Actual Mystery Object (Aircraft?) Photographed at TTR April 2024

[Rolead]

Seems to a lot of vehicles for something that maybe a F-35

 

[dark sidius]

I disagree.
I don't see what you are seeing and it rather looks to me that you are including, in the shape that you are circling, things that are in the background (the basket that you are circling is a piece of the building in the background).

It seem you are right, I eliminate the possibility of 2 vehicles one behind the other. Could you estimate the size of the craft ?

 

[Michel Van]

call me crazy,
but that fuselage look like a Boeing X-32B

 

[CiTrus90]

Could you estimate the size of the craft ?

Not really.
I can barely see/sense where the wings are, it would be dishonest of me to tell you I know from which pixel they start and at what pixel they end. For sure the wingspan is not 40m, that I can tell you with certainty.

I've tried to do an extremely rough approximation though.

IF (very big IF):
1 - the object is sitting parallel to the buildings on the taxiway and thus is perpendicular to the faces of the hangar and of the dark building on the left;
2 - the object is (in depth) between the two buildings;
3 - the object were to be a F-35;

Then, from Google Maps I get the following dimensions:
1 - for the hangar side, 31,98m. I approximated it to 32m for my ease.
2 - for the darker building, 27.69m (nice). I approximated it to 27.5m;

From the panorama picture then I get:
1 - for the hangar side, 670 pixels;
2 - for the darker building, 586 pixels;

With a really elementary (and not very precise at all) equation, knowing that the wingspan of a F-35 is around 11m, then the wings should be among two lines of between 230 to 234 pixels in length.
I've centered those lines on where I think I see the exhaust of the aircraft (roughly the center of where those two lines should be).
It's in the ballpark of where I see the hints of wings.


But there is plenty of issues with this sort of measurments.
The pic is not high resolution enough and even a few pixels more or less could lead to a big difference in the estimates.
I don't know how precise the measurments are with the Google Maps ruler.
I might have forked up the math because I'm tired from today.
Several other things.
And then this might be just an exercise in confirmation bias on my part.

Someone else should try their eye and brain at it, to see if what I think makes sense in my head, does really appear to be to or does not.

Off to watching F1 now...

 

[dark sidius]

Good job , interesting. good race

 

[publiusr]

The more I read your posts, the less I understand you and the more I think I understand Byeman instead...

No

 

[Arjen]

Ah. The grace of brevity, in byeman's replies often seen. Learning you are, young Padawan.

 

[dark sidius]

We still don't know what it is

 

[Scott Kenny]

We still don't know what it is

Someone in dire need of a higher performance camera is what it is...

 

[BAROBA]

What would be more likely? A multiple billion dollars top-secret drone with either no wings or 60 feet wingspan parked in the middle of the day for some random dude to photograph ( not to mention the dozens of satellites flying overhead)? Or a aerial lift (in front of a van), which would be typical on an airport?

 

[timmymagic]

And it could be a non US F-35B…

There are 4 UK F-35B at Edwards with the ITF as well.

 

[dark sidius]

What would be more likely? A multiple billion dollars top-secret drone with either no wings or 60 feet wingspan parked in the middle of the day for some random dude to photograph ( not to mention the dozens of satellites flying overhead)? Or a aerial lift (in front of a van), which would be typical on an airport?

In fact nobody know what it is instead of someone have a program to realy enhance the picture to have a real idea we don't know

 

[Michel Van]

are there any KAI KF-21 Boramae for testing in USA ?

 

[FighterJock]

Would be interesting if KAI sent the Boramae for RCS testing to test the stealthiness of the design using the radars that the US has.

 

[Scott Kenny]

are there any KAI KF-21 Boramae for testing in USA ?

Unknown but plausible. Especially for RCS or weapons testing.

 

[dark sidius]

Unknown but plausible. Especially for RCS or weapons testing.

May be, but no real chance it is that.

 

[Scott Kenny]

May be, but no real chance it is that.

Agreed that the chance is very, very low that it's a KF21. Maybe 1 in 10,000?

But 1 in 10k is not zero.

 

[n01_b4_flash]

Hello to all,

I'm the author of pics of the unknown 'object' photographed at TTR on Apr 16 this year. I'm sure most of you did read a trip report of mine, but for those who haven't had a chance, I will leave a few remarks that may help in identification and divagation on what we really have here...

