the green flame

a reply to: Zaphod58

What would you say about this idea.


I have a feeling it might be part of the PGS systems. The main problem with the ABL was that it couldn't get to where the IR(C)BM's were launching from or during its boost phase in time to attack the missiles. so if you had a platform that could hang out and observe launch sites and if there was a launch you could attack the site or the missile.

It's also nice if you want to hang out and observe/strike other targets.

If no one is spotting her taking off or landing it could mean the shape is disguised or the sound is.

Well this is my first post, so I hope I don't step on any toes with it's placement.

To give some background, I've been lurking (especially this forum) for several years. I live on a fair sized farm in rural southwestern Ontario between Windsor and London, and we have a lot of very clear nights through out the year with very little light pollution. Coincidentally, we also lie under an air route that includes some military traffic from Selfridge in Michigan. I got into aviation as a small kid because my old man was a Nav on C-130's in the 80's and an instructor at the Nav School and on Dash-8's in the early 90's. I'm certainly no expert, but I follow what I can, and I've learned a lot from this particular forum.

I'm not sure how relevant what I saw is to the Green Lady, but some may find it interesting at least. In the fall (mid November) of 2014, I had just got home from drying corn around 12:30 am. I tend to watch the sky quite often, and especially on clear night for satellites and the like. While being nosy and watching the typical lights of the East-West bound air traffic from my tailgate, I saw what seemed to be a slow moving satellite moving from South to North very close to directly above my position. I say "slow moving" as it was roughly 3/4 of the speed a regular satellite and a slightly less luminescent gold/white, while seeming to be at an extremely high altitude. I got all excited, especially after reading some of the speculations on current tech here, and focused my full attention on this.

What made this really interesting was that this "satellite" pulled a sweeping left-right S turn, then slowed down impossibly fast to what seemed like almost a standstill. After this, the craft (I was pretty sure at this point I wasn't watching a satellite anymore) accelerated like nothing I've ever witnessed, and crossed roughly 2/3 of the visible sky in a matter of maybe 5 seconds moving straight North.

So like it said, this may not be related to anything discussed here, but hopefully someone can use the info for something productive. Whatever this was it was really boogieing, really high, and really maneuverable.

a reply to: Blackfinger

Or it's flying out of places there aren't a lot of people to see it.

a reply to: LeviB

Welcome to the Asylum. That's something different. Not surprised to see it hanging around up that way though.

Thanks! It was a pretty wild show. I'd give a lot of my funny Canuck money to see one of these things up close.

I always figured the only people who would get to see something like that would be on the East coast, or out West.

a reply to: LeviB

Flying up north gives several benefits. You get to see how it does in real world crap weather conditions, extreme cold, and there is less population density to see something.

now this is interesting. went from really high speed, to next to no relative speed, then nearly instantly to ridiculous speeds.

I've seen the gold white (flame like) color before heading ne to sw at about the same speed took maybe 10-15 seconds to go from horizon to horizon. it too was at super high altitude. I watched it threw binocs at about 3am. it was lozenge shaped. or elliptical and diamond shaped. same solid dull gold whitish color. it however, didn't do any maneuvering and was just going in a strait line. reported it almost immediately to ya zaph but got no response. figure you were pretty buisy at the time. or nad at me ir somwthing. it was about the size of a large star.

back in the early 2000s (iirc) i used to watch fairly regularily a blue white star very, very high and very small. it moved about the speed of satillites. would go from east to west and then a few hours later on the same night west to east coming back inland from over the ocean. it woukd do some crazy things. like one time it winked out and appeared nearly instantly half way across the sky and carry on in the same direction like it was nothing.

another time it did the exact same thing but when it reappeared (like it had teleported or something) it was again halfway across the sky but travelling 90 degrees from its original course. with a quick bright neon blue streak for a second and continued on a course south.

another time this same light kept a solid course going west to east but did a series of s turns and gave off a barely perceptible shower if sparks at the apex of each turn.

