unknown plane photographed over cali [hoax ?]

Yeah that's not a Draken. No idea what it is, it looks suspect to me, but it's not a Draken. Would love to see a Draken though

Judging by the account of the story, I'd say it's a fairly sized aircraft, in the 757-777 airliner range and it's engines are possibly located above the aircraft, sort of like the YF-23 and B-2?

The author says that he only heard the sound once the aircraft was completely overhead. Sounds a lot like the accounts of B-2 and F-117 flybys. Do other aircraft have this effect with standard located engines?

Shattered OUT...

really, there is no way (to me at least) that this could be an aircraft of Saab design. I have not the least clue of what it could be either.

but as to the authenticity of the photo, aircraft that travel that far up don't have such defined features like a heavy black silhouette....dont they?

I think it's photoshopped. But in the remote chance that it's not - let's say that these were some sort of hydrogen burning engines and the exhaust was water. Wouldn't that put the contrails closer to the plane?

Just looked at the blown up photo and have revised my opinion to "no idea".

Photoshop? Something large we have no idea about?

I'm not an aviation expert or anything but when I came across this thread I made a bit of a correlation. The platform in the thread is supposed to be a quiet supersonic jet, but it seems to be a hypothetical, soon to come, kind of plane. Who knows...its just a thought.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Possibly a modified SAAB Draken developed as a cheap solution for Stealth/ATF aircraft. It may have been extensivley modified with radar deflecting panels over its existing body?

Although slightly outdated?, I can see the SAAB Draken as the basis of a Stealth Aircraft.

reply to post by HatTrick

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We can't tell where the engines are located on the aircraft. It is pure speculation that we think it is located at the rear. It could be placed further up front closer to the cockpit much like the B-2 and could have some device at the exhaust to cool down the exhaust so that it would have a lower IR signature.

Shattered OUT...

Despite the fact that I am on the verge of going to sleep....

Could it be a F-16xl, only the squarish wing roots and curved back seem familiar.

Jensy

The Wings have a very odd shape. The curve of the leading edge and sweep of the trailing edge is very unfamiliar, The Draken and the new EU strike fighter don't have that configuation either. Sure will be interesting
to find out exactly what it is. Sure hope we can!
Zindo

I'm really leaning towards this as a PS job now and I'm going to get some picture reference to highlight all that is wrong with this shot and will update this post.

Well look at these as beginning reference and we can tell its definitely not a Turbo Fan on 747 etc.

YouTube Link

But when you look at the images of the testing video for what looks like the X-47 with F-18 chase plane you get the sense that they seem to be closer to the planes so is the contrail really a valid thing to point as this being a fake. But still there seems to be more of a gap then with the image in question in which it is pretty much touching the "plane".



Out side of that though the shape and pixilation and shade of the plane just seems to black as mentioned before.

[edit on 7-5-2008 by Canada_EH]

could it be Blackswift or relative aircraft prototype?

Or could it be a black project

It kinda looks like a picture of SpaceShipOne to me offhand...

The story that comes with that makes it seem less likely though.

EDIT: Never mind, after looking at pictures of SS1, that isn't it.

[edit on 5/7/08 by xmotex]

reply to post by Canada_EH

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I agree. Its got to be photoshopped. Notice the contrails behind the aircraft. Its not aligned perfectly straight. Its more upward or shifted to the plane's right based on the pic view, instead of being centered. Guess whoever did it, didn't straighten that out.

Unless one of the plane's engines went out.

[edit on 7-5-2008 by deltaboy]

I suspect that this isn't PS'd. If it is, good job. While the contrail formation looks a little close to the outlets, I had always suspected that the photo was taken while the aircraft was banking right and pulling away. If this is the case, then from the camera's perspective, the contrail would seem to form a lot closer to the engines.

This could also explain why the shape appears to be so stubby.

If I take into account attitude, it rather reminds me of the XF-108. I know at least one version of the project had small canards.

image source: http://xplanes.free.fr/f108/images/xf108mak.gif


But then, none of the proposals progressed beyond mockup stage. Not sure where that leaves us...