Somthing other than the aurora?!?!?

I was at home watching TV...knew of a thunderstorm in the area. I heard a weird rumble but wrote it off as thunder. I heard the "EXACT" same thing a few minutes later and it was so similar, that I got up and looked outside...did not see anything strange. Both times I heard this it sounded odd but with the thunderstorm in the area, I really didn't give it much thought. The thing is, I thought it sounded odd and I live by an airfield so I hear jets quite often...this was not like anything I had ever heard before. Later that night I was talking to a friend of mine and I asked him if he heard anything besides the thunder and he said he saw an aircraft that was black, steath like and it sounded unlike any aircraft he had ever heard. He said it sounded like it had a pulse. If there is anybody out there that lives in northern washington state and you know anything about this...please let me know. I'm in Everett and I think this may be out of Whidbey Island Naval Air station.

[edit on 7/3/08 by riotact1]

I live just north of Seattle and I photographed something that looked like the Aurora is described, had a wedge shape, coming in from the west.

However, my understanding was the Aurora required an extremely long run way so I don't know where they could operate them from in this region.

this was not in washington but i will mention it anyways .
while at our cabin in the kings canyon/sequoia my girlfriend was sitting on the porch at around midnight when she heard an aircraft fly overhead that made a sound that she described as this . a high pitched pulsing sound that she could hear for at least 5 minutes or more .
now the sound of military aircraft are very common up there and she can tell the difference between civilian airliners and the fighter jets that commonly fly overhead regularly just by the sound of the engines . i must say that she has the knack for it and is right pretty much every time .
so the next morning when i woke up she had asked me if i was familiar with the engine noise that she described and the only thing that came to mind was the sound of the aroura . and to me what you described sounds similar to what she had heard also .
can you elaborate a little more on the description so we can all have a better mental picture ?

Keep an eye out for "donuts on a rope" contrails. Poof, line, poof, line, etc.

Also, there need not be anyplace near that houses Aurora. The thing is ridiculously fast and could be housed multiple states away.

I really don't know what else to add. When I heard it, it sounded like it was very low and quite slow. I have spoken to some people about it and one person claims that they are flying something out of whidbey that has pulse engines but it is not the aurora. This aircraft has two engines, I've also heard that they are tinkering with the idea of putting these engines on the f-22 at some point.

Hmm... one of my classmates from A-school got stationed at Whidbey (if I remember correctly) - I could ask him what he knows about it. But likely anything he could tell me (even if he was not involved with it) wouldn't shed any light on it.

I know the B-2, when flying low and under certain throttle settings, makes a hell of a lot of racket, and can be heard for a few dozen kilometers. I hear it quite often at night when I go outside.

Though many fighters, when training for "dogfights" make all kinds of "strange" noises when they are off in the distance. Part of it is Doppler effects, and part of it is the supersonic jet exhaust - which just has a very unique sound (often unique to the model of the engines) and one that brings my soul to life when I hear it. It's a very sharp and deep roar or rumble that can be mistaken for distant thunder.

Though it doesn't sound like thunder that originates very close to you - that's closer to a sonic-boom.... and most residential and commercial airspace is not supposed to have aircraft achieving supersonic speeds through it. While aircraft that don't exist can bend the rules a little..... it does draw a lot of attention that isn't necessary.

Now, out over the ocean.... that's another story. Mostly why I joined the Navy - pilots are pretty much free to open their aircraft up out there - thus everyone in the aviation community gets more experience... not to mention the Navy pretty much carries out all of the combat sorties, anymore.... the Air Force gets called the "Chair Force" for a reason .

