a weird thing happened to me today so I decided to post it here
for answers.

I was sitting in my living room on my computer
and a US Fighter Jet flew over my house at a high
rate of speed and just as he flew over, all of my electricity
in my house went out. It stayed off for about 15 seconds
and then came back on. And the jet was gone by then.
Normally this doesn't happen in my area. If I lose power
it's because somebody has severed a power pole with a vehicle
and it takes hours to fix and re-route power. That's what made
this incident unusual. I didn't hear a sonic boom or a loud noise
other than the jet engines.

Now my questions are:

Do US Fighter Jets have the technology to render isolated
areas powerless? And if so why would they be using it
on the general population?

Any comments would be appreciated, thanks in advance
Or maybe this whole incident is just a coincidence and something
did happen to a power pole somewhere, lol. who knows???

Just think, they wouldn't have to bomb a target to render an
entire city without power instantly. All they would have to do
is fly over it. Plus, there is no reconstruction needed to get
it back on when they wanted it powered back up. Wow, what
a weapon. Turn it on and off with a fly-by ...

[edit on 15-4-2009 by SimonSays]

I would think that is a coincident too.

To take out a whole house or neighborhood, the equipment you would need would at least take a Boeing 747 or something like that to carry it.

A system could be built that could do this but would be costly, large and produce collateral damage to friendly targets.

eeeuh?

Its impossible to build them small enough for a jetfighter plane.

the energy required is so big that even a generator hooked up to the engine wouldn't fit in the plane.

Question: Were you able to determine which fighter plane it was? F-15, F-16?
Question 2: Is it possible to have an offensive mode on modern fighter radars that might be able to interact and interfere with household electronics?

It would be a fantastic weapon system, but I truly doubt it is possible.
It would require a science which stands the current physics on it's head.

The problem is the Inverse Squared Law. Just like when you get a magnet close to iron it has a very powerful pull but the attraction falls away rapidly with distance.

For every unit of distance, you need to multiply the power requirement for the last increment by itself.

If the jet had some power source which could constantly put out a field effect which would trip the defenses of the electrical grid it would take tremendous power even if directly applied.

The problem is that the jet is way up there. The power requirements would be insane. It would be like saying they have a magnet attached to the jet so powerful it can pick paperclips up off the ground as it flys over.

Even if it only took the power of 1 watt with direct input, it would require many times more energy to reach the ground. 2 watts at 1 inch away, 4 watts at 2 inches, 16 watts at 3 inches, and so on. By the time you are six inches away the requirement has climbed from 1 watt to 65536 watts.

There are EMP weapons but they use a nuclear explosion as the power source.

From what it sounds like it didn't "fry" anything so a large EM pulse can be ruled out. I think he is asking if there is a type of weapon that can temporarily disable an electrical grid simply by being near it. In that case ... my question is why isn't the jet fighter's electronics disabled while the weapon is active? If I am wrong then well... it's a coincidence, a different type of EM weapon, the power company was already set up to reinstall the fried transformers and the such in 15 seconds.... or I'm just rambling stupid nonsense.

Not impossible at all - some radar systems to interfere with remote garage door openers and other devices.

The big question is where are you? Are there any AF or Navy aviation bases nearby? That might narrow down the aircraft type a little.

otherwise I'd say ti was coincidence.

thanks for all the info guys, I'm still trying to
read all the info provided.

as far as where I live

I live about half way between Pope AF Base
and Myrtle Beach AF Base. Matter of fact they
do dog fighting over my house sometimes.
it's really kewl to watch them, but they go so fast
sometimes all u do is hear them.

But this jet was really low to the ground, maybe 300-500 ft
or less. Just above tree-top level. Sounded like he was takin
the roof with him.

As far as what kind of fighter it was
I don't have a clue as I didn't see it, I was inside
when it happened.
just heard it. But on prior occasions I have
seen F-16's, F-15's and F-18's, and occasionally a chopper
or transport plane.

and thanks to everyone for commenting

A more mundane explanation to this might be that the electrical outage could have been caused by the shockwave generated by the plane. Oh well, what do I know.

Originally posted by toreishi
A more mundane explanation to this might be that the electrical outage could have been caused by the shockwave generated by the plane.

no offense bro, but I seriously doubt that for 3 reasons.
1) They have flown over that low before with no power outage.
2) There were no breakers blown or tripped on the panel board.
3) I didn't do anything to get the power back on 15 secs later

but thanks for the suggestion

Good thread... I'll keep this really simple, and hopefully point in the right direction.

In answer to the OP... If you only lost power for 15 seconds, there was probably no EMP. If there were an EMP, that computer in front of you would just be a paperweight now.

The device exists, in bomb form, and contrary to a previous post, is not nuclear.

Three words for those that like search engines: Flux compression generator.

An EMP is also produced in a nuclear airburst, but why mess with fallout when you don't have to?

This may be the technology that was used in the balkans supposedly.

The HERF gun is kind of along the same lines, although ideally a directed pulse, opposed to radiant.

Thinking about it, my opinion is a detection countermeasure, stealth technology, using fields around attack jets, is more likely than a weapon to cut proximate electrical supplies whilst in flight as described.

If you had described the power going off minutes prior to the pass and then power cutting back in minutes after the pass or a minute, 30 seconds even, either side of a pass.
I'd be more open to suggestions it is some form of power supply distruption tech', but i' still doubt it.

Something i've thought for a while, well since i was a kid really.
Is jets intake a lot of particles at high velocities etc that could be used but seemingly, a wasted potential.
What if instead of just exhausting it through afterburners, what if components of the intake atmospheric particles were diverted and used to generate the energies required to enshroud a fighter jet or bomber, with various forms of shield.
Couldn't be done simply with the power output of the jets engines, but when at high velocity, there are abundant sundry particles available for concentration and conversion with a jets powerplant merely powering initial containment fields to enable such technologies to be small enough for modern fighter jets to stealth bombers to utilise.
Hypothetically speaking of course, wouldn't want to piss anybody off by going too far into anything prototypic.

The future is already happening guys.

And not every advance is a weapon.

Paxus.




[edit on 26-4-2009 by DeltaPan]