I'd looooooove to know what the he'll those two things were.

the yellow light I had a basic idea. but your account of it going from fast to slow to nearly instantly super fast throws a loop in my hypithesis. or I just didn't know it could do that.

the blue thing acted like a ufo teleporting halfway across the sky and doing 90 degree changes in direction. that's gotta be real interesting to see up close. whatever it is.

makes you wonder about the crazy things you see on the wen about quantum teleportation discs or whatever. not saying its doing that or even a physical vehicle but it sure looked like it teleported in two occasions.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: LeviB

Flying up north gives several benefits. You get to see how it does in real world crap weather conditions, extreme cold, and there is less population density to see something.

All the years I've been staring at the sky up here, and I've only seen 1-2 odd things.

originally posted by: LeviB
What made this really interesting was that this "satellite" pulled a sweeping left-right S turn, then slowed down impossibly fast to what seemed like almost a standstill. After this, the craft (I was pretty sure at this point I wasn't watching a satellite anymore) accelerated like nothing I've ever witnessed, and crossed roughly 2/3 of the visible sky in a matter of maybe 5 seconds moving straight North.

If that thing really exists, what engine or drag reduction/negation technologies could possibly give an airplane (assuming it is an airplane) those kinds of characteristics?! You would have to project something like an inertial 'bubble' to be able to behave like that. It is simply not possible in the conventional ways!
Zaph, you seem to know something about this. I know you can't say much if anything, but can you at least confirm or deny that it has these kinds of performance characteristics?

a reply to: spaceman42

Yes and no. It appears almost instantaneous and down to a hover from the ground because of the altitude it's at. It can decelerate and accelerate quicker than you think, but it's largely an optical illusion.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: spaceman42

Yes and no. It appears almost instantaneous and down to a hover from the ground because of the altitude it's at. It can decelerate and accelerate quicker than you think, but it's largely an optical illusion.

Thanks for the quick reply. I can bring myself down to reality now I was worried there for a while

originally posted by: BASSPLYR

another time it did the exact same thing but when it reappeared (like it had teleported or something) it was again halfway across the sky but travelling 90 degrees from its original course. with a quick bright neon blue streak for a second and continued on a course south.

It was "flying" over Europe in 2011 as well, fading out and fading in, doing 90 degree turns in between.

originally posted by: robi1000

originally posted by: BASSPLYR

another time it did the exact same thing but when it reappeared (like it had teleported or something) it was again halfway across the sky but travelling 90 degrees from its original course. with a quick bright neon blue streak for a second and continued on a course south.

It was "flying" over Europe in 2011 as well, fading out and fading in, doing 90 degree turns in between.

Could the fading effect be due to some kind of 'optical cloaking'. I remember reading somewhere that they (used to) put lights on the botton of aircraft to make them less observable from the ground, strange as that may sound.
Could also be due to atmosperic effects due to the extreme height I guess.

double post

a reply to: Zaphod58

I was going to say that the flight path LeviB describes almost sounded like what I'd imagine a supersonic-launching TSTO would look like from the ground. First, it lines up its launch inclination (the S-turn) before flying a parabola (where it appears to slow down) before launching the spaceplane/its payload (the acceleration).

My other guess was something with a two-stage propulsion setup either changing it's cycle or transitioning from its airbreathing engines to its closed-cycle powerplant.

As to those "winking" craft sightings, I've always been of the mind that our most exotic/advanced/expensive assets are space-based systems or prototypes with an ABM or ASAT bent. Those absolutely insane accelerations don't sound all that different from what Brilliant Pebbles was supposed to be capable of (iirc, the EKVs had enough delta-V to get from the surface of earth to Mars with a single stage or something similarly mind-boggling), and it's much, much easier to do stuff like that when you don't have to worry about that pesky pilot.

a reply to: Zaphod58

when I say instantaneous I mean it was near the horizon. woukd wink out then reappear directly overhead about .5 of a second later and continue on. you saying it accelerates that distance in .5 seconds?

makes the triangle I saw seems slow in comparison. it was only covering a few miles a second.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I've been star gazing for three decades now and I've never seen anything I couldn't explain.

.....yet.

a reply to: spaceman42

There are a few things that could explain the winking in and out. Depending on the time of day it could be reflecting sun light from higher up if it was changing altitude rapidly. It could also have a reflective surface that changed angle relative to the observer, giving it the impression that it wrinkled in and out. I've seen ordinary satellites do this but of course they were orbital.

a reply to: Sammamishman

"Iridium flare" is a classic example of this