1. While spotting at an undisclosed location not far away from TTR I did not know that there is anything interesting or significant seen on the apron. I was just shooting pics for my panorama and only "spotted" the object when my friend and I were browsing pictures in his home in Vegas a few days later.
2. I'm not saying the object is an aircraft of some kind, it may be a ground equipement or some other vehicle.
3. I have no interest in making false claims, I'm just trying to find out what it could have been basing on the several pictures I was able to take.
4. I already posted several pictures of the "object" on a few different website/forums where discussions were undertaken to judge about what we are seeing on the pics.

Just today, I sat down on the pictures again using a program I haven't used before and got some rather interesting results that may be helpful with researches on the pictures in question. Below, I'm attaching the newest, strongly enchanced pictures. I must say I'm impressed with the abilities the AI program gave me, I didn't expect the results would be any useful but I gave it a try... well, enough for words, you are all welcome to take a look.

The picture entitled as "aircraft_enchanced_2" was taken on Monday, April 15, 2024. 05:52 pm. I'm having a hard time trying to judge whether the object seen on that picture is the same one as seen on the next day's morning pictures. Just cannot tell either way as a shape is somewhat different but we need to put it straight - these pictures are enchanced, taken on a different times of a different days and on different lightning conditions. Only the spot location is the same as well as the location of me - photographer.

The picture entitled as "aircraft_enchanced_1" is the sharpnest one and basing just on that particular one, we can tell safely that it's an aircraft of some sort. Again, most factors influent weather or lightning conditions.

The two pictures - "16apr_1_0636 kopia" and "16apr_1_0703 kopia" were taken on the same day(April 16) on 6:36am and 7:03am. This shape is totally different than all of the previous described ones.

Well, what it gives us? Not much really, but at least we can try and discuss. In any kind, I will be happy to answer any more questions and provide any necessary informations that may help to judge what the object is. Feel free to ask any questions.

Kind regards,
Michał "n01_b4_flash" Rokita

 

[Purpletrouble]

That seems a weird location to park an aircraft for any reason when you’ve hordes of (mostly empty) shelters that are ideal to protect it from the ever present dirt that gets blown around there (and the cold nights) let alone if its a secret squirrel or something.

It’s too near ‘airfield junk’ and cars tbh and not particularly near buildings for whoever owns it to work from (work offices are between the hangars). Pretty certain the US “red lines” (good god dont try crossing one of them, SDI swats you!) would prohibit such parking?

I’m not even convinced it is fully on the aircraft hardstanding, it looks almost on the gravel if not on it.

How did it get there? There isnt a taxiway this side of the right hand hangar (just narrow strip then gravel) so its had to go in backwards as no space to turn. Who does that? How if not pushed? No sign of ground equipment around it so what provides power, access, stores?

Smacks of something half abandoned for some reason, who knows, maybe it came out of the adjacent hangar if that has a problem (hangars fall apart, literally sometimes!). They’ve got all sorts of odd stuff there to support the ranges, vehicles with antenna, launchers, targets - all sorts of random stuff modified to hell and beyond, and nothing gets thrown away!

 

[_Del_]

The one thing I believe after reading this thread is that there is no way to know what that object is from that photo. I can convince myself I see any number of shapes with a little imagination. Leaning toward not an aircraft with another object behind it, but who knows. The people that are confident in their interpretation of the pixels are the ones I'm worried about. It'd be great if it turns out this is something interesting, I just think it's unlikely.
More and better photos would go a long way, but I completely understand we are dealing with atmospheric physics and area accessibility. Not a slight at all, in fact, all the more credit to Mr. Rokita for getting even what he has. Just not enough, imo, to say it's even an aircraft, never mind something new and exotic.
I'm not slagging anyone who thinks they can see an unidentified aircraft or F-35 or whatever else. I can see what they think they are seeing. I just don't think it's compelling enough. Could be any of a number of things I've seen posited. The boring, mundane explanation makes more sense to me, and is just as easy or easier for me to see in this case.

Just getting out there and getting the pics we have is a great story and adventure that I'm glad was shared at the link.

I'm still crossing my fingers for the submarine being real, though.

 

[Ninja]

Someone in dire need of a higher performance camera is what it is...

At least we know it's not a stealth F-121 Super Blackstar Manta... This is a very interesting sighting nonetheless, looking forward to further discussion in this thread.

