chemical.

Chemtrails are definitely modeled in game. I know.

[MajorMagee]

Greenish vapor trails could be coolant using Ethylene Glycol, the green antifreeze.

[BlitzPig_EL]

Green is fuel, white is coolant, black is oil, or burning aeroplane.

 

I'm not sure that glycol was green in WW2 aircraft use.  I know it was dyed green after the war for use in automobiles to differentiate it from the older use of alcohol as an antifreeze solution.  In early automobiles alcohol was used in the coolant water to protect from freezing, but owing to it's highly corrosive nature it had to be drained out at the end of every winter season, whereas ethylene glycol type antifreeze did not, hence the erroneous term "permanent antifreeze" was used to advertise the stuff.

[Rjel]

26 minutes ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

"permanent antifreeze"

Thanks for that. I have always wondered why my dad and granddad always called it Permanent.

[Hirachi]

 

 

mmm Chemtrails lol

[Freycinet]

11 hours ago, SYN_Ricky said:

Chemtrails are definitely modeled in game. I know.

 

Yup. And is it just me or did anybody else notice that they have had less sex since buying the sim? That is probably due to those chemtrails.. 

[LukeFF]

8 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

Green is fuel, white is coolant, black is oil, or burning aeroplane.

 

I'm not sure that glycol was green in WW2 aircraft use.  I know it was dyed green after the war for use in automobiles to differentiate it from the older use of alcohol as an antifreeze solution.  In early automobiles alcohol was used in the coolant water to protect from freezing, but owing to it's highly corrosive nature it had to be drained out at the end of every winter season, whereas ethylene glycol type antifreeze did not, hence the erroneous term "permanent antifreeze" was used to advertise the stuff.

 

I guess part of the answer would be to find out what color Prestone used during the war - it's mentioned by name in the P-39 manuals. 

Edited April 22, 2022 by LukeFF

[MajorMagee]

The green version came out in 1937.

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by MajorMagee

[Knarley-Bob]

5 hours ago, Hirachi said:

 

 

mmm Chemtrails lol

Agent Orange?

[Hirachi]

3 hours ago, Knarley-Bob said:

Agent Orange?

Could be any of the rainbow agents

Edited April 23, 2022 by Hirachi