Quote Originally Posted by One Shot View Post
I get that. But to have a perfectly spaced grid pattern which would take several planes flying at about the same time is still strange to me. Con trails dissipate and distort with time. To see a pattern doesn't seem like something that forms by a passing plane here and there.
If you're determined to believe a conspiracy theory no Internet post is likely to stop you. But it's worth pointing out a number of things:

1. There are a ton of planes in the sky at any given moment, especially over a metropolitan area like Detroit. https://flightaware.com/live/

2. Michigan is directly under the flight paths for a lot of heavily-traveled east-west domestic routes [[Boston-LA, NYC-San Francisco, Philly or Baltimore to Seattle, etc.). But you will also get planes flying north-south to go to international destinations. Chicago to anywhere in Europe involves flying northeast over Michigan, as do flights from Dallas and others on a similar great circle path. A flight from Detroit to Beijing leaves traveling almost due north.

3. Jet contrails can be visible from well over 100 miles away. A DC to Tokyo or Atlanta to Beijing flight could certainly be seen from most of southern Michigan.