Flying wing over groom lake

a reply to: anzha
The white bat nickname has been touted as the RQ 180 a few times hasn't it. The glossy black aircraft looks a lot like one of the Falcon proposals I think it was. Seen the concept on here just can't find it now.

Mentioned as RQ-180’s ….couple of pics…..



This one spotted and snapped over the Philippines…..



Looks to be about the same contrails and tight spacing between them?
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a reply to: Ophiuchus1

Sam, from the forum did a really good photo analysis of the first sighting of this, over California City, near Edwards. He was able to match it up pretty perfectly with the Lockheed Polecat, which means it can’t be the -180. There are other unknown UAVs out and about, so my guess is that it’s one of those.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Ophiuchus1

Sam, from the forum did a really good photo analysis of the first sighting of this, over California City, near Edwards. He was able to match it up pretty perfectly with the Lockheed Polecat, which means it can’t be the -180. There are other unknown UAVs out and about, so my guess is that it’s one of those.

A link to Sam’s analysis would be appreciated…….

Anyway…..I put this comparison together….unfortunately I can’t find an actual top view image of the Polecat …so I’m using the LM brochure depiction in the center.

Seems to me there’s a difference of the air intakes/fuselage fairing shapes between the top pic (rotated upright) of the purported RQ-180 vs. the Polecat. The top craft casts a single long shadow along the air intake/fuselage fairing …..

I would suspect that the air intake/fuselage fairing of the Polecat would cast offsetting shadows from its design should the Sun or light source, shine on the starboard side while in actual flight….

The 3rd pic down (Philippines sighting) is to distorted but has about the same overall outline of the Polecat and Purported RQ-180..

If you get my intended meaning…..



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a reply to: Ophiuchus1

He didn’t post it here, it was a conversation between the two of us. I’ll try to get the pic again later and post it. It’s possible this is a -180, but I have doubts about that.

This was from the first sighting, just outside Edwards AFB.

A quick and dirty analysis.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
This was from the first sighting, just outside Edwards AFB.

A quick and dirty analysis.

Intresting…….pic from your link……

I just realized I jumped to the conclusion that I was comparing the purported RQ-180 to the Polecat…..but didn’t consider that the picture of the mystery aircraft could be the underside!…….hence I’ve Possibly compared the top of the Polecat to the bottom of the mystery aircraft.

The Mystery continues…….unless my comparison is correct and there both top views of each aircraft.

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a reply to: Ophiuchus1

Frankly, I disagree that this is a P-175 Polecat and not the RQ-180. This shape matches that of both the Philippines and NTTR sightings, and looks essentially just like the final Northrop Grumman SensorCraft configuration from the AFRL study. Also, we know that the RQ-180 is currently operating in significant numbers and there is as yet no evidence that any additional P-175 airframes were ever built after the first one was lost.

a reply to: Shadowhawk

I could very definitely be wrong, and am certainly not locked in to it being Polecat. Just pointing out that a quick and dirty analysis matches up with some of the features of Polecat. I wouldn't be surprised if this is something other than the RQ-180, that we haven't heard about, being used as a test bed, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is confirmed as the RQ-180 either.

I remain leaning towards both aircraft as not being the Polecat…but indeed the RQ-180…..until otherwise info becomes known.

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