 

[Purpletrouble]

The one thing I believe after reading this thread is that there is no way to know what that object is from that photo. I can convince myself I see any number of shapes with a little imagination. Leaning toward not an aircraft with another object behind it, but who knows. The people that are confident in their interpretation of the pixels are the ones I'm worried about. It'd be great if it turns out this is something interesting, I just think it's unlikely.
More and better photos would go a long way, but I completely understand we are dealing with atmospheric physics and area accessibility. Not a slight at all, in fact, all the more credit to Mr. Rokita for getting even what he has. Just not enough, imo, to say it's even an aircraft, never mind something new and exotic.
I'm not slagging anyone who thinks they can see an unidentified aircraft or F-35 or whatever else. I can see what they think they are seeing. I just don't think it's compelling enough. Could be any of a number of things I've seen posited. The boring, mundane explanation makes more sense to me, and is just as easy or easier for me to see in this case.

Just getting out there and getting the pics we have is a great story and adventure that I'm glad was shared at the link.

I'm still crossing my fingers for the submarine being real, though.

When it rains up there the ground can flood quickly (as so dry/compact at times) plus not that far away are some natural springs so dont rule the sub out just yet…

 

[Zephyr106]

In the brighter photo it looks like a Genie boom lift seen from this angle.

Machinery Marketplace Image Source

 

[quellish]

The panorama photo has distortion that makes far away objects seem much closer than they actually are. This makes it difficult to judge where things are or how large they are.

For some clarity, this Google Earth image of TTR shows where the tower is, and the area where the object appears to be. In the panorama photo the tower seems much closer than it actually is.



The object was not "abandoned" or in a junk yard. The object was not present in the open later in that same day (or the previous day). F-117s are regularly parked in the same area the object was in.

 

[sublight_]

Something similar to the ULTRA program?

 

[Bounce]

Did anyone else try sat data for that date? Sentinel has nothing for the 16th, it skips from the 12th to the 17th.

 

[quellish]

Did anyone else try sat data for that date? Sentinel has nothing for the 16th, it skips from the 12th to the 17th.

Yes. The object was not visible in the open at the times of the satellite passes I have access to.

 

[dark sidius]

Yes. The object was not visible in the open at the times of the satellite passes I have access to.

Really interesting....

 

[dark sidius]

Hello to all,

I'm the author of pics of the unknown 'object' photographed at TTR on Apr 16 this year. I'm sure most of you did read a trip report of mine, but for those who haven't had a chance, I will leave a few remarks that may help in identification and divagation on what we really have here...

Thank you to share your trip , all is interesting and it is very difficult to take picture at this distance.

 

[publiusr]

In the brighter photo it looks like a Genie boom lift seen from this angle.

Machinery Marketplace Image Source

View attachment 728478

That's my guess.

Hangers need work--you get one of these. It gets washed out in a crappy digital photo--instant plane sighting.

Mr. Detroit Spy Report needs to think like a spook.

Wasn't GIGAPIXEL a commercial single frame film camera based on old spy film for aviation?

Blow up the film and put it on a lightbox then scan that.

Doug Trumbull had UFOTOG, a camera vehicle combo that would have been perfect to drive out west--for this, storm chasing, etc.

I don't believe in UFOs, but that high-end camera package was very real.

Don't know who got it after his death.

Here is Doug’s camera set-up

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9jJhmwpQ-RI

 

[dark sidius]

That's my guess.

Hangers need work--you get one of these. It gets washed out in a crappy digital photo--instant plane sighting.

Mr. Detroit Spy Report needs to think like a spook.

Wasn't GIGAPIXEL a commercial single frame film camera based on old spy film for aviation?

Blow up the film and put it on a lightbox then scan that.

Doug Trumbull had UFOTOG, a camera vehicle combo that would have been perfect to drive out west--for this, storm chasing, etc.

I don't believe in UFOs, but that high-end camera package was very real.

Don't know who got it after his death.

I was thinking that too , but after looking carefully all the pictures it is not an aerial lift.

 

[Scott Kenny]

That's my guess.

Hangers need work--you get one of these. It gets washed out in a crappy digital photo--instant plane sighting.

Mr. Detroit Spy Report needs to think like a spook.

Wasn't GIGAPIXEL a commercial single frame film camera based on old spy film for aviation?

Blow up the film and put it on a lightbox then scan that.

Yes, IIRC it was an old (like 1960s vintage) U-2 camera/film.