Is this real??

Originally posted by THENEO
I love ATS, according to most people around here, every pic is automatically fake and every conspiracy is automatically not one. LOL!

^Best statement in this thread. I really miss his posts. You da man!

[Edited on 3/24/2004 by Bangin]

A blackbird on the U.S.S. Nimitz? How can this be?

The first picture in this post was simply a blackbird being towed probably for an airshow. Notice the stripes on the center lane are white instead of yellow. Typical military way to cut money. I was in the Air Force for 6 years. I've seen a B-52 being towed on one of the main roads on a base I was stationed at. They take up 4 lanes with wings hanging over both sholders.

[Edited on 24-3-2004 by dbates]

This one looks a little more realistic than the first one but I don't think it's real though. If it's on an aircraft carrier than it's a fake because SR-71's need along runway to land. Much longer than an aircraft carrier.

Originally posted by mrmulder
This one looks a little more realistic than the first one but I don't think it's real though. If it's on an aircraft carrier than it's a fake because SR-71's need along runway to land. Much longer than an aircraft carrier.

It isn't even an SR-71. It's a A-12 that is on the deck of the Intrepid, the floating museum in New York City. They got it there with a crane and a barge.

The original picture is real. If you do not believe me look it up in the book "Skunk Works."

I don't even have to think twice to tell you it's fake.

A) The Air Force usually would fly the plane to it's destination.
A2) Emergency landings would probably be in some sort of field to reduce casualties if any.

B) I don't think if they were transporting is via highway... the roads would be open surely they'd be prepared for it.

C) I think an SR-71 Blackbird is too heavy for a little highway like that.

This picture was taken near where i live. It is not uncommon to see planes being towed.

First, i will address the issue of sand and dirt being on the road. As some of you can tell from the picture, they are in a desert. It is the Mojave desert in California where winds regularly approach 20-30 mph, causing dirt and dust to be everywhere.

Secondly, there was one person talking about it would not fit on an ordinary road. This road is not ordinary. It is between Edwards Air Force Base in Mojave/Rosamond CA and Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale CA. This road is regularly used to transport aircraft between the bases cause it is cheaper since it is only 20 or so miles. The road was purposely made wide enough. I have seen the Space Shuttle being towed on the road (it lands at Edwards, but the only machine that can place it atop the transformed 747 to fly to Florida is at Plant 42) The space shuttle is seventy-something feet wide but the SR-71 is only 55.

Thirdly, people have been talking of why they would transport a top secret plane on regular streets. The fact is is that the plane is no longer top secret (it has been like that for at least 2 1/2 decades)

Another point people make is that the plane looks too short to be the real thing. It is because of the angle of the camera.

Someone said that it is missing part of its right wing (your left when looking at the pic). That is the whole wing. I know cause i have seen the plane in real life. It looks like the wing extends further on the left, but that is caused by the police car in the back. What looks like the wire hanging from the right wing is really a bright orange strip that has in bold letters "REMOVE BEFORE TAKEOFF" written on it. These are attached to most plane's wings when they are on the ground just as you need to place one on the back of a truck if you are hauling something that hangs past the bumper (at least you do have to in CA).

Someone confused this plane earlier with the A-12, but this picture will show you both of them


The A-12 is in the Center, the SR-71 is on the left next to the firetruck. FYI- The drone on the right is theD-21. This is the only place in the world with the A-12 and SR-71 together so this is the best pic to show the difference. The SR-71 is wider (around the cockpit area) and when you look at the picture of the plane being towed, it is wider than that of an A-12.

Last thing- those planes i had the picture off can be seen for free in Palmdale, CA at the corner of 30th street east and Ave P. here is the website for the museum
www.edwards.af.mil...

for some reason, the pictuer did not appear in my message, but if you click on the link you will see the picture i tried to place in there

Ahh, I love this thread! It is one I saw early in my ATS career and it caught my interest enough to start making posts of my own, Thanks for bringing it up again. One of these days I will have the motive, the means, and the opporpunity to really investigate the aircraft.

[edit on 5-9-2004 by Spectre]

I see no reason for this to be fake. I live about an hour from Wright Patt Air Force museum. The place is totally surrounded by freeways, I would expect they'd need to tow an aircraft between the main display area to the annex where they start to do conservation work. I'm not saying this pic is in Ohio, just trying to explain the logic to the pic.

This looks like a B-2 but it's different from such things
It's very probable that it's fake

Out of interest 2 things:

1) Why wouldn't they load it on the back of a truck or something to speed up the transportation? Or shove it in the back of a 747F with the wings taken off or something?

