Mystery Aircraft Over Texas

[WarToad]

http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3A27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3A98ddaa5a-e2b3-4a1a-9218-14d04d3ef6a1

...photos taken by Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett of an aircraft seen over Amarillo on March 10....

[burntheships]

A New Black Aircraft?

Mystery Aircraft Over Texas

The aircraft seen here was accompanied by two others. This and the fact that Steve picked up some apparently related voice traffic suggests that the aircraft is piloted: I doubt that you'd dispatch three large, classified unmanned aircraft anywhere in formation. The risk of a midair would be present, and such an event would be non-career-optimal.

As far as I know, this sort of thing has happened only once since 1956.

That was when British magazines started getting eyewitness accounts and grainy photos of the Lockheed U-2, then operating out of RAF Lakenheath on its first spy flights over the Soviet Union. Classified programs have been exposed in all sorts of ways since then - for example, the A-12 Blackbird was disclosed under a degree of pressure - but until the RQ-170 Sentinel was seen at Kandahar in 2007-09 there has been no such aircraft photographed before it was declassified. (And in the case of the RQ-170, the operational security people were not trying too hard.)

With that in mind, let's look at the photos taken by Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett of an aircraft seen over Amarillo on March 10.

The photos tell us more about what the mysterious stranger isn't than what it is. The size is very hard to determine, for example, although the image size at contrailing height suggests that it is bigger than an X-47B. However, the basic shape - while it resembles Boeing's Blended Wing Body studies or the Swift Killer Bee/Northrop Grumman Bat unmanned air system - is different from anything known to have flown at full size, lacking the notched trailing edge of Northrop Grumman's full-size designs.




It's not merely logical to expect that numerous classified aircraft programs exist: it's almost a necessity under the principle of Occam's Razor, because if they don't, you have to contrive some sort of explanation for what Area 51 has been up to all these years

http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3a98ddaa5a-e2b3-4a1a-9218-14d04d3ef6a1

[burntheships]

Enhanced Photograph

[burntheships]

"I smiled. "I think we have discovered a new black aircraft!""

"Look out to the southwest - there are three planes flying in formation - you can see their contrails."

I told the rest of the gang and we headed to the front of Old English to (as we say in Texas) take a gander.

They weren't hard to spot. The sky was severe-clear and the three contrails stood out like white chalked exclamation points across a deep blue sky.

The three aircraft were approaching from the southwest and they weren't in a hurry. They seemed to be heading right for the airport.

We readied the lenses on our cameras and hoped to get a clear shot of them coming overhead.

Since we are all aircraft spotters - we knew they most likely weren't commercial aircraft and had to be military, hoping maybe they were something cool like an F-22 or F-15s that we often see flying over the Amarillo VOR but have yet been able to coax down for some gas and grub.

Both Dean Muskett and myself were shooting with similar lenses - a 70 to 300mm zoom, I with my Nikon and he with his Canon.

There were four witnesses to this formation (five if you count my grandson) myself, Ken Hanson, Dean Muskett and "Tom."
http://deepbluehorizon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/mystery-aircraft-photographed-over.html

[burntheships]

Convinced we had captured a new black aircraft, I began looking closer at the other 20-odd frames and doing some enhancing - bringing out the planform, applying filters and discarding the color. At the same time I knew I had another source I needed to check.

I own a Uniden BCT15x scanning receiver dedicated to receiving and recording communications in the military-aviation UHF band (225 to 399 MHz) which when connected to a PC records everything and saves them as a time-stamped file. It was a simple thing to go into those recordings and search them for any communications possibly related to the sighting.

I found two. One with a three-ship-formation of aircraft checking in with Albuquerque Center on 251.100 MHz and another with the same aircraft checking in with Fort Worth Center on 316.100 MHz.

Call sign: "SIENNA"

LINKS:
SIENNA FLIGHT CHECK IN ON ZAB



SIENNA FLIGHT CHECK IN ON ZFW



.............

So I began to think about what we had, which was three unidentified aircraft (with the same call sign) flying in a non-standard formation with three mile separation.

.................

