--- PART 4 -----------

Going back to the Pentagon security video, is the white smoke coming from Flight 77? The smoke looks like the exhaust trail of a missile, not the nearly invisible exhaust of a passenger jet. In case you are unfamiliar with the exhaust of missiles and passenger airplanes, I will quickly review this issue.

The engines of commercial jets are referred to as turbofans. A turbofan is similar to the electric fans that cool computers. These types of fans have a shroud to control the flow of air.

The two main components of an electric fan are the fan blades, and the electric motor.

Electric fans do not produce white exhaust trails. Even if they are on fire, the smoke is likely to be dark, not white.

A turbofan is similar to an electric fan, except that the fan is driven by a gas turbine engine instead of an electric motor.

A small amount of air from the fan is used by the turbine, but most of it flows around the turbine. Fuel is sprayed in a combustion chamber, and the hot, high pressure gas rotates the turbine as it shoots out the rear.

This is the rear of a turbofan. The cool air flows around the engine. The turbine exhaust flows from the smaller, tapered section.

Most of the exhaust is pure, cool air. Only a small amount of air passes thru the combustion chamber, so only the center of the exhaust could have a different visual appearance from the outside air.

The most likely color of the exhaust is a light brown, due to soot and pollutants. Even if you look directly into the rear of the engines you cannot see any white exhaust. During takeoff the engines are burning a lot of fuel, but even then the exhaust of a properly maintained turbofan is difficult to see.

Rocket exhaust is so hot it glows white as it leaves the engine. It cools into white clouds, sometimes with a brownish tint. What are these white clouds made of? And why do rockets produce these white clouds but not airplanes?

The exhaust is white because 1/3 of it is steam. This extreme concentration of steam rapidly condenses into tiny droplets of hot water, which appear to our eyes as white clouds. You can see this effect with a tea kettle. The white plume that comes from a tea kettle is steam.

Forest fires also produce extremely visible smoke. This is partly due to steam, but these fires also create a lot of ash and partially burned hydrocarbons. The ash consists of small particles of nonflammable materials, such as calcium compounds.

Volcanos also produce extremely visible smoke, mainly because of steam and ash. However, in this case the ash is powdered rock.

Why do missiles produce so much steam? Because they carry their own oxygen, rather than use the air. The air is mostly nitrogen, and the nitrogen dilutes the steam. By not having atmospheric nitrogen in the exhaust, the exhaust has a much higher concentration of steam.

A turbofan produces steam, just as with missiles. So why doesn't the exhaust from a turbofan appear white? Because the nitrogen from the air dilutes the steam so much that droplets don't form.

Actually, under certain conditions the exhaust of a turbofan is white. At high elevations the air is below freezing, and it's often saturated with water vapor. Any additional water vapor will form ice crystals. This causes the engines to leave trails of ice crystals.

Since these trails form only under special conditions, a plane flying at a slightly different elevation or location may not leave a trail.

However, turbofans don't leave trails on warm days, such as that morning of September 11th.

Only missiles have enough steam in their exhaust to leave a trail of water droplets at ground level, and in hot weather.

So, how could this trail be from Flight 77?

The white trail in the Pentagon security video is certainly the exhaust of a missile, not a passenger plane. Only conspiracy nuts and people who do not know much about turbofans would insist that Flight 77 created that white trail. The only sensible issue to debate is who fired the missile? The CIA? The US military?

And was the missile fired from a drone, such as a Global Hawk? Or was it fired from a truck on the Pentagon property? Or was it a shoulder mounted missile?

Do you still believe Flight 77 hit the Pentagon? If so, take a look at the frame of video that shows the fireball from the airplane crash.

The Pentagon is 77 ft. tall, so this fireball is perhaps 150 feet tall. Some important aspects of this fireball are:

it is gigantic. it is very bright; almost white. There is very little soot.

To understand the significance of this fireball, you need an understanding of the difference between the burning of a hydrocarbon fuel and the detonation of an explosive.

Candle wax is a hydrocarbon, just like gasoline, but candle wax consists of larger molecules.

In the center of the flame is vaporized wax. At the edge of the flame the hydrocarbons combine with oxygen in the air. This is the area of the flame that is bright and hot.

An important aspect of candle flames, and all other hydrocarbons that burn in air, is that the flame does not expand. It constantly changes shape due to the breeze and the air currents created by its heat, but it remains the same size. The only way the flame could become larger is if more fuel starts to burn.

Another characteristic of hydrocarbons that burn in air is that the flame is always less than 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. The significance of this will become more apparent when I discuss the collapse of the buildings in the World Trade Center.

Now lets look at how a fireball develops from an airplane crash.

When an airplane crashes, some of the fuel splatters into the air and quickly vaporizes. This creates an explosive mixture of fuel and air.

When this mixture ignites, the flame rapidly travels through it. This creates a blast that resembles a low power explosive.

However, the oxygen in this mixture is quickly consumed, so this initial blast is very brief. Once the oxygen is gone, the fireball resembles a candle flame because the fuel is burning only along the outside.

As with candle flames, the fireball changes it shape and rises upward, but it does not expand. The size of the fireball is determined by the distance the fuel splattered and the initial blast.

The fireball at the South Tower was enormous because a lot of fuel splattered into a large area. However, once it formed, it did not expand by much. Rather, it rose upward while being pushed southeast by the breeze. Also, it was orange and full of soot.

Candle flames are normally clean by comparison because they are small and indoors, so nothing interferes with the mixing of oxygen and fuel. However, large candle flames can produce enough heat to create their own turbulence, thereby causing soot.

This is a controlled fire for a training exercise. As with real fires that develop from airplane crashes, the flames are orange, and they drift aimlessly rather than expand.

The fireball that developed at the Pentagon should resemble the fireballs at the WTC and other airplane crashes.

The upper image is from the Pentagon security camera. In the lower image I superimposed a fireball from the South Tower.

The Pentagon camera shows a fireball that is almost white and free of soot, whereas photos of all airplane and automobile accidents show orange flames and lots of soot.

It's possible that the camera over-exposed the image, causing it to appear white. However, we should not dismiss the possibility that the brightness of this fireball is because there is oxygen within it. A bright fireball is characteristic of explosives.

Explosives are a mixture of fuel and oxygen. Thousands of years ago the Chinese discovered that a mixture of charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate burns at rapid rate. Sulfur and charcoal are the fuel, and potassium nitrate provides the oxygen. The Chinese used this mixture for fireworks. Eventually it was also used as gunpowder and bombs.

Potassium nitrate is a fertilizer. Our ancestors found it in caves. It's produced by bacteria as they decompose organic material.

Sulfur can be found near volcanoes.

This mixture is still used in fuses and fireworks, but the military has switched to a more destructive explosive in which oxygen is attached directly to the hydrocarbon molecule.