Mystery Craft! Chicago 5/20/12

wtf i could have like 20 videos of these in just the past month... Are they not airplanes? I figure anything that blinks is a type of airplane.. I see these things all the time n they blink like that and in triangles and all kinds of different patterns, and sometimes green or a diff color. They seem high for a jet to be flying at night, but probably some kind of military craft.

Originally posted by dayve
Are they not airplanes? I figure anything that blinks is a type of airplane.. I see these things all the time n they blink like that and in triangles and all kinds of different patterns, and sometimes green or a diff color. They seem high for a jet to be flying at night, but probably some kind of military craft.

You obviously didn't read the information I provided. But to answer your question, this was not an airplane in the commercial sense, nor was it an airplane in the typical forward momentum sense either and I detailed the reasons why. However, just because something is unidentified does not mean it's alien.

Here is the map I promised of approximate locations:


JimTSpock, thanks for the input. I'm leaning toward such an idea. Can remote control types be big (I guess bigger than the toy remotes I'm visualizing)? Are there publicly known surveillance drones that have the ability to stay aloft and relatively stationary for hours?

Ten city blocks is quite a distance away. Are you sure it wasn't a helicopter hovering? At that distance you wouldn't hear it.
Check this out.
www.globalsecurity.org...
It's pretty much a small drone helicopter with 8+ hours endurance.

reply to post by HolographicPrincipal


Wellllllll you obviously didnt read what i put, i saw the video and i see the exact same things all the time. I never said it was a commercial airplane, i said i just assumed they are airplanes since they blink. But when they are too high in the air to see, they look like anything.

Originally posted by JimTSpock
Ten city blocks is quite a distance away. Are you sure it wasn't a helicopter hovering? At that distance you wouldn't hear it.
Check this out.
www.globalsecurity.org...
It's pretty much a small drone helicopter with 8+ hours endurance.

edit on 21-8-2012 by JimTSpock because: (no reason given)

My estimation of distance could be wrong, but I am assuming by its general location that it would have been situated by the hotels. I mentioned in an earlier post that it certainly could be a helicopter, but a type I'd never encountered before.

The thing that continues to give me pause, is the "lazy" way it remained aloft. I described it as almost more of a "float" than a "hover"...more "blimpy" in its behavior but not in shape. The identified helicopter at the end of my vid can be heard easily... even on the crappy camera mic and seemed further away than the craft in question, which gave the impression of quiet or no sound. But of course I cannot say for sure.

The link you provided of the MQ-8B is indeed interesting, and would certainly fit, since the types of known technology that could remain stationary and aloft are limited. I looked for nighttime pictures to no avail (or at least nothing that concretely resembled what's in the vid), but I did stumble upon this.

If it was indeed some sort of surveillance apparatus, I wonder what its true purpose would have been. "Officially" safety and security? "Unofficially" intelligence surveillance?

reply to post by TXRabbit


he states this object stayed in the same exact position for a minimum of 3 hrs. if thats an aircraft?? I'll walk

Originally posted by HolographicPrincipal

Originally posted by Blue Shift
Agreed. The light flashes are exactly at one second intervals, per FAA guidelines. Of course, there's always a chance that the aliens might adopt those rules in order to stealthily blend in with the rest of air traffic. A pretty small chance.

If they are flashing at exactly one second intervals, then why do they sometimes flash almost simultaneously or vary at all in relation to one another? These are honest questions I am posing in every post.

And just to reiterate. I preface my post by saying this has nothing to do with aliens. Is my OP invisible or something??

Also. If we can ever resolve and put aside the issue of the lights, that still leaves the question of what craft has the ability to quietly float/hover for hours low in the sky? This is why I thought some sort of drone that has not been officially introduced to the public, but I was hoping someone with more intimate knowledge of the topic would be able to contribute more information.

I'm with you, this is NOT the normal pattern. I too watch the skies every night, I have for a very long time *I'm quite old* and this is not the usual light pattern. NO, the light pattern is not at exact intervals... I see that, it's rather plain too. I'm not sure why others aren't seeing this as unusual either.

This is quiet, that's not normal either. Not to mention, watching planes, helicopters, heliocopters, or any other military craft, copter, or drone. I live in an area that gets tons of aircraft, day and night. No, this is not normal.

reply to post by dustwolf
Thank you for your observations dustwolf... I appreciate it.

To others, let me put it this way:

Most of the responses to this post are assuming without reading my OP that I am putting this out there as some alien craft. Frankly, I don't buy into the alien craft thing, but that is irrelevant. This IS the Unidentified Flying Object forum. Not Alien Spaceships forum. So alot of time and energy has been spent telling me something I already know… that it is not of alien origin. So let's put that aside please.

1. My camera is a crappy non-professional Panasonic Lumix with a useless zoom. Even when I am zoomed in completely (8x), objects appear much further away than they really are. So what is on film is not reflective of what I could see with my naked eye.

2. Because of the above, even in bright daylight, it is difficult if not impossible to stay focused on anything in the sky for an extended period of time.

3. I have approximately 61/2 to 7 minutes of footage, and as I explained earlier, I cut it down to cater to the short attention span audience (which still hasn't seemed to matter) and figured a couple of minutes was enough to observe its behavior. There is no possible way I'd be able to film anything in the sky that was "flying" (a la regular airplane or helicopter) for that long.

From my perspective, I might be able to track an airplane very high up in the sky for 2 minutes max. This alone, should indicate the lack of movement of this object. Plus, the fact that I'm filming with a crappy lens and at night, yet manage to stay on the object relatively shake free (except for when my arm gets tired), is notable.

So, putting aside that yes, there are blinking red lights, and that is more than obvious…. The behavior of this craft and it's stationary location in a metropolitan city is, at the very least, unusual. Couple that with the coinciding NATO Summit, and there's a very good chance that the heads of state were staying near to where this object was located, is, I believe, interesting - and I thought this might be interesting to others.

I don't know if it helps, but I know we were testing various types of Surveillance aircraft before I retired. Some fixed wing, some were quad copters and even some dirigibles. These can also be used with night vision to monitor important events providing another layer of security. We get alot of presidential visits to central Florida, and I've worked many of them so I know that in the dark we could see everything as if it were daylight, civilians on the ground only see dark...and lights. If there were any unidentified aircraft hovering about for hours, we would know...alert on it and intercept with utmost haste.
Most were electric and very quiet and could stay aloft for hours. Looking at these lights can be 'unusual' because they don't appear to be like we are used to seeing. Beacons flash or rotate and are usually mounted at the top of bottom of aircraft, Nav lights (red and green) remain illuminated, with the red light on the aircraft's left side and the green on the right side. Anti collision lights and aircraft ID strobes can also be in the mix to aid the operator on the ground which way the aircraft is oriented while in flight and to prevent anyone else from flying into it.
Hope this helps to shed at least some light on the topic.




I know that this is not a hovering drone, but it is an example of some of Chicago's equipment.

Video example