Looks like our boys saw something cool out there

a reply to: Chickensalad

That's a possibility. But remember the B21 is supposed to be on the outside very similar to the B2 but with all the bells and whistles originally promised in the B2 (but didn't necessarily get) available now that the technologies associated have matured.(plus a few things probably totally new. )

a reply to: Chickensalad

I believe the term you are looking for is RQ-180.

originally posted by: hawkguy
theaviationist.com...< br />
Nice pic guys. Definitely looks wrong for a B-2. I wonder what your personal opinions are on if it's an LRS-B or an RQ-180

I can't get to the website to see the picture, keep getting an error 520: Web Server returning unknown error. Anyone else having trouble too? or just my computer?

*edit: I just went and tried a third time and now I notice it says the website is down



**edit: sorry. I guess the website is back up. I should have waited a while before posting.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Thin wing to me says composite advances and high alt. Like the b2 was originally envisioned

Very interesting looks off for sure to me, me thinks y’all caught something special! Gonna have to keep an eye on this.

a reply to: BigDave-AR

It's definitely interesting. Possibly a B-2, doubtfully (to me) a B-21, but looks a lot like they might have bagged the RQ-180, which is a either a flying wing or a cranked kite, a bit smaller than the B-2, too. Given its supposed to be a Northrop program, I have to wonder if the RQ-180 reused a lot of the B-2 models and whatnot for the inlets.

If it has a similar planform, it might explain why people have had a hard time spotting it. It really, really looks like a B-2 unless you have a 'trained' eye.

This just in:

www.facebook.com...

That closure is right under South Base flight path. B-21 day time flight testing starting up?

a reply to: Sammamishman

Daytime B21 flights! Look what you guys done did!

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Haha, that would be awesome. The Air Force already hates us. Lol.

a reply to: Sammamishman

Have you guys considered dropping a telescope with a recording device at one of your locales so you could go to and fro and still not miss anything at a location?

a reply to: anzha

I have a feeling if they tried that the telescope would be knocked over and damaged by presumably some desert "animal" ....and the memory card inexplicably missing

a reply to: BASSPLYR

It might. It'd be an interesting experiment if they had some old equipment they were less worried about.

a reply to: Sammamishman

totally off topic my tube is on the way to me, i ended up with the israeli one.

a reply to: penroc3

ehh more like local LEO's and a wiped card or exposed film.

as we know there is effective anti-photo gear at work on some of these platforms.

one of my personal fav. youtube UFO guys were at groom and they happened to capture something moving very quickly and that looked like it was coming around for a landing, but the interesting part was the light and the effect it had on the camera.

i would bet they have this stuff going during these flights, or something similar.

a reply to: anzha

That's not a bad idea. I think I would want a wireless set up to upload still images to a cloud after it took them. That way if the equipment "disappeared" I'd still have the evidence. And in those areas that didn't have any sort of usable signal, transmit to a hidden hard drive some distance away and camouflaged.
Not sure of the legality of a constant monitoring setup though and if that might cross the line into espionage.

a reply to: penroc3

Nice, good luck with that!

a reply to: Sammamishman

That's a good question and probably ought to be brought up with a lawyer type.

However, you're on public land and how, really, is it different than if you sat there yourself with a tent and telescope?

Something else to consider might be some of the techniques they use for getting rid of stars when imaging exoplanets: coronagraphs and whatnot. Or if it were possible, selective darkening of the point sources.

Just another thought.

Cloud might not be a good idea, but perhaps a private ftp server or some such. Clouds can be...ummm...wiped. With the 'proper' authority.

originally posted by: anzha
a reply to: Sammamishman

Have you guys considered dropping a telescope with a recording device at one of your locales so you could go to and fro and still not miss anything at a location?

It would be doable to a point. But power etc would be an issue not to mention leaving expensive equipment exposed. The other factor that makes it hard is that the shot required constant adjustment to deal with all of the shimmering and distortion you get at night. Sam and Zaphod were old pros at the constant adjustments but I struggled. The other aspect is its alot of territory to cover and you would perhaps need some sort of automatic side to side panning to keep the whole base under view.

As Sam mentioned perhaps a wireless cloud based storage with all the risks that that entails otherwise you would have to make periodic stops to collect the take and if discovered you would lose whatever was recorded since the last pickup. Storage would be the cheap part of the system and you could figure out the power issue but I would be reluctant to risk the kind of lens you would need to get a decent view.

Also as Sam noted its one thing to be stopping and taking a few pics etc, but setting up a 24/7 surveillance network is going to be tough to explain how its not espionage and What one lawyer said is fine, the Feds make take a whole different view.

Off topic-
I love when we get all you fellas in a thread bouncing ideas around.
Quality ATS!

To me it looks like a B-2, but could there be a test platform out there to see how well the tech performs before they put it on the B-21? Could that explain the slight differences?

BTW, great pic Zaph and Samm and Fred.