Robert Fred Ellsworth was an American legislator and diplomat. He served as the United States Permanent Representative to NATO between 1969 and 1971. He had previously served three terms as a Republican Member of Congress from Kansas, from 1961 to 1967, and as an Assistant to the President during the presidency of Richard Nixon; under President Gerald Ford, he was Deputy Secretary of Defense. Ellsworth also served as assistant to the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission.
Robert Ellsworth
2010 California contrail incident
On the evening of Monday, November 8, 2010, an unusually conspicuous contrail appeared about 35 miles west of Los Angeles, California in the vicinity of Catalina Island. News footage of the event from a KCBS helicopter led to intense media coverage and speculation about a potential military missile launch, with many reporters and experts discussing the contrail and theorizing about its source.
Reported image of the "mystery" contrail captured by the NASA/NOAA GOES 11 satellite on November 8, 2010
Contrail created by a KLM Boeing 777 over London, England at sunset in 2012
Vapor trail of an Atlas V 421 launch at Cape Canaveral in 2022
A Boeing 757-200 similar to U.S. Airways flight 808, which was theorized to be the source of the contrail
