N91S (Argus aircraft) back in Vegas again (8/14/2012)

I see N91S has filed to land at Henderson. This is the Argus aircraft. It combines a number of cameras into one big image for wide area recon. This could be a refueling stop, but I suspect not.

Don't confuse this plane with Gorgon Stare, which used a bunch of crappy cellphone cameras. Argus uses multiple cameras of high quality.
flightaware.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

NV65 air traffic

You can use this link to look for any plane using Desert Rock Airstrip (NV65). Both planes shown here are from Dynamic Aviation.

To the best of my knowledge, the photo of N91S used by flightaware.com is the old Angel Fire version of the plane. I don't know if Argus looks the same.

It looks like N8300g took a trip from Henderson Executive up to Groom on Aug.10th and 15th. flightaware.com...

reply to post by norb85


The altitude is consistent with landing at Groom.

Note somebody in radio earshot of DRA could determine for sure if these flights are going to Groom or DRA. If they are going to DRA (NV65), then the plane would contact Bird Dog.

N8300G - 1992 DEHAVILLAND DHC-8-315 (48 seats / 2 engines)

Wow... busy Dash 8. Looks like daily flights from LV to Desert Rock, side trips to Creech and TTR. And what/where is UNPAS and DRA?:
flightaware.com...

EDITED TO ADD:
Looks like gariac has already pointed this plane and activities out here, somewhere, according to this:
fareport.wordpress.com...

reply to post by FosterVS


The good news is that is how N8300G currently looks. I was given a photo, but didn't have permission to upload it. I still don't have a recent photo on N91S.

DRA is KDRA, basically what NV65 used to be known as. The pilots are filing using DRA once in a while instead of NV65.

The DOE wanted all their airports removed from the FAA website, including KDRA. That caused a bit of confusion since Desert Rock is the weather station (METAR) for the general area, and a significant number of civilian planes fly past there on a daily basis. In fact, DRA launches the radiosonde. [The TTR has radiosonde capability too, though I don't know if they launch them in an official FAA capacity.]

Regarding rendition, it is hard to say that anything other than the Gulfstreams and the one USAF rendition flight (type of plane escape me) were used. The CN235, Dash-8s, etc were probably used for some other task (special ops, delivering Starbucks coffee, etc), but not rendition. You can dig through the Council of Europe documents for their rendition flight records.

"Hubris" is a good book, though it doesn't say much about Anabasis. I suspect it wasn't particularly interesting to the authors since it was a scheme that was cancelled. Of course, it is of interest to anyone that pokes around the Nellis range. During Anabasis, one of the training exercises went awry to the point where one or more Iraqi fighters (in the country both illegally and covertly) was seriously injured. If they were taken to a non-military hospital, I commend (uh I think) the medical staff for keeping the presence of Iraqi fighters in the US a secret.

They supposedly trained at the NTS. You may recall Base Camp used to have security cameras pointing at Tybo, which could have been a place to hide a bunch of "freedom fighters." I don't recall the time frame of the cameras. If you drive to the border of Tybo and lift the wood panel (now on the ground), you will see an official US Government type no trespassing sign.

Cameras:



Photos from 2003:

N91S off to KTKI (Texas)
flightaware.com...

Today's N8300G flight looks more like a trip to Groom Lake than NV65. However the altitude is a bit high for Groom Lake.
flightaware.com...

The JAYSN fix shows up in some Groom flights.

Add N55A to the planes landing at KDRA:
flightaware.com...

reply to post by gariac


Note the last altitude listed is 20kft,and this was over NV65. I suspect N55A landed elsewhere.

N91S has filed to land in Palmdale on 10/28/2012.

Flight N91S (BE9L/G) has filed a flight plan from FLG to PMD, departing at 10/28/2012 1:55 PM MST (2055Z), ETA 3:48 PM PDT (2248Z). Route of flight: FLG..DRK..HEC..PMD/0133

Maybe with the failure of Gorgon Stare, Lockheed is going to use Argus.

flightaware.com...

OK, what is going on at Palmdale? Yet another shady plane. Twin Otter International has all sorts of government contracts.

www.twinotter.com...

Originally posted by gariac
Don't confuse this plane with Gorgon Stare, which used a bunch of crappy cellphone cameras. Argus uses multiple cameras of high quality.

ARGUS featured on PBS Nova:


EDITED TO ADD:
The entire program, PBS NOVA - Rise of the Drones is here in HD:

Good video. After BDA, they wait for the rescuers to show up, and then...double tap.

Note that Argus uses cell phone imagers, but 4 big arse lenses. So it isn't exactly like your cellphone.

I did an internet search. N91S hasn't been photographed in two years. It was photographed back when it was Angel Fire.

Commenting on Rand Paul's fear that these drones will be used against the American public once the "war" is over...well I guess Rand doesn't follow the news. (An uninformed politician...shocker!) There are plenty of targets outside of Afghanistan TODAY.

Regarding military spy gear returning to the states, this has already happened. Specifically the MC-12, which is manned. In the US, you are more likely to be snooped on by manned aircraft than a drone. Take a common fixed wing aircraft, plop on a pod, and snoop away.

FYI, N91S is at the Henderson airport. If you want to give the plane a once over, you could eat at the restaurant at the airport. Oh, and bring binoculars. ;-)

Actually, the airfield isn't all that hard to view. There are windows inside the terminal. EIther side of the terminal has a chain link fence, but you can view and even photograph through chain link fences if you use a wide aperture. [The camera won't focus on the fence due to it being outside the hyperfocal range.]

At this point it is only suspected that N91S now has Argus in it, mostly since the previous project it contained (Angel Fire) was similar.
N91S on flgihtaware

This trip is listed as Henderson to Henderson (aka round robin), but it goes to Desert Rock Airstrip and actually flies over it. Now it could have actually landed at Desert Rock, or it could have entered the range.

HND to Desert Rock Airstrip

This trip is listed as Creech to Henderson, but the route actually starts at Desert Rock, then goes to Henderson.
Desert Rock Airstrip to Henderson

Between the two trips, there is 1hour and 16 minutes of unaccounted time. That could be time spent at Desert Rock Airstrip, or the plane spent the time in the range.

Note that the current Red Flag (2013-3) specializes in "E" planes, as in ELINT, SIGINT, and PHOTOINT. They have the Australian Wedge Tail E7, the RC-135, the usual AWACS (also an E plane), and the MC-12W Liberty which is a multimission snooper.

N91S tracking 3/6/2013

Actually the website lists the flight as 3/7/2013. Technically the landing was the next day if you uses GMT, but the time listed is local.

Route was:
R4808
JAYSN Waypoint (RNAV) 36.5737444 -116.0407278
FIDOE Waypoint (RNAV) 36.2698444 -115.4991250

This is consistent with Groom Lake, but it is not conclusive that the plane was at Groom. All you can tell from the tracking is that it was on the Nellis range.

They flew N91S from KHND to KMYF (Henderson to Montgomery Field) on 3/14. KMYF is interesting since that is where the Northrop commuter planes are based.