Strange aircraft sighted Dec 1999

On 4 December 1999 (I remember it because it was the weekend I first met my wife), I was outside looking at the stars, a thing I do regularly since it helps me to relax. That night I saw three strange looking aircraft (I drew them as best as I could using MSPaint). The sky was very dark, almost black and the planes only just stood out against it. The craft themselves were dark grey and shaped as I have drawn. They flew in formation for a few seconds, before peeling away - very quickly - and heading in their separate directions.
The only noise I heard was the normal sounds of the traffic. Nothing at all from the three aircraft.



I have never seen anything like those 'planes' before or after. Does anyone have any ideas as to what they could have been ?


[Edited on 16-1-2004 by Pisky]

I had a similar experience a few months back. I was observing the sky at about 11:00 CST, looking at the Perseus double cluster with my binoculars. Suddenly, three strange lights appeared from out of my field of view. They flew in tight formation, and all traveled paralled from each other; traveled East-South-East. These objects were definitely not satellites, for the magnitude (brightness) of these objects stayed constant. Stars moved through their field of view, so that's how I determined it to be three objects. Three objects flying at around 400-500 m.p.h. at about 20-30,000 ft. I'd say; each had one light. I still believe that it could have been a squadron of fighters flying back to Ft. Campbell. I've only seen this once. Also, since I live realitively close to the B-2 base, I occasionally spot one or two flying on training missions. But I don't think that this has anything to do with the lights.

I forgot to mention - I was in the UK (near Birmingham) at the time.

Maybe a new RAF or USAF test plane.

Originally posted by Pisky
On 4 December 1999 (I remember it because it was the weekend I first met my wife), I was outside looking at the stars, a thing I do regularly since it helps me to relax. That night I saw three strange looking aircraft (I drew them as best as I could using MSPaint). The sky was very dark, almost black and the planes only just stood out against it. The craft themselves were dark grey and shaped as I have drawn. They flew in formation for a few seconds, before peeling away - very quickly - and heading in their separate directions.
The only noise I heard was the normal sounds of the traffic. Nothing at all from the three aircraft.



I have never seen anything like those 'planes' before or after. Does anyone have any ideas as to what they could have been ?


[Edited on 16-1-2004 by Pisky]

I have been discussing a micromachines toy in another thread, that was modelled upon an aircraft of exactly the same shape drawn above. The aircraft piggybacked a shuttle, had a square window right at the front, and was shaped like an elongated aurora style aircraft.

I have no idea what exact aircraft the toy was modled on, only that at the time I was a kid, and knew that there were no such things being announced on the news.

Originally posted by AukerResearch
I have been discussing a micromachines toy in another thread, that was modelled upon an aircraft of exactly the same shape drawn above. The aircraft piggybacked a shuttle, had a square window right at the front, and was shaped like an elongated aurora style aircraft.

Whatever they were, they were faster than anything I have ever seen in the sky.

The only other strange thing I noted around the same time was that twice I was driving through the centre of Walsall and got stuck behind a matt-black humvee-type vehicle. I couldn't see any number plate and the only visible marking was a circular biohazard symbol at the back of the vehicle. My ex worked for the council at the time and I asked her, but as far as she knew no one had asked for permission to transport anything like that through the centre of town. Maybe it wasn't linked to the aircraft, but it certainly was strange.

Do you live near an RAF or joint RAF-USAF base? That could be part of the explaination.

There are 4 variations of what it might be...

Aurora XST
X-43 Xyper-X
Solar Blade
XR-7 Thunderdart

I recently got a pretty good shock from them myself because I saw five in a swift-wing formation like the Blue Angels with out the Rear Center Performer. Anyway... we know it's not the X-33 because it got canceled. Want anymore information, e-mail me.

Hope this helps.