But that expansion and distortion is a function of how far from the contrail you are. If you are a 2-3 miles away it is going to seem like a lot is happening within the contrail. If you are 30 miles away, it is going to seem a lot less distorted. The pictures below demostrate near to far views. How far away do you think the trail filmed in the CBS video was?
That last picture is the after affects of STS-117, which was the shuttle in the first Youtube video you linked.
That is really hard to say. No doubt it would be a huge missile contrail however far it was. Anyway, here is video of a trident missile gone wrong. It shows a corkscrewing contrail very well and the contrail near the surface expands rather quickly.
Most shuttle launches and missile tests are done under optimal conditions. Can the effects of all types of weather conditions be accounted for in the pics and videos we can find on the net?
The biggest mystery about this to me is not the video of the whatever. It’s just too little to come to absolute certainty about. It was the government’s reaction to it. It was uncertain, confused and morphed into gooberment speak.