The Wright Brother’s first achieved powered flight in 1903. They
only got a few feet off the ground, so of course did not leave a
contrail. However it was barely more than a decade before planes
inched into colder air, and the first reports began. The
earliest known account of a contrail is a passing mention
attributed to Ettenreich, who in 1919 reported of an incident
from 1915 where he saw “the condensation of a cumulus stripe
from the exhaust gases of an aircraft” In a fascinating article:
Wakes of war: contrails and the rise of air power, 1918-1945
Part I–early sightings and preliminary explanations, 1918-1938,
(Air Power History. 54.2 (Summer 2007): 16(16).), Donald R.
Baucom give an account of the rise of high altitude flight, and
the inevitable accounts of contrails, both persistent and
otherwise, that occurred during that time. In the autumn of
1918, in an account of Captain Ward S. Wells, Army Medical
Corps, who was serving with the 60th Infantry, 5th Division,
American Expeditionary Force, during th