2) What on earth is the difference between the A-whatever it was and the SR-71? I can barely tell a difference!?!?!!

The plane looks nothing like a B-2. This is two pictures of a B-2. The first is from a similar angle to the SR-71 on the highway. the second shows the whole plane.




www.flygplan.info...

That photo is real.
The American military machine has finally realised they cannot spend $100 for a screw,etc.
So, when they found out gas was 50 cents cheaper off the base...........

I have done a bit more research and have come up with a bit more information that will help distinguish the A-12 and the SR-71

My first point is that the A-12 is a single person aircraft, the SR-71 seats two. Because of this, in the cockpit, the A-12 has only one window for the cockpit on each side of the plane, but the SR-71 has another set a little bit further back. see this picture


Now, if you go to the picture this forum is debating, you can see the secondary window on the port (plane's left) side of the aircraft. It is kindof hard to see, but there is a little bit of glare from the window.

Another difference is that the A-12 was used to carry the D-21 drone that was linked in one of my earlier posts (sixth post of page four). Because of this, under the fuelage on the A-12, there is a rack for carrying the D-21. On the picture of the SR-71 being towed, you can see most of the underbelly (the important part you can see) and there is no rack.

Originally posted by darkhealer88
Another difference is that the A-12 was used to carry the D-21 drone that was linked in one of my earlier posts (sixth post of page four). Because of this, under the fuelage on the A-12, there is a rack for carrying the D-21. On the picture of the SR-71 being towed, you can see most of the underbelly (the important part you can see) and there is no rack.

The D-21 was carried on the back of the a/c in all the pictures I have seen:




Bit Blurry but makes a point






Artist's impression me thinks





Photo (pre-crash of this example) showing the D-21 attached to the a/c and the tails are clearly seen

EDIT: and my source (www.wvi.com...) says that the A-12s used were converted to M-21s (Whatever the difference is)

[edit on 6/9/04 by Infidellic]

I believe it to be real. I have seen things like this at Davis-Monthan AFB where they mothball aircraft. It is being towed to a storage area. No big deal.

This place is hilarious...
Near the top of this thread someone pointed out that this was a plane being towed to a museum... and then we had another 40 posts that asserted that the photo was fake.

Sometimes I wonder if only ten percent of posters read the threads they are replying to...

Fake. The shadows on the cars all head to the right of the picture, while the shadow of the plane does not, even thought the plane itself is actually somewhat oriented to the right the shadow is also a much more higher quality than the rest of the picture. Also note how the road changes colour.... these look like they are two pictures overlayed onto themselves with poor editing being done. There's now way in the world a road could ever be coloured like that

Originally posted by onlyinmydreams


This place is hilarious...
Near the top of this thread someone pointed out that this was a plane being towed to a museum... and then we had another 40 posts that asserted that the photo was fake.

Sometimes I wonder if only ten percent of posters read the threads they are replying to...

Also there's no way you can tow a plane like that...should be more cars and VISIBLE cables, or else the plane would destabilize itself

[edit on 7/9/2004 by k33l]

Obviously, you have not been near an airport since they started using planes for transportation. That truck-looking vehicle that you see directly in front of the SR-71 is used to transport a plane when it cannot do it under its own power- such as when a commercial plane is pushing away from the terminal or when they want to transfer a plane long distances overland because they get more control and the diesel gas for that truck costs less than the jet fuel to move the plane 20 miles to Plant 42.

This vehicle moves the planes without compromising their stability by attaching itself to the front landing gear by using a metal pole.

As for your arguement about the change in highway color, that happens alot out here. This arguement has already been made and this arguement has already been disproved. Here it is again, but in more detail:

There is just dirt and sand sitting on the road. Look at the picture, at the top of it on the right side off of the road, there is white sand. In the median between the lanes, you can see that white sand has blown onto the road. Closer to the camera, the sand changes to dirt, which is darker and the dirt blown on the road is darker. Where there is an offramp from the highway, the pavement is regular greyish-black because dirt is not being blown from that part of the road-side.

The shadows appear to be messed up, but that is just because the SR-71 is higher than the cars. Follow these directions
draw an imaginary line from the part of the shadow that coresponds to the curve in the fuelage near the cockpit to the coresponding point on the real plane. Then do the same for any car in the procession, drawing a imaginary line from the edge of the shadow (near the middle of the car-length) to the top of the hood (near the middle of the car) and you will see the lines are parallel, thus proving that the earth only has one sun and it is in the same point in space throughout the time it took for the shutter in the camera to open and close.

[edit on 7-9-2004 by darkhealer88]

I can't believe there's so many pages disputing the validity of a real picture, there's nothing wrong with the shadows.