Identify plane at Michael AAF, Utah

Well, most of you are a heck of a lot better at identifying aircraft then I am so I come for some help.

Surfing around on terraserver (just trying to find whatever) and I come across this satellite picture of Michael AAF. When your zoomed out, the object just looks like a dot but when you get closer.. you can see its something (parked? off the runway).


TerraServer link to original image

What could it be? I first thought, well, to me it has the shape of the X-47A Pegasus UAV.


Source

But after checking with a few web sites I read that, the Pegasus was rolled out on 30 July 2001 and performed its first flight on 23 February 2003 at the US Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake, California. And this satellite picture is from 1998.

So, could it still possibly be of a X-47A back in 1998? or something else that hasn't been made public yet? satellite image error...hah?

What do you guys think it is? Any ideas?

[edit on 22-4-2005 by andpau66]

[edit on 22-4-2005 by andpau66]

It could be a million different things, only thing we can do with this image is to estimate it's size.

this again? it is a dark patch of dirt or asphalt.

If it was truly a plane there would be a noticable shadow underneath it

Well the runway and the manoevering areas on that airfield are in extremely poor conditions, that might be some digging for repairs or something... It also can be some spilled oil... It certainly isn't a flying vehicle since none of the sides are symetrical... It just can't fly.

unfortunaly the pictures quality will make this indecisive.

Khruschev mentioned in not being symmetrical, and Jehosephat mentioned its shadow, the answer would be one in the same. If you look at the "craft" (i'm assuming craft, but of course could be something more mundain like asphalt) and the direction that its appears to be pointing you see a white building in front of it, the sun hits it so its shadow appears above it (on its upper left and right side). The craft doesn't appear symmetrical at first because its shadow is casted to it looks like an extension of the craft, which is what gives it its unproportional shape.

A patch of dirt? Come on you have got to be kidding me, that patch of dirt just happens to look exactly like the Pegasus.

It could very well be that the date on the sat image is wrong, because Ive seen images on Terraserve of buildings that are dated before that building was ever constructed or in one case extended. Its by no means guaranteed accurate.

According to the scale at the bottom of the photo, if it were an aircraft, it would be approx. twice the size of the X-47A Pegasus UAV. I tried to zoom in using Paint Shop Pro. The more I looked at it, the more it looked like a freshly patched apron.

I will second khruchevs comment on the poor airfield conditions as verified by this site
www.globalsecurity.org...

Currently, the airfield requires significant repairs to the main runway, taxiways and parking aprons to remain open and operational. The runway was originally constructed in 1951 and has been in disrepair since 1985, with high severity cracking on the runway.

In May 2000 the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $1.5 million in Bennett requested funds for the planning and designing of a new airfield at Dugway Proving Ground. During a visit to Dugway Proving Ground in early 2000, Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) saw the poor condition of the runway at Michael AAF and recognized the need for rehabilitation. "After visiting Michael Army Airfield at Dugway Proving Ground earlier this year, I was alarmed to see the runway in such disrepair," said Bennett. "Given the importance of this airway to Hill Air Force Base in addition to Dugway, I am surprised that the army has allowed it to fall into such a substandard condition." The Senator directed a project be developed to either rehabilitate the existing runway or construct a new one. Cost-benefit analysis determined that construction of a new runway would be more beneficial. A planning charette was conducted (without the aid of the Corps) and a sticker price of $18 million was determined and forwarded to Congress.

So i guess people need to now prove it wasn't a patch of asphalt.

I just did a google map search for the base. But you can make out a dark speck, at the same location as the Terra server image.
maps.google.com...,-112.924472&spn=0.019741,0.031672&

I dont knwo which imaging sattilitte they used, but I highly doubt a black project would be left out in the open for TWO civilian satilitte passes to see it