Photo and drawing of unknown craft over Afghanistan, page 4
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ATS Members have flagged this thread 3 times


reply posted on 5-5-2008 @ 10:19 AM by Canada_EH
reply to post by FredT


Hey Fred
Yeah I think you have valid point about civilian traffic but I have heard stories in documentaries from B-2 pilots about flying by civil traffic on the way to Afghanistan. I don't think they have a base in the middle east because plane spotters would notice the absence of one of the B-2's for an extended time period of deployment to an unknown base. The risk of a middle east base for a 2.2 billion dollar plane isn't worth it and not needed when you are capable of flying 40 hour missions. So at the end of this rant its still 50/50 as to why is it so close to a civil plane but it has been documented as happening before.


reply posted on 6-5-2008 @ 02:56 PM by Canada_EH
reply to post by satcom


cool pdf's Sat but I don't think that this is what we are looking at exactly. Mind you a good insight into another project that has or could have ties to skunkworks and may have been a part of the idea that may have turned into the plane in this photo. But I stress again it still could be a B-2.


reply posted on 27-6-2008 @ 02:00 PM by Dan Tanna
reply to post by Shadowhawk



Shadow, sorry but your wrong. Am not going to share how I know, but its not a B2 or any derivative there of.


reply posted on 28-6-2008 @ 01:22 AM by Aim64C
Originally posted by Dan Tanna
reply to post by Shadowhawk



Shadow, sorry but your wrong. Am not going to share how I know, but its not a B2 or any derivative there of.




It's a B-2.

I live in Pettis County, Missouri - between Sedalia and Green Ridge. The B-2 is more of a nuisance around here than a technological marvel.

Something many tourists find out about the B-2 is that it doesn't like cameras. Most cameras use a form of Infra-red rangefinding to focus their lenses. The B-2 is designed to defeat a wide range of passive and active tracking systems to include the Infra-red spectrum. Thus, cameras often have quite a bit of difficulty getting clear shots of these planes.

This is further complicated by thermal distortions - which are common amongst a number of other aircraft, and exceedingly common in the lower-velocity thrust used by Low-Observable designs.

In looking at the photo, it appears that the edges are quite blurred and I'm quite sure that increasing the contrast of the photo will reveal rather distinct edges consistent with a B-2. The cockpit is also there - it's simply that the B-2 looks rather featureless (this is partially by design and partially as a side-effect of the airframe) - it's designed to be disorientating to look at and to confuse not only radars and IR seekers, but also the human eye. If you're a fighter-jock seeing one of these things for the first time, it's hard to tell if you're looking at the top, bottom, front, back, or side - and your preconceptions will cost you vital seconds in your eyes giving you contradicting images.

Now, not to discredit eyewitness account - but all I have to go off of is the photo - which is clearly of a B-2. It's a very deceptive looking aircraft, and one that you have to watch to really get the hang of how it moves.

There's simply no reason why any other aircraft would exist and be in a combat zone. There's no role for that sort of an airframe to fill that hasn't already been filled. Show me an F/B-23 RTA with Navy markings - and I'd say that has a role to be filled (though carriers aren't ideal places for such novelty aircraft....). But we have so many subsonic, low-observable aircraft that it's disgusting.
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