We know they were manned, we know they were big and we know they were and unlike anything that anyone has yet to admit are currently in our military inventory.

We know they flew - in broad daylight- over at least three states and maybe more. I heard them checking in over New Mexico, Texas and watched as they flew toward Oklahoma.

Where they went from there is anybody's guess.

So where did they come from? Where are they based?

Since they came from the southwest it's logical to conclude they could have come from Holloman, AFB, Cannon AFB, or maybe even Edwards AFB.

They also may have flown from Nellis or Area 51 - possibly for some work or testing over the White Sands Missle Range or Melrose Bombing Range or any number of ranges located in the south western US. Maybe TTR? These are all questions that remain open.
http://deepbluehorizon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/mystery-aircraft-photographed-over.html   

[COSMO]

It appears to be something similar to this configuration, possibly a larger, manned version?

Boeing Phantom Ray



http://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-these-next-generation-drones-2012-6?op=1

Cosmo

[burntheships]

It appears to be something similar to this configuration, possibly a larger, manned version?

Yes, I was thinking along those lines as well.

Hopefully we can find out more as the story develops.

AirForce said it was not a B2, but they would not
say anything more. 

[burntheships]

A better shot showing craft and the the contrails.

[burntheships]

This from Aviation Week on March 31, 2014.

Its a bit of a repeat however a few new bits.

Unidentified Aircraft Seen Over Southwest U.S.

March 31, 2014
Credit: STEVE DOUGLASS

The identity of what appears to be a blended wing-body aircraft type photographed over Amarillo, Texas, on March 10 remains uncertain, with the U.S. Air Force declining any comment on the aircraft.

Three aircraft were observed flying in formation southwest of Amarillo around 4:20 p.m. CDT, by photographers on the fence line of the city's international airport. IbOne of the aircraft could be a B-2, but the clearest color photos and monochrome images enhanced (for contrast and resolution) with commercial software suggest a blended shape with a straight trailing edge. Steve Douglass, one of the photographers and an experienced aircraft observer, says the aircraft were "larger than fighter-size" and appeared similar in wingspan to commercial traffic.

The formation was not using Mode S transponders, according to a review of records at the Flightradar24 air-traffic-tracking site. Radio transmissions apparently associated with the flight were intercepted and recorded, possibly including the call sign "Sienna."

An Air Force representative in Washington responded to queries about the aircraft, and about flight activities at that time and place, with the statement "I have nothing for you," a phrase long associated with responses to queries about classified programs and operations. The 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo., home of the Air Force's B-2 fleet, says that none of its aircraft were operating near Amarillo on March 10. However, test units have also flown B-2s.
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_03_31_2014_p30-675221.xml

[WarToad]

http://deepbluehorizon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/mystery-aircraft-photographed-over.html

(Updated page)

UPDATE: Since the news has broke I've been contacted by reporters from many media outlets asking me the same question over and over again, "What do you think it was?"

Here's my educated guess:

Since the discovery of low observable (stealth) technology was quantified, it has been implemented across the board.

First there were stealth bombers, followed by stealth fighters and spy-planes, drones, stealth ships and because of the bin Laden raid we now know stealth helicopters exist.

But if you look at the list of stealth applications, there's one military mission that stealth has supposedly never been applied to; a covert way to quickly airlift a large number of troops and equipment into a battle zone or unfriendly country without the enemy ever being the wiser.

The answer to the question "What's missing from this picture?" is a stealth transport.
-Steve Douglass

[burntheships]

@Wartoad,

Thanks for the update.
That is an interesting speculation,
the timing is right.

I wonder if Russia noticed?

Yet?

[WarToad]

I could see the application of a stealth trasport.  Fly 30 troops in unseen, have them HALO(High Altitude Low Opening parachute technique) out to the target ground.  Lower risk than a low altitude and louder stealth helecopter.  The military loves it's toys.

[burntheships]

Yep, spot on.

  The military loves it's toys.

Indeed, just wish they would finally sport out
one those black triangles.

[zorgon]

[LSWONE]

Hi Zorgon,

Maybe just my phone but the image you posted is not showing up.

LSWONE.