New craft seen above Palmdale. Any ideas?

Hi Everyone,

This past Saturday, I was outside of my house with my Dad grilling some burgers. He noticed hearing several jets pass overhead back and forth but he never saw any of them. The sky has some clouds but not to the point in which you would assume the clouds are preventing you from seeing them. They did not sound too high up.

I told him this happens even on completely clear skies. you hear them take off, fly overhead, and you still can't see some of them.

Well, he kept looking around and suddenly he asks me what that was. he was very excited. I looked in the same direction and I couldn't see anything. He the says that he sees more of them! I finally noticed what he was talking about and ran to grab my video camera. I had a hard time zooming in and getting a clear shot. I noticed these white objects going in and out of the clouds. Some seemed to just hover, and others moved in different directions.

Have any of you seen anything like this?

The pictures below are pictures taken of the images on my LCD TV.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ade33defc461.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0c1627644f93.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 16-6-2010 by LSWONE]

Well, in all honesty - no one can tell you much of anything from those pictures.

If you could post the video, some of us could tell you something based on their movement, but only so much.

What would help is if you could describe the events a bit more - from what I gather, you heard jet engines and then saw these aircraft maneuvering through clouds.

It sounds like a practice engagement. A lot of guard units will do training in prep for deployment, or will resume their standard routines once they return to their station (which you then take notice to after getting used to not having them around).

But, I can't really tell you much without a bit more knowledge, and I'd like to hear your words first - not implant too many suggestions about what I think you heard (or should have heard).

Here are some pictures of the objects at full zoom.

To be clear, these are not the objects making the jet sound my Dad was looking for. I know this because theses objects were just hovering and the sound would pass overhead from one direction to the other. These craft were visible off and on over a span of about an hour I believe.

My Parents don't come over often and they are not used to hearing jets fly over that low. this is why they were looking up at the sky and not because they noticed the other craft first.



[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e456c66355ec.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/debf05246e38.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 17-6-2010 by LSWONE]

Having watched a number of mock high-altitude dogfights from the ground, I can say that you can't tell where the sound is coming from - the sounds will change in frequency and their origin shift through the skies.

Though I can't say that has ever been accompanied by hovering aircraft. They can appear to hover for a few moments during maneuvers (and due to various illusions) - but I'm not really capable of seeing what you all saw from your description... so I can't really compare it to my experiences very well.

As for the object in your picture, there...

It would, at first, appear to be some kind of flying-wing design... but, at only a few pixels, it's likely a compression artifact.

There appears to be a blur trailing off of the object in both pictures - which would suggest motion blur, or some form of exhaust.

Motion blur would suggest your idea of hovering and my own are substantially different - an that form of exhaust would be consistent with a maneuvering aircraft, likely with supersonic exhaust (which creates the deep, thunderous roar that seems to dart across the sky).

Not to sound dismissive or to discredit your own observations - but it would seem that the aircraft were likely F-15s. It's possible they were F-18s or F-16s, but it's a statistical likelihood that they were F-15s given the mission and standard drills of the F-15s in proximity to populated areas, as well as the number of them in operation near those areas.

It seems you are implying they are something out of the ordinary - but, I know from personal experience how alien the maneuvers of aircraft can look from the ground to someone who is not very familiar with it, as well as the sounds and other things that go along with standard aircraft.

So, without having seen it myself, or having a clearer depiction of something out of the ordinary - I have to go with my own experiences and presume what I consider normal is not what others would expect to be normal of standard aircraft.

i was about to aad some nasty comment but i'll differ...NICE !

Stolen alien technologys being tested from Edwards AFB. I live out here too now.

Cant tell much from these pictures. But its a known fact that the military out the world are constructing new aircrafts for future use. It is also known that some of these crafts belongs to extra terrestrials. No big deal .

In all honest , it looks exactly like a para-glider or a micro light.
Would probably account for the way it looked like it was "hovering" when in actual fact it was just very far away and slow moving

reply to post by Scotlandshope


Looking at it again, this is also quite plausible. I had, at first, ruled it out as a compression artifact of sorts.

Just my opinion, but there are many types of aircraft that could potentially create those views. Any pilots out there can tell you that an aircraft can give one appearance one second, then, even with just an aspect change, can appear completely different a split second later.

