Scaled composites proteus making racetracks last night

Kinda off topic but not sure if someone can tell me what this might have been.
Was up very late last night 4am est and was checking out the Mojave airport area. I saw that the scaled composites proteus was making racetracks north around red rock canyon state park. There was also a glider that was doing racetracks as well about 40 miles north of where the proteus was circling. Odd thing to me is that this was around 1am california time...
Any ideas of what the might have been doing
Phone screenshot

a reply to: nepatitan

Proteus is an experimental aircraft. It's investigating using aircraft as high altitude long endurance communications links. So it's going to orbit in one place any time it's flying.

The glider was more than likely just ridge riding. You stay where the thermals are, and mountains are great for them.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Cool thanks for the info. So its using other aircraft as communications?
Had no idea gliders flew at night.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: nepatitan

The glider was more than likely just ridge riding. You stay where the thermals are, and mountains are great for them.

In this case they were between the restricted air space of China lake and Edwards flight research center.
www.globalsecurity.org...

there is not that much open air space in that part of the high desert.

a reply to: ANNED

It might have been working with Proteus, or with the team trying to fly the glider to ultra high altitude.

a reply to: nepatitan

It acts like a relay for radio signals from the ground. Normally the mountains block radio signals so you can only use them for short range. With something like this your signal goes up to the aircraft and gets relayed through their equipment to other stations farther away.

a reply to: Zaphod58

makes sense thanks

a reply to: nepatitan

I also saw them, but a couple hours earlier. It looked like they'd gone up around relatively the same time, so it's possible they might've been working together as mentioned above.

a reply to: justwanttofly

was def interesting watching, the proteus came in to land then went back up to 1200 feet and circled a few times over the airfield then landed.

a reply to: Zaphod58

My guess is that's right. The G-520 has some interesting payload capabilities. It was originally designed and built for the German Air Force as an ISR platform since they couldn't get their hands on the U-2. I didn't think any were privately owned, but going by the N-number that appears to be the case.

Same thing last night again. But they are def working together
Higher altitude though. Why would they be doing this at 1am though? Less air traffic to deal with?
flightradar2

a reply to: nepatitan

It looks like the original communications project ended and proteus has been used for a lot of things. They market it as a flying test bed. The last experiment listed was 2011 for Argus.

It could have something to do with Perlan, since a glider is involved, or it could be some classified project.

a reply to: nepatitan

Could be less traffic to deal with. Could be smoother air at night. (Of course, with the glider thermals may be more important, but then again those are less active at night.) Could be whatever they're testing can only be done at night or works better at night. Radio waves propagate better at night, and Proteus was designed for the use of high altitude telecommunications.

originally posted by: nepatitan
Why would they be doing this at 1am though? Less air traffic to deal with?
flightradar2

Most likely. Less air traffic, and less radio chatter to interfere with what ever data sets they need to collect. It might also be calmer air for the two cooperating aircraft.

Thanks again guys for the info, to me it was just very interesting. Its kinda weird I sit here for hours watching planes that are hundreds or thousands of miles away.

a reply to: nepatitan

It's always interesting to see something like this. They have tested a lot of pretty interesting equipment on Proteus over the years. Any time something like this comes up, it's definitely worth noting. Sometimes you can figure out what they're doing, many times you can't though.

a reply to: nepatitan

I like watching Boeing test flights around the region and Dreamlifter flights from SC and Japan.

a reply to: Zaphod58

lol I'm noticing that, was watching a Cessna circling Fort Irwin for a few hours. Soooo wanted to know what they were doing lol

a reply to: Sammamishman

was looking today for Boeing test flights, do you watch an airport or search for the planes?

a reply to: nepatitan

I use FR24. You can track all the Boeing civil test flights there. You can see them listed as BOE a lot.

Here is a list of the prefixes they are currently using:

www.flightradar24.com...