What's the Weirdest Thing You Have Ever Seen?

Can you draw it?

Thumpalumpacus said:

Was there any noise you could describe?

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As I said only a very faint turbine moan when just past over head position. If there had been any wind, we most likely could not hear it.

Capt. Vick said:

Can you draw it?

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As outlined against the stars, it had the classic flying wing shape. As a Northrop or Horten wing with more sweepback. No fuselage. Over the years, I had hoped to see some declassified info on stealth aircraft that might explain it.

special ed said:

As I said only a very faint turbine moan when just past over head position. If there had been any wind, we most likely could not hear it.

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Perhaps an A-10 on night training? They do fly out of Eglin so far as I remember.

Looking at my notes again, I see I had estimated wingspan at 50 to 75 feet.
For years after that, I kept a large mirror close, in case it returned and I could use the intense light to get a better look. I couldn't find anyone since then who had seen it, or at least admit having seen it. None of the family spotted it after that night. I suspect when the law cleaned out the pot patches and made arrests, there was no more need for the night flights.

Capt. Vick said:

Can you draw it?

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As outlined against the stars, it had the classic flying wing shape. As a Northrop or Horten wing with more sweepback. No fuselage. Over the years, I had hoped to see some declassified info on stealth aircraft that might explain it.

Thumpalumpacus said:

Perhaps an A-10 on night training? They do fly out of Eglin so far as I remember.

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Not an A-10, however with enough range the airplane could have come from Hurlburt Field. One thing, maybe not connected, a few years earlier I photoed a flock of about 15 OV-1 Mohawks in a hangar at Gulfport on the military side, which months later, the magazines said they were for the Forestry Service, so if it was DEA it might have been kept inside.

special ed said:

As outlined against the stars, it had the classic flying wing shape. As a Northrop or Horten wing with more sweepback. No fuselage. Over the years, I had hoped to see some declassified info on stealth aircraft that might explain it.

Not an A-10, however with enough range the airplane could have come from Hurlburt Field. One thing, maybe not connected, a few years earlier I photoed a flock of about 15 OV-1 Mohawks in a hangar at Gulfport on the military side, which months later, the magazines said they were for the Forestry Service, so if it was DEA it might have been kept inside.

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F-117 is also a turbofan, and designed with muffling in mind to add to the stealth. and triangular planform. Perhaps that.

The fact is that nighttime observations are less reliable and clear visually.

I can't think of any craft flown by DEA that has a delta planform. If your observation was accurate, we can deduce 1) it had an airbreathing engine, meaning likely of terrestrial origin, and 2) with a delta planform and Tercom-style flight pattern, it was almost certainly military.

Is it possible that the aircraft was a delta-wing ultralight?

How large was it?

There was a bizarre incident that occurred down that way some time back. A light aircraft was destroyed and the pilot killed when it had a mid-air with *Something* over a river. Examination of the wreckage showed that. The last radio transmission from the airplane was the pilot saying "I had to deviate. I had to deviate." But the really inexplicable part is that the wreckage showed quite clearly that the the impact went right through the cockpit and utterly destroyed it; paint marks confirm that. In other words, it was not a case where the mid-air knocked off half a wing and left the airplane spinning toward the ground with the pilot helplessly babbling into the mike. The impact most probably would have killed the pilot right away and certainly would have rendered radio transmissions impossible, since the radio is right there in the cockpit in the area that got smashed.

The investigator (NTSB or FAA, do not recall which) said he concluded it was a mid-air and wrote his report accordingly. His suspicion was that the airplane hit a drug running aircraft, since the crash was on a route heavily used by smugglers. But no other crashed aircraft was found, and there are very few airplanes indeed that can smash through the middle of another airplane and keep right on going; I would doubt it is possible with anything smaller than a C-130, and probably not even that small.

The investigator was distressed that someone had rewritten his report to say that the aircraft had collided with the ground and made no mention of a mid-air, but he did not mention that inexplicable radio transmission as being a strange mystery,

GrauGeist said:

Is it possible that the aircraft was a delta-wing ultralight?

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No ultra lite could carry the wingtip lights and the power supply for them.

I am convinced this was a man made aircraft and made originally for military use. In order to fly as slow as it did and carry the weight necessary for the lighting system, it may have some type of boundary layer blown lift enhancement.

Did it look like this? Looks like the one from Raiders of The Lost Ark.

The planform was more triangular which is why the others called it a triangle shape.

