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No it doesn't. You actually have the plane crossing one airmass to another at high altitude and that jogs the contrail due to different wind speed.

The plane we are looking at has THREE ENGINES, not two or four, and the KNOWN characteristic of that model's contrails is they "swirl" together.

You can also see clearly that in part of the trip the contrail breaks into a large segment (for 2 engines) and a smaller segment (for 2 engine) ~ probably as the pilot throttles back to reduce power to descend into his glidepath into the airport ahead.

Worth noting you cannot see the ocean in the video ~ it's totally in shadow. The contrail actually originates OVER THE HORIZON. The plane is coming toward you. The Sun shines off the bottom. The contrail is lit from beneath (not behind since the Sun is over the horizon).

The proposal here is that CBS editors titillated your interest through clever, but deceitful, editing. I think the evidence is there that they successfully misrepresented what was seen and when.

Besides, if this were a missile launch it'd been nearly 1 mile in at the base on launch ~ and we don't have any 1 mile wide missiles (not yet anyway, but when we get 'em I think you'll know about it).

The contrail actually originates OVER THE HORIZON. The plane is coming toward you. The Sun shines off the bottom. The contrail is lit from beneath (not behind since the Sun is over the horizon).

This is the part that is bugging me, but I can't put my finger on it with images.

What would the shadow and light of the contrail from a plane look like when it flies parallel to the ground, vs. what would the shadow and light of the contrail from a missile look like when it flies perpendicular to the ground?

Different surfaces of the contrail would reflect the setting sun. If the object were moving parallel to the east, I would expect to see the contrail darken as the airplane moved away from the setting sun and into the shadow of the earth. If the object were climbing perpendicular straight up, I would expect to see the contrail stay lit, or even brighten, as the missile climbs back into more direct sunlight. Also, look how dark the cloud in the foreground is, showing where shadow has already reached.

Thoughts?

-PJ

I saw a rocket launch last year. It moved *much* faster than this thing did.

There was another video that showed an aircraft approaching the object from the right, going about the same speed.

I’m in the airplane crowd.