What on earth can make a high speed 90 degree turn?

Originally posted by dsm1664
I pointed out a 'satellite' to my friends. I watched it for 10-15 seconds travelling as you would expect. It then goes off at a 90 degree (ish, sorry, no protractor to hand!) angle at the same speed. Instant turn, no deceleration.

Dsm1664, interesting report mate and I witnessed something similar over Valencia last year - I have no idea what the object could have been but apparently the '90 degree turn' reports go back quite a bit - here are some from the Bluebook files:

Project Bluebook unexplained UFO cases - right angle turn reports.

May 1, 1952, George AFB, California. 10:50 a.m:

Witnesses: three men on the arms range, plus one Lt. Colonel 4 miles away. Five flat-white discs about the diameter of a C-47's wingspan (95') flew fast, made a 90degrees turn in a formation of three in front and two behind, and darted around, for 15-30 seconds.

Sept. 15, 1968, near Ocala, Florida. 9:30 p.m:

Witness: missionary pilot Jay Cole, flying a Beech C-45 twin-engined utility plane. One light performed aerobatics for 15 minutes and then vanished. A second light appeared, heading toward them on a collision course, made a 90* turn and disappeared. Later, ground radar told them a target was following them. Sightings lasted 15 minutes.

July 21, 1952, Converse, Texas. 4:30 p.m:

Witness: wife of USAF Capt. J. B. Neal. One elongated, fuselage-shaped object flew straight and level, made a right-angle turn and went out of sight at more than 300 m.p.h., all in 3-5 seconds.

Nov. 13, 1952, Glasgow, Montana. 2:43 a.m:

Witness: U.S. Weather Bureau observer Earl Oksendahl. Five oval-shaped objects, with lights all around them, flew in a V-formation for about 20 seconds. Each object seemed to be changing position vertically by climbing or diving as if to hold formation. Formation came from the northwest, made a 90* overhead, and flew away to the southwest.

Nov. 24, 1952, Annandale, Virginia. 6:30 p.m:

Witness: Lt. L. Brettner. One round, glowing object flew very fast, made right angle turns and reversed course during a 1 hour sighting.

July 12, 1952, Annapolis, Maryland. 3:30 p.m:

Witness: insurance company president William Washburn. Four large, elliptical-shaped objects were seen to fly very fast, stop, turn 90* and fly away in 7-8 seconds.

July 13, 1950, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. 5 p.m:

Witnesses: two skilled Arsenal employees including Mr. Washburn. one object, shaped like a bowtie, and like polished aluminum. Flew straight and level, then one triangle rotated 1/4 turn in the opposite direction and returned to its original position. The object then made a right-angle turn and accelerated away after at least 30 seconds.

Jan. 10, 1953, Sonoma, California. 3:45 p.m or 4 p.m:

Witnesses: retired Col. Robert McNab, and Mr. Hunter of the Federal Security Agency. One flat object, like a pinhead, made three 360* right turns in 9 seconds, made abrupt 90* turns to the right and left, stopped, accelerated to original speed and finally flew out of sight vertically after 60-75 seconds.

May 11, 1954, Washington, D.C. 10:45 p.m:

Witnesses: three USAF.air policemen at Washington National Airport. Two bright lights were seen on three occasions to fly straight and level, make 90* turns and fade. Each sighting lasted about 45 seconds.

Feb. 27, 1967, Grand Haven, Michigan. 8:19 p.m:

Witnesses: Sheriff Grysen, wife and others. Large white light, with smaller red and green lights seen to the sides. Made almost instantaneous 90degrees turn to left, shot out over road and stopped, moving too fast to follow. Sighting lasted 1 hour, 11 minutes.

UFO Flight Characteristics ~ Right Angle Turns

Cheers.

Originally posted by dsm1664
The thing the troubles me is what tech do we have that can move at high speeds and not differ in acceleration to make a 90 degree turn?

First of all you forget that inertia is only a factor if there was a pilot inside. Our new UAV's can make some awesome maneuvers and even the old coanda effect 'saucers' can change direction at will and you can make one at home

I have seen a similar event about 15 years ago. It was during the day and up pretty high, though it may have been a satellite at first except you do not usually see satellites during the day. Then it made 2 or 3 right angle turns while keeping the same speed, then it was gone. It was a UFO, as for identifying it is the tricky part.

every observation has a unique explaination...

for instance the appearance of a bright dot or point of light in the daytime

could very well be a weather baloon reflecting the Sun... it may appear to be going in a straight line
...but in actuality may be rising------ until it hits a Gulf Stream channel of 200 MPH air current...
thus making the 'appearance' of a sudden 90 degree turn

a point of light traveling in one direction then doing an abrupt angle as seen from the ISS
could very well be just maneuvering fuel droplets from the station itself getting propelled
by a blast from another locations' port....
i see only reasonable answers for +99%... its the rare one that needs exotic explainations

reply to post by karl 12


How funny, I saw this from just outside Alicante, September/October 2009.