Though I would doubt the F-22 would receive such engines. Not only is the F-22 a dead bird (no need for it, and Lockheed botched the whole project) - but it's also made of composites -- which break down above a certain temperature range. The engines would cause the thing to disintegrate in mid-flight.... which is just not cool. And if you are going to re-engineer the F-22 to take such temperatures, you might as well engineer a different airframe that has less drag and is designed to perform at the higher airspeeds.

reply to post by Aim64C


I suppose I should give some of my back ground. I was in the Navy from '87 to '91. I have seen my share of super sonic fly bys, bombing runs on a towed target behind the carrier and f-14s unloading there 20mm on said target. I have worked in aviation ever since. I worked at a repair station and I'm curently employed at the Boeing company. I have "NEVER" heard what I heard last night. I have to say that my favorite sound was being at sea and hearing 5 or 6 f-14s idling waiting for launch...that whistle they make is awesome.

reply to post by riotact1


I'm jealous - you got to work with the F-14 ... the last flight of the F-14 took place while I was at A-school. Now all we've got are the damned bugs and the Prowlers.... which are falling apart...... Of course, from what I understand, the Tomcats were falling apart, too... though I was hoping for a redesign to be done by Northrop-Grumman to design the F-14 more as a supercrusing strike platform that could still perform the interceptor role that the F-14D was designed for - but the people who make such decisions had other plans.

Anyway, I'm not sure, then, exactly what it could have been. I'm not so sure that pulse-engines are really all that great - they sound like more of an intermittent step to me.

Did it sound anything similar to a sonic boom - possibly a supersonic UAV - something about the size of a car breaking the sound-barrier - or was it something entirely different?

reply to post by Aim64C

Not even close to a sonic boom...I have been on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier and had an f-14 fly by at deck level at mach+ and this was not the sound I heard. I heard a bang bang bang bang bang, not overwhelming and not loud enough to get me to run outside. It happened and I thought "what was that?" It happened again and I thought the same thing but did look outside. It didn't rumble like thunder but the sound stayed the same and it traveled...I actually heard the doppler effect. The fact that I talked to somebody that saw it , tells me that it is out there and we are not suppose to know. I'm thinking of going to the Navy base and hanging out for a couple days and see what I can find out.

Hmm...

I would think pulse jets would be so fast that it would be more of a buzzing sound. Somehow individually discernible "bangs" doesn't really seem to fit any previous use of pulse-engines in any context. They were used before on a number of German rockets (hence the name "buzz-bomb") and they are used in a lot of hobby aircraft because of their simplicity of operation and maintenance. However they are hardly efficient, essentially being a precursor to the Ramjet and operating at velocities that can't really exploit the effect too well.

Now, if they were being used with fusion, or something, it might make some sense.... but I still think that the frequency would be more of a "buzzing" - nothing you could pick out as individual detonations.

Would certainly be less stress on the airframe to have smaller, more frequent pulse repetitions as opposed to larger, less-frequent repetitions.

I doubt disinformation goes as far as strapping giant boom-boxes on airplanes and making observers go "what the freakazoid was that!?" I could be wrong....

Either way - I have no real clue what would be making such a racket.

I've got a good friend out near Mt. Baker. She's seen a new kind of "wing" plane. The kind that looks like a wing flying. She said it made a really disturbing pulsing sound that set off animals howling all over.

Did you have any dogs respond to that sound?

I spoke with the guy that saw the aircraft and he said it looked like the f-22 but black and it was cruising. He also said it sound different than anything he's ever heard. I'm still stumped and have yet to travel to the Navy base and look into this.

I have heard that their is some secret air craft that's engines are described as sounding like... "The sky being ripped open"

Ive seen a contrail that looks like Donuts on a rope.. heres a couple of pics


i292.photobucket.com...

i292.photobucket.com...

Originally posted by FireMoon
I have heard that their is some secret air craft that's engines are described as sounding like... "The sky being ripped open"

Ive heard a plane that has an almighty rore and you can still hear it thundering way way into the distance..

show us the pictures of this craft if you can please?

Originally posted by Nookster
I live just north of Seattle and I photographed something that looked like the Aurora is described, had a wedge shape, coming in from the west.

However, my understanding was the Aurora required an extremely long run way so I don't know where they could operate them from in this region.

While I was searching for information regarding the f22 and pulse detonation engines, I can across an official document in pdf format which was made for public release. On one of the pages it shows an f22 with a caption regarding directed energy weapons. While I could not find info regarding the f22 and pde engines, I thought it cool that at least the f22 has directed energy weapons.