Crafts I Saw at 39,000 Feet

a reply to: Zaphod58

that's what i'm trying to find out. what kind of trail was it leaving

and BTW, that plane you posted looks nothing like a space shuttle.

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: bandersnatch
Try the Lockheed ones...there are some that ARE CLOSE....
PLEASE GIVE A MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION....
Does it have one vertical stabilizer?
How are the wings swept back? at what angle roughly?
(perhaps the speed of it could be deduced roughly by the angle of sweep etc....
How needle sharp was the nose?
compared to a raptor say?

Drones? Any of these? Killer Bee and Harpy looks space-shuttle like.

cdn.wonderfulengineering.com...

That's funny! "Drone Survival Guide." I love it! Thanks. I looked at drones, too, when I arrived home and couldn't find a match. I spent hours back then looking for a match online. That's me. I always try answering my own questions before asking others.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: tweetie

The person is not aviation or military oriented.

The black smoke you reported from their exhaust denotes military…

OK. Thanks!

a reply to: tweetie

Thanks. That is really interesting. Despite what the admin says, I almost never see planes leaving black trails. By whatever name you call them or by whatever you think they are composed of, the trails planes leave are almost always white. But I have seen a black trail before. It is about as rare a sighting as the aircraft you describe.

Oh. One last question. Could you tell if the fumes were actually coming from the engines?

originally posted by: ufoorbhunter
a reply to: tweetie

Hi Tweetie and congratulations on your UFO sighting

Sounds like a good one seeing multiple craft. People will make out that these are from our own species, but they maybe from another world or even from another dimension here on Planet Earth or even a time lapse. They do sound like they are manufactured rather than an animal type UFO. great sighting, it's just totally amazing what's going on up there, from both our most of the time hidden tech and that of things from other places/dimensions. Totally awesome

It's funny, I never thought of the acronym UFO. I thought I was just too travel-inexperienced in the last ten years to know what I was seeing. Now I wish I could ask the pilots of that plane if they saw them. I don't know how anyone could have missed them.

My thought all along was these craft were from our Earth and possibly being used to transport VIP's, hence the short row of passenger windows. Don't you think it's odd I saw three on the way to FL and coming back five days later I saw one?

If they bleeped in through a bleed-in from another dimension that would be really wild!!

Thank you for posting! Even if we don't come up with the answer, I am really enjoying reading about the options

originally posted by: butcherguy

originally posted by: Bfirez

originally posted by: tweetie
a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

Maybe 75 yards? I did an experiment outside and asked for help to judge how far away a certain tree was which appeared similar to how far away the craft were from the plane. I can't be confident in that guess so it's not very useful.

What? At FL39000?

Indeed.
I think the pilot of the passenger flight would have been demanding to know who or what the eff was passing them at near miss distances.... at 39,000 feet!

Wow, so from what some of you are saying, what I saw was even more of an anomaly than I even imagined. I had no idea.

Thanks for the replies buddy....
The black smoke would possibly indicate afterburners maybe...Zaph will know more about that....
Cruise missiles of some type possibly...(but they shouldn't be loose in our airspace...)
Theres an older fighter called a delta dart you may want to check out...there certainly could be a few in civvy hands...

en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: Moresby
Was it anything like this?

It's unlikely it actually was the Dreamchaser as it isn't really in operation yet. But there may be other lifting body style space planes being secretly tested. This gives you an idea of what such crafts would look like. China is building space planes. So we're probably not only building the ones that people are talking about.

Not similar enough but thanks for looking. It seems like this planet is on the cusp of all manner of advanced aircraft bursting onto the scene. I've been coming across many preview pictures lately.

originally posted by: nomad2
a reply to: tweetie

Okay. I see how this works now. Hi, tweetie. How long were the black trails? Did they linger?

I answered your first query about the black exhaust. It's in this thread somewhere. Keep looking. I understand you are getting the hang of posting. You'll see it. If not, I will hunt it down and link it for you. I'm in the process of catching up with replies.

originally posted by: Moresby
It would be nice if the OP had recorded his impressions at the time. Our memory plays tricks. People who keep journals are well aware of this. They're often shocked how their memory has change or embellished an incident.

In fact, such a record might be more valuable than a blurry cell phone photo.

It's very possible I made notes but I moved last December and I'm still sorting through things. In fact, I was thinking earlier about hunting for notes I might have made. I know what I've said about these craft are what I made myself remember at the time. If I find notes I will post what I wrote.

I don't have every detail remembered that anyone could think to ask because I'm not an aviation buff but I forcefully remembered certain details which I have described. I've gone over my memory many times since March of 2014.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: tweetie

Anything like this?

No, that craft is very different. Thank you!!

Very similar to this but overall dull, graphite gray/black color, no markings, a bit shorter in appearance

Ill keep an eye out still.....the sighting is kind of fascinating becaue of....daylight....duration...formation, shape of craft....black matt finish.... kind of indicating something of the unusual.....or possibly entirely new....

Wing placement was it far to rear like the shuttle? or possibly further forward?
cheers

Any jet flying in the flight levels can and does leave a dark contrail. But it's not really dark it's white. Light refraction can make contrails look dark, I've seen it hundreds if not thousands of times. Don't believe me, look at a thunder storm. It can look dark and ominous, but in reality it's white. Depends what angle you are looking at it from.

originally posted by: nomad2
a reply to: tweetie

Thanks. That is really interesting. Despite what the admin says, I almost never see planes leaving black trails. By whatever name you call them or by whatever you think they are composed of, the trails planes leave are almost always white. But I have seen a black trail before. It is about as rare a sighting as the aircraft you describe.

Oh. One last question. Could you tell if the fumes were actually coming from the engines?

I'd have to say the fumes came from the back end of the craft. One light, very wispy trail. That's what I recall. No white or gray, just black.

originally posted by: bandersnatch
Ill keep an eye out still.....the sighting is kind of fascinating becaue of....daylight....duration...formation, shape of craft....black matt finish.... kind of indicating something of the unusual.....or possibly entirely new....

Wing placement was it far to rear like the shuttle? or possibly further forward?
cheers

Far to the rear, like the shuttles.

All sorts of thoughts were streaming through my mind such as - have they recommissioned shuttles for private air travel? I have no idea. After reading what everyone is saying I'm even more curious about what I saw.

a reply to: tweetie

Aerodynamically the shuttle is a brick. That's one reason that they haven't built aircraft to look like them. The cargo hold was great for hauling oversize cargo to space, and it was fine for flying in orbit, but even as a glider, it was extremely unaerodynamic and very heavy on the controls.

The OP likely saw some type of space plane test. We may never know the exact aircraft as it might not be a known aircraft. This is not an especially extraordinary claim. It is odd that it occurred in commercial traffic lanes. But one can imagine that happening.

The other possibility is that for reasons peculiar to the situation fairly ordinary aircraft didn't appear ordinary. This seems less likely.

And the final, and imo least likely explanation, is he's just pulling our legs.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: tweetie

Aerodynamically the shuttle is a brick. That's one reason that they haven't built aircraft to look like them. The cargo hold was great for hauling oversize cargo to space, and it was fine for flying in orbit, but even as a glider, it was extremely unaerodynamic and very heavy on the controls.

OK, so there's no chance these craft were just in orbit at 39,000 feet for some unknown reason because air traffic flies that high?

a reply to: tweetie

Orbit at that altitude would just be circling a fixed point on the ground. Orbit in the case of the shuttle is several hundred miles up.