Why do some planes leave long trails, but others don’t?

The 1st thing about trails is that it’s not smoke. Those long-lasting white traces you are seeing in the sky are condensation trails (contrails) from all sorts of aircraft engines leaving behind water vapor in the air.

Planes flying through the dry air meaning Outside a cloud, generally do not form contrails, but those flying through the wet air meaning inside a cloud do form contrails.

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