Google "flying dorito"

I was bass fishing in June by myself on a local, large resevoir that I frequently fished. I was out in open water (off a point, in a bass boat) and it was calm. However, there were some ugly clouds on the horizon and I had heard one or two distant thunder rumbles, and I decided I probably should get off the lake. The nearby clouds did not look too threatening and I had caught a couple of small fish, so I decided I would stay another 30 minutes or so and then pack it in and motor back to the launch. I was throwing a sinking crankbait and made a long cast, maybe 75-100 feet, with a two-handed throw. (Bass fishermen will understand this.) Usually my monofilament line drops to the water and I would wait 5-10 seconds to allow the crankbait to sink to the bottom before reeling. However, my line just hung there about 8-10 feet off the water in a shallow "rainbow" like position while the crankbait was sinking underwater. (I could see the spot where the line went in the water moving slowing toward me as the crankbait sank.) WTF! I stood there mesmerized, like I was watching my dog drive a stick-shift or something. I could not believe it. Then, about 10 seconds later, lightning struck about 50 feet back in the trees on the shore, about 150-200 feet from me. That's sounds like a comfortable distance to anyone who hasn't had that happen to them that close, but believe me it was terrifying. It was a "significant sphincter event." It was unbelievably loud and the pressure wave sucked some of the air out of my lungs! I actually dove down into the bottom of my boat and lay there for a minute or two. Then I could smell that sharp ozone-smell you get around electrical equipment. Needless to say, after checking my pants I immediately motored back to the ramp as fast as my 150-Merc could get me there. Trailered the boat and went home a little shaken up. Reflecting on it later, the fact that my fishing line was hanging in the air above the water was due to the huge electric charge at the surface of the of the earth in that area, just before the lighting discharged to earth. Like static-filled hair that has been "teased" and frizes up in the air. However, I did not feel the hair on my arms (or head or anywhere) tingle or stand up when it happened, though. Just my fishing line was "standing up." But those few seconds I was standing there dumbfounded at my "haunted fishing line" were a real Twilight-Zone, ghost-story moment, but I got my answer as to what was going on a few seconds later.

"There's a fine line between fishing and just standing there like an idiot." - Steven Wright

Wow. Lightning strikes are awesome.

This reminds me of a friend's encounter many years ago in southern California.

At the time, he was doing a Victorian themed photo-shoot in Corona Del Mar, a rocky section of beach in Orange County, on a stormy day, which would set the "mood".

During the session, lighting started out to sea, near Catalina Island. He wanted to get in a few more shots before the lightning got too close, so he continued for a bit longer.

All of a sudden, a massive "anvil crawler" rolled across the bottom of the clouds, stretching out for what seemed an eternity.

Well, that was all it took for him and the models to pack it up and head to the cars.

Later, when he was developing the film, he realised just how close to disaster he came. In the last photo, just before the massive lightning appeared, there were small "streamers" rising up from the girl's heads!

Fortunately, the lightning stayed along the bottom of the clouds and didn't seek place to go to ground (including his group), but what a close call!!

It was most similar to the A-12 design, looking from below in the dark, but able to fly very slowly and quietly. As I pointed out, if it's lights were off, none of us would have known it was there. I have wondered if a proof of concept flying prototype along the lines of Lockheed's Have Blue and the old Vought V-173 could have been built. Considering the fourteen Lockheed YO-3As were unknown until after the Viet Nam conflict was over, a limited production stealth aircraft could have been built.
The only reason I have told this group of this experience is that I promised myself I would know what plane I saw before I die. At 82, I need to speed up the research.
This is an answer for GG and the dorito.

Regarding lightning, a fellow I worked with had been in the USAF in Japan during the Korean episode. He was out on the miles of concrete with the B-29s as a guard. There was one guard per B-29 so his fellow nearest guard, both with M-1 Garands slung on shoulders, was about 150 feet away. At the instant he felt the hair on his neck and head stand out, he
looked at his buddy just as lightning struck his buddy and killed him.

I have felt the electric shock when flying a control line model, in a wing over, when distant thunder was heard over about 20 miles away.

yosimitesam said:

my fishing line was hanging in the air above the water was due to the huge electric charge at the surface of the of the earth in that area,

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At Cape Canaveral we have Field Mill measurement devices that detect such conditions to determine if conditions are suitable to launch. These were added as a constraint as a result of an Atlas shot down by lighting back in 1987. In that case they were unable to determine if there was lightning because the surveillance helicopters had been forced off station by lightning, so they decided it must be Okay.

Several years back I was driving home from work and I could see T-storm clouds to the West. I wanted to go for a run and thought I might still be able to. Then I saw lightning striking a few miles away. Okay, I figured, that was not too close. Then, as I approached my house a bolt of lightning came out of a cloud a mile or two to the West, arced OVER my house and struck the water perhaps a half mile to the East. Never mind going for a run; I was scared to even get out of my car and go in the house, but made it.

One day a few years before that I was driving home from work and stopped at a traffic light in Cocoa Beach. Lightning apparently struck the telephone pole next to where I was sitting. I felt the HEAT from that strike.