If it was a physical craft then it might have had some sort of vacuum domain around it in which the forces from the laws of physics in the domain remain static so the passenger would not even need a seat or seat-belt while performing such maneuver as they experience only the inertia from their movements around the inside of the local domain(which would encompass the whole craft). The domain moves but all is calm inside. Think of how you car travels at high speed and creates wind around the outside but the air in the inside remains calm. Of course with our physics at present it would seem that such a thing is impossible but some experiments show promise for the distant future.

Originally posted by Bioxx
About 8 months ago i was walking home late in the night, i live in sweden and it was really dark outside this night with a clear sky. It was the first night i've ever seen so many stars in the sky. Anyways, i was looking up at the sky for about 2 min and suddenly i see something that i first thought was a star, this thing was clearly moving fast and making very fast turns without slowing down, just like you are describing. I kept looking at it for some minutes untill i see that there are 2 of them now. I really want to know what i saw that night, these things where following eachother and making fast turns, sometimes at different directions and then they would come close to eachother again, they never stopped, always constantly moving fast. It was like they where playing together.

I am completely honest in what I write, i just want to know what you guys think i saw that night?

edit on 21-2-2011 by Bioxx because: (no reason given)

I don't know what the original poster said, but this sounds like you saw at various times, reflections from different parts of a rotating satellite. There was only one actual "thing" but it looked like 2 or more.

Large satellites, especially e.g. the ISS, are quite visible.

What you are describing now is almost EXACTLY what I saw (If not EXACTLY!)
I posted my sighting here

This is my post:

I have seen many "Unidentified" Flying Objects in my short life but there is one in specific that baffles me. Here's the story: I was hanging out with my friends in a park and I was laying on a bench looking at the stars as I usually do. At one point I saw a moving "Star", no blinking strobes- just a solid white light moving in a straight manner at about the same speed you would expect an object in orbit to move (like a satellite). I thought it was just satellite (I've seen many satellites and this one looked the same), nothing special right? But just a split second after I concluded it was a satellite, it started zig-zagging! Roughly following the same trajectory as before but now as I mentioned- ZIG-ZAGGING! Back then I already knew enough about physics to conclude that the fast/sharp vector changes that the object underwent at such a high velocity would without a doubt generate huge g-forces which would absolutely crush any being(s) inside and even destroy the object if the forces were not somehow nullified. I pointed at it and asked my friends if they were seeing what I was seeing since it was so unrealistic to me and they all confirmed that the object was moving and zig-zagging. I still can't believe that it's possible for an object to make such extreme vector changes while moving at an insane velocity without being crushed by its own kinetic energy. Could someone who knows more about this subject please explain what the... is going on? IT--

I still don't know what the heck it was but as I said before, the manoeuvres it was doing were literally impossible.
And I do know what the capabilities of satellites, missiles, commercial airliners, fighter jets etc. are.
This thing could probably turn circles around any of the above mentioned with ease.


IT--

TR-3B triangle ship - technology for reduction of ship's physical mass and inertia effects on crew.
And "Extended Heim Theory" of quantum dimensional physics - to reduce physical mass.

To the OP,

Not sure if you are going to get your answer but you will get lots of possibilities.

I have no doubt there are 'objects' out there that can do all this fantastic flying, I'm not 100% sure any of it's ours to be honest. All our military 'secrets' still seem to follow the basic plane style with most research being into detectability as opposed to fancy looks. The same has been true for 40+ years and nothing that's been secret before and now in op has shown any of the wonderful flight abilities of these other objects.

There may be others we have no clue about but it must be being kept out of the skies or is an amazing leap ahead unlike anything in the same time period I mentioned.

I remember back in the 80's my wife woke me up in a fit of panic / wonder hoping I would see something she had been watching, sadly I missed it but I know my wife, she's very honest and like me is a sky watcher. She saw a bright object through the bedroom window just as she was about to get back into bed after going to the toilet, she saw an object that shot across the sky and then it zig zagged and shot off.

I can still remember the wonder in her face as she attempted to find it in the sky to show me and the way she described it. She saw something, that I'm sure just as you saw something.

My only instinct is that it wasn't ours...Wish I had seen it.....

Most of the replies here aren't very useful as usual. As the OP noticed many people didn't even read what he wrote properly!
Because the object just made one turn and stayed at the same speed I'd still weigh in with a satellite idea. I have heard some spy satellites can change direction/position and use propellant, some of them are very large. Then there could be the space station and shuttle/soyuz docking and leaving. Check at space.com forums to ask some space scientists.
It could also be something else of course.

Originally posted by St Udio
every observation has a unique explaination...

for instance the appearance of a bright dot or point of light in the daytime

could very well be a weather baloon reflecting the Sun... it may appear to be going in a straight line
...but in actuality may be rising------ until it hits a Gulf Stream channel of 200 MPH air current...
thus making the 'appearance' of a sudden 90 degree turn

a point of light traveling in one direction then doing an abrupt angle as seen from the ISS
could very well be just maneuvering fuel droplets from the station itself getting propelled
by a blast from another locations' port....
i see only reasonable answers for +99%... its the rare one that needs exotic explainations

Thank you for your post.

