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| (C) Jeff Templin click to enlarge |
KSN: — Jeff Templin is a amateur photographer. He says he’s seen it all until now. While taking pictures of wildlife back in February, something caught his eye. He said it looked like an unusual contrail.
“Right over the city, clear as a bell,” said Templin. “Anyone that was looking up would have seen it. You don’t usually see military or even civilian aircraft’s jets that leave contrails making those kind of severe departures off of the given route.”
Templin says the aircraft made several; severe 180 degree turns in the sky in the shape of an “S”, even more unusual.
“Absolutely silent, no sound,” he said.
So he snapped a few photos and took it home.
“When I put it on my computer and processed them, I was surprised to see this triangular shape that is not like anything you typically see,” he said.
Templin says he’s a big fan of air planes, so there was no doubt what he saw wasn’t….we’ll you know.
“It was one of ours or at least man made for sure, so unidentified yes, but alien, no,” he said.
We reached out to several aviation experts, including McConnell. The base told us they were unable to identify the aircraft. They did say it could be a B-2 Bomber, but couldn’t confirm it. And if it was, it wasn’t one of theirs.
There are several theories out there on the internet of what the object could be, but for now the aircraft in the sky remains a mystery.
PS: Puttering around in PS and reversing the values and you can see the back edge. I think the ghost of Jack Northrop is smiling. - Steve Douglass
UPDATE: Stay tuned,I'm working on getting access to the raw images.
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Looks like your flying triangle from amarillo.
ReplyDeleteYou can tell it's a Canon from the white lens but you wonder what setup he's using there. Why am I curious? I'd love to capture something like this. That had to be pretty high up and yet he caught the planform pretty beautifully. I know Steve uses Nikon equipment and his pictures were taken from a distance with I believe a 300mm lens? I'm a Nikon user myself and have a 200mm lens and wish there was some kind of blog or site that spotlighted getting into aviation photography of this type. Help a brother out?
ReplyDeleteThat's different from even your sighting!!!! That looks closer to the never built Navy A-12.... But it's obviously something else but what??!!!
ReplyDeleteSTEVE
ReplyDeleteits a mistake bro...the ship is a dark TRIANGLE.
Steve, I did a little photoshop on the picture, it appears it could be a b-2 with perspective playing tricks as well as our brain who definitely wants to "close" the triangle shape. Is there anywhere I could send it to you please?
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Olivier
Hello everybody, one night in mid-August of 1987 I saw an almost identical aircraft flying over the Adriatic. It was flying without position lights and completely silent, but clearly visible since there was a full moon. Do you think it is possible that, after all, is not a recent project?
ReplyDeleteGood point! What better way to make the russians (who are being increasingly strident in recent months) wonder what we have in the garage if prototypes that never reached the production stage are out there flying showing we've not been idle and might consider production on something futuristic [but might have been around for a while]? Backchannel threat diplomacy? Making one doubt ones-self? Fascinating topic.
ReplyDeleteThese are Russian stealth recon planes. The russians are flexing their might.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how you cut it these sightings are not accidental. DoD is smart enough to know that if you don't want people to see your black bird, don't fly it conus during daylight hours. Wouldn't shock me if the program is outed relatively soon.
ReplyDeleteYou must be having a ball Steve, really interesting times for Interceptors. Has anyone checked to see what Cosmos series was passing overhead at the time. This might give more weight to a "show of power" scenario, which to me seems a logical possibility. Also, I can't agree with you on the stealth transport unless it is just a platform for HALO/HAHO insertion. Configuration seems wrong for such a task. Infrastructure needs would be too great for unprepared airstrips in the boonies. I think your "whale" siting several years ago fits that bill better. Wonder where it ended up. Keep looking up buddy.
ReplyDeletedont you have to do this in a 3d program when trying to see if its a b2 or not. It looks like the mystery plane is tilted on a plane not doable in just 2d. I mean its looks like the left side i closer to us and right side is further away..making the left side shorter and the right side longer? I wonder if you included a b2 model in a 3d program and try to turn it and align exactly like the mystery plane and then see if the contails line up.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a B2. It has the same exact planform of the A12 Flying Dorito that was cancelled decades ago. Look carefully at the comparison.
ReplyDeleteHere is your mystery airkraft:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.luft46.com/mmart/ho2-2.jpg
Greetings!
Hello Mr Douglas,i live in Toulouse,France near the airport.I just wanted to tell you that on friday,17th of june2011,I was on the balcony of my apartment to watch and take photos of the planet Saturn with my telescope and my digital camera.Then, i spotted and heard a dark aircraft flying over me from north to south with only three small lights under its fuselage(?) positionned in triangular shape;there was no beacon,recognition,strobe or navigation lights.I heard the bass sound of an engine when it was flying over me.It disappeared a few seconds later,it seems to me that its shape changed like a wave or an ondulation,but it might be an optical illusion for my eyes;i'm not sure.I'm an business aircraft maintenance mechanic who work on line and base maintenance. The sky of the city is completely dark.A few minutes later,I heard an airliner taking off southwards from the airport and when it was climbing to reach its cruise altitude altitude in the north direction,the sound of its engines were pretty much the same of my dark aircraft i spotted before.I hope this will interest you.thank you for your blog,it's very intersting.Herve
ReplyDeleteAnyone try to line up the profile of the Navy's X-47B drone?
ReplyDeleteLooks an awful lot like an RQ-170 Sentinel, especially the color. Better known as the "Beast of Kandahar".
ReplyDeleteThe aircraft is part of a grey Air Force program which operates them out of the Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada, the same place that the F-117A was originally operated from so flying over Kansas is definitely possible especially if it was on the way to North Africa, Syria or Iraq or on the way back.
Just my two cents. I worked at the TTR for awhile and the wingspan looks about right, as does the color and the contrail. The program must have moved along quite a bit though because they used to only operate them at night and in the early morning, lest the Russians or Chinese figure out that TTR was up to something exotic again.