An aircraft moving away from you at a distance that maintains a strict aspect stability may very much appear to hover. Then, one dramatic change in aspect can even cause you to lose sight of them. If you're in a dogfight, that's when the feeling in the pit of your stomach starts to gnaw. Until you reaquire that aircraft, it is an EMPTY feeling!

reply to post by LSWONE

Errr... is Palmdale California not the home of Lockheed's Skunkworks?

I think AIM64C's initial note that it looked like a UAV is correct. I believe it may be either an RQ-170 Sentinel (aka "The beast of Kandahar), a new build P-175 Polecat, a new unknown UAV development airframe, or possibly another manufacturer's design such as a Boeing derivative of the X-45B/C/N (it may even be an early flight of Boeing's Phantom Ray concept that will be based on the X-45C family, although officially at least first flight isn't planned till December of this year). The first frame also bears a close resemblance to NG's X-47 that won the USN's UCAS-D competition over Boeings X-45N.

The sound you heard was almost certainly chase aircraft and not the aircraft itself from your description. It may also have been an experiment to use a "mother-ship" such as an F-22/F-15 to control multiple UAV's, although I would expect for safety's sake this would not be carried out over such a populated area.

LEE.


[edit on 18-6-2010 by thebozeian]

I finally got around to running the video through CyberLink Power Director in order to stabilize the video as much as possible. The video at full zoom of the camera shakes too much.



[edit on 24-6-2010 by LSWONE]

reply to post by LSWONE
Yeah having seen the stabilized video I am much more convinced that it is a UAV of some sort. One thing I did note though that seemed a little odd was the way it moved, it seemed to roll around quite a bit and some of its circling turns were very tight. In fact the motion it displayed seemed more like a small radio controlled aircraft than a UAV. Then again I haven't had an opportunity to see UAV's in flight so that is an open question.

Anyone else out there got any ideas, wonder what Intelgurl would make of this?

LEE.

pure speculation:
uav(s) being controlled from a 2-seater F-35 that's hovering in the background

[edit on 6.24.10 by toreishi]

There isn't a 2 seater F-35 yet. And I sure they don't hover it over a height of a 100 feet or so.

You are living next to Chine Lake. There is test and eval squadrons there. Some of them are depot level, and some of them are for weapons testing. Could be anything as i have seen some weird things on that base.

It's a control-line / foil kite. Just look closely. It only makes CCW turns, with rough changes in direction, and only in a full circle; yet the full wing structure is viewable the entire time. It gets a bit closer (larger) at the bottom and farther (smaller) at the top of the circle.

Just 'cause one is in the Cali "High Desert" doesn't mean they see things, nor 'makes' things.

[edit on 6/25/2010 by abecedarian]

Originally posted by onequestion
You are living next to Chine Lake. There is test and eval squadrons there. Some of them are depot level, and some of them are for weapons testing. Could be anything as i have seen some weird things on that base.

Palmdale is a fair distance from China Lake: China lake is in the NE corner of Kern County, almost in San Bernardino County; Palmdale is in north Los Angeles. About 100 miles between them.

Being able to visually discern a wing structure from 100 miles away is pushing hand-held camera limits, no? What I mean is can you zoom in with your basic camcorder and see the solar panels on the ISS?

[edit on 6/25/2010 by abecedarian]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
Anyone know why Zorgon no longer posts on the boards? I would like to hear his opinion on the video.

Hmm... judging size and distance is almost impossible... It looks to be at or just above the height of the clouds - but that's anywhere from a thousand feet to fifteen thousand feet or more (though I believe that type of cloud is usually doesn't go much higher than ten thousand).

If that's relatively accurate - the object size would probably be around the size of a manned fighter - an F-16/18/15. Though it would seem to be quite a bit more quiet than your average fighter - even the crowd-favorite F-35 around here.

It could be a UAV, or it could be an ultralight or other sport aircraft. If they are low enough, they wouldn't even have to file a flight plan.

Whatever it is, it seems to have a fair amount of thrust/weight going on. However, it also seems fairly quiet, which would relegate it to a prop engine of some sort, or a well-designed turbofan propulsion system. I suppose we could always go with the 'crazy experimental gravity drive' explanation - but I don't see why anything with a gravity drive would need wings.

Of course, if it is lower than the clouds, then it could simply be an RC aircraft, which it does seem to behave something like. Of course, the kite comment also could have some weight.