Weird California sighting

a reply to: Sammamishman

Ditto. I'm a sucker for anything (potentially) YF-23 related!

a reply to: Barnalby

I don't care what some people say. The YF-23 still makes me tingle. She's beautiful in my mind. Gorgeous, capable, fast, dangerous...everything I've ever wanted in a girl.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Well, they did call it the Black Widow.

a reply to: Sammamishman

Yeah, She broke my heart when she just up n disappeared. Typical in my experience though, sadly.

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
a reply to: Sammamishman

Yeah, She broke my heart when she just up n disappeared. Typical in my experience though, sadly.

Shes in a warehouse collecting dust right now. too valuable to scrap right now. says something abou ttheir faith in th ef-22 if its still in storage.

a reply to: yuppa


Go visit the old bags...

a reply to: Caughtlurking

is that a xb-70 i spy

We've got all this cool stuff flying around, it's such a shame to us military and aviation geeks that we won't have real data and confirmation for years...or decades...or ever.

a reply to: johnthejedi24
I agree

a reply to: penroc3

An A-12 behind it, and Pave Blue to the left as well. I love that place

a reply to: johnthejedi24

ohhh its there.


cloak and dagger......cloak and dagger.


if you leave near one of the good bases go to the bars and over time youll hear some stuff

a reply to: penroc3

Hmmm...That's good advice about hanging out at the bar.


Hey Zaph,

How long you think I could get away with hanging out at Club Muroc before someone there throws me out on to the sidewalk? Or do they already have a picture behind the bar with 'refuse service to this guy'?

a reply to: johnthejedi24


It's a travesty, a crime against humanity. At least back in the 50s and 60s the air and space races inspired a generation of engineers and scientists. That's why I'm really rooting for these commercial space companies to succeed and hopefully pursue some new and innovative technologies. It'd be nice to have some exciting white world projects. Vertically landing rockets is pretty incredible and could be a game changer and has been advancing very quickly and rather quietly.

a reply to: Caughtlurking

Interesting you brought that up. Vertical landing rockets means more fuel required on board.

Why can't these guys just put wings on the rocket that pop open when its coming back down?

a reply to: BigTrain

It ironically works the exact opposite of how you might think.

The weight of fuel required to softly land a nearly-empty rocket on it's tail, along with the weight of landing legs to carry that light empty shell, still comes out to being far, far less than the weight/complexity of wings or parachutes to land that same booster.

The only thing holding the VTVL concept back was the ambition and FADEC/flight control software technology.

originally posted by: BigTrain
a reply to: Caughtlurking

Interesting you brought that up. Vertical landing rockets means more fuel required on board.

Why can't these guys just put wings on the rocket that pop open when its coming back down?

I suspect the vertical landing makes less difference than you think----much of the fuel to re-land is to reverse the large momentum in the orbital direction necessary to put payload into orbit. Unless you want to land horizontally in, uh, Mauritania?

As far as pop-out wings----enough to withstand re-entry stress at Mach 15?

Where do they fit in during ascent? What's the mass drag?

Right now, the rockets are very thin aluminum tubes with thin tanks holding fuel for 90% of their volume.

It isn't as if aerospace designers hadn't thought about wings---surely this has been studied since literally 1950. In space travel, the numbers are everything, and are a huge PITA.

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
a reply to: penroc3

Hmmm...That's good advice about hanging out at the bar.


Hey Zaph,

How long you think I could get away with hanging out at Club Muroc before someone there throws me out on to the sidewalk? Or do they already have a picture behind the bar with 'refuse service to this guy'?

Oh at the Area...51 cantina!!...Air force officers and Aliens you never seen Ah!!(copah cabana tune parody line)

a reply to: yuppa

muroc is the old name for edwards. they wanted to call it corum but that name was taken so they Instead called it muroc.

originally posted by: Badgered1
I'd mentioned previously that I swear I saw something similar to a YF-23 take off at Edwards just a couple years ago. It was with a couple of F-16s. All took off on a very steep climb, and veered off into the distance.
That was an "early 90s cancelled project...."
Is it a variation on that theme, Zaphod? (He asks knowing full well that Zaphod isn't going to tell him anyway...)

I'm with Samm on this one. For recent personal reasons I too would be VERY interested in your sighting.

a reply to: BASSPLYR
Do you think it may have a sort of link with the green lady ?