This observation occurred at around 2 / 3am, and based on my experience sky watching, it looked exactly like a satellite...until it changed direction. I tracked it moving fast through the sky, moving in a straight line, then instantly changed direction and continued in a straight line. No fluctuation in movement whatsoever. If you remember the game "snake" on Nokia phones, that was the motion.

Like this:

Originally posted by ManInAsia
Most of the replies here aren't very useful as usual. As the OP noticed many people didn't even read what he wrote properly!
Because the object just made one turn and stayed at the same speed I'd still weigh in with a satellite idea. I have heard some spy satellites can change direction/position and use propellant, some of them are very large. Then there could be the space station and shuttle/soyuz docking and leaving. Check at space.com forums to ask some space scientists.
It could also be something else of course.

The problem is that what he tells us really bends the satellite idea a little too much is that he describes it like the Snakes game (think Tron light cycles for others) ie straight ahead then hard turn with no over shoot, a satellite would make an arc I would have thought.

I
I
I__ __ __ _

Bit odd for a sat...

reply to post by Mclaneinc


Thats a good one, the Tron LightCycle

So far we've had:-

Spy Satellites / Drones
A BMW
Helicopter
Balloon's
Plasma Critters

I really wanted the skeptics coming here and giving me a clear logical reason for what I (we) saw.

reply to post by Mclaneinc


The problem then comes to whether the craft the OP saw turn really did turn at 90 degree or just a subset of that or it just looked like that from the OPs angle.

Originally posted by ManInAsia
reply to post by Mclaneinc

 

The problem then comes to whether the craft the OP saw turn really did turn at 90 degree or just a subset of that or it just looked like that from the OPs angle.

The object made an instant 90 angle turn.

I know what I saw it do, therefore I did make conditions on commenting on this post. I don't wish to debate what I saw, I want that to be a given, whatever anyone thinks.

I'm after a plausible explanation for a "satellite" like object (observed height and speed - compared to viewing other "satellites") that can make such a manoeuvre.

I have witnessed what you are talking about once. I too thought I was watching a satillite cross the sky about 4 months ago. I can usually spot them in the night sky. However, as I watched this particular one, it made and abrupt 90 degree turn and either stopped or moved away from earth. It was weird. I was not the only person to witness it at that moment either. In addition to that I have also seen what appeared to be 3 i guess satillites moving parallel to one another. As i looked up into the night sky I see 3 dots. One on the left slightly ahead of the other two that are side by side. They didnt make any turns, but they appeared to be in close proximity to each other or atleast travelling together. Very weird! I have seen something recently but im still trying to wrap my head around it!

Great post! Flag!

reply to post by Mclaneinc


Perhaps odd for a satellite, but what if that was not the case...

Appearances can be deceptive, and although it might have appeared to be a single satellite, the OP has no way of knowing that for sure.

What if there were two satellites, and just as one moved into Earth's shadow (it would seem to disappear), the second happened to move out of Earth's shadow, making it appear as if one satellite had made an impossible turn?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/de97e42a8c95.jpg[/atsimg]

In this diagram satellites A and B reach point X (on the boundary of Earth's shadow) at the same time - As A disappears, B appears.

There are certainly enough satellites up there for this chance occurrence to happen every so often, and more go up every year, so it will become even more frequent.

No one can say for sure if that is what the OP saw, but it is a possibility. As an astrophotographer I have taken tens of thousands of images of the sky, and captured 100's if not thousands of satellite passes (often as many as 3 on just a single frame), many that were barely visible to the naked eye, but I have never come across an object that makes a sharp turn.

If there are indeed objects that make true 90 degree turns, then why has one not been caught on film/camera? There are lots of others like me out there, so there is no reason they should not have been imaged if they did exist..

I still say they look like biological creatures. I am still not convinced that there are not any gas based entities living in our upper atmosphere. Most of the time quite clear, but with the the right night vision and the right time at night they com alive eating one another. But the question was what can turn right angles at high speed. The answer is ball lightning like the ones that appear over mountains when there is geological activity under the mountain.

reply to post by C.H.U.D.


Hi C.H.U.D,

The thing is, there are lots of night vision footage floating around that shows very similar observations to mine. I think the 3rd/4th post in this thread shows one such clip. Have a look at you tube... I'm not saying they are all "Unidentifiable" and exactly the same as I saw, but I know I'm not the only one to see something like this.

It is possible that I saw two satellite crossing each others path, while disappearing into a shadow. But really, what are the odds of that happening. It was fluid.

The reason I refer to it as a satellite, as this is what it looked like. A faint light in the sky, going at a constant speed in a straight line. Until it decided to change direction.