'Mystery aircraft' over Texas draws speculation of real spy plane

[CaseyJones]

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Mystery-aircraft-over-Texas-draws-speculation-5357331.php?cmpid=hpfc


Aviation Week & Space Technology journalist Bill Sweetman has posted photos taken March 10 by two veteran sky watchers, Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett.

In his blog post of March 28, Sweetman writes that he and two Aviation Week editors agree that the photos depict "something real." In other words, these pictures aren't easily explained away by reports of known military flights or the work of someone who got carried away with Photoshop.

So what can aviation experts say about the object in the photos?

"The photos tell us more about what the mysterious stranger isn't than what it is," Sweetman writes.

The size is hard to determine, Sweetman says, but its relationship to the contrails suggests it's bigger than the Northrup Grumman X-47B, which has a 62-foot wing span, according to Wikipedia.

Whatever it might be, the aircraft was accompanied by two others, and Douglass picked up some radio traffic suggesting the plane had a pilot, Sweetman's blog post states.

pics at link

[Zippyjuan]

The size is hard to determine, Sweetman says, but its relationship to the contrails suggests it's bigger than the Northrup Grumman X-47B, which has a 62-foot wing span, according to Wikipedia.

You can't tell the size of a plane by the size of its contrails. The size of the contrail will depend on temperature, humidity, and windspeed at the altitude the plane is flying and the altitude of the plane (distance from the viewer) can make even that contrail seem larger or smaller.

"The size is hard to determine" (we have no idea) but "suggest it's bigger than a Northrup Grumman X-48b" (we are going to guess anyways).

[HOLLYWOOD]

Well, there's at least 2 of them... ;)

http://deepbluehorizon.blogspot.com/2014/03/mystery-aircraft-photographed-over.html


http://kwout.com/cutout/y/eu/6b/qs2_bor.jpg (http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/10/4/ca8a5909-6257-43bb-8445-f7023cf504a4.Full.jpg)

ca8a5909-6257-43bb-8445-f7023cf504a4.Full.jpg (JPEG Image, 1531 × 891 pixels) (http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/10/4/ca8a5909-6257-43bb-8445-f7023cf504a4.Full.jpg)

[Henry Rogue]

I can't tell what it is. To grainy and defused, plus it could be an aircraft I'm not familiar with. I remember, as a teenager, at the air show, I overheard two gentlemen in conversation. They were watching a plane make passes and turns over the runway. One said to the other "That's a P-38 Lighting". I knew damned well it wasn't, in fact I knew exactly what it was. I asked in a respectful manner "Isn't that a De Havilland Vampire?" He turn to me and said "Trust me son, that is a P-38. I worked on them in World War 2." I didn't say anything else to him, just moved away, thinking "Can't he tell that it has no engine nacelles, that it has no props, that it sounds exactly like a jet engine and sounds nothing like a piston driven prop, and besides the twin booms, it looks nothing like a P-38?" Heck, I not only can distinguish the sound of a piston engine prop driven plane from a jet, I can recognize a P-51 and a Corsair by sound a lone. A few minutes later I heard the announcer over the loudspeaker confirm what I already knew, it was a De Havilland Vampire.

[KCIndy]

The Lockheed U2 is almost 60 years old, and the SR-71 Blackbird isn't a whole lot younger (and it still amazes me that they mothballed it and are still using the U-2).

I would be astounded if there was nothing being developed out in the dark, empty deserts of the west.