*Hunting the Fast Movers*... back to the past!

a reply to: SpeedFanatic

From the events described to me, yes both platforms were manned, during one landing of the larger platform he mentioned aircrew being swapped, no other details really apart from there always being other US aircraft in the vicinity during recovery / takeoff

As for the Tikaboo who knows, I'm sure the US had lots of one off experimental types flying at that time, maybe Tikaboo was evolved into something later, certainly a few interesting sightings were happening in the ME after 2000, we all witnessed seriously fast moving aircraft out in Afghan long after the 71's were retired but hey such is life, the name of the game in military life is compartmentalisation, only get fed the stuff you need to know.

a reply to: GrumpyBollocks

I'm very interested in Middle East / wartime sightings, if you have any links or stories on hand to share. It's very easy to dig up sightings or reports or rumors from southern California, but I've hardly heard any stories from someone's tour or time in the military even though we all know there must be plenty.

a reply to: wirehead

There was one report of U-2 pilots seeing something at their altitude that they weren't told about. Interestingly that was almost immediately before the RQ-170 was leaked and later revealed, so everyone stopped looking into that report.

a reply to: Zaphod58

But what they saw wasnt the rq170

originally posted by: Blackfinger

Thing I find with Rocket propelled planes is "fuel usage"...The Me163 had about 3min fuel and something like the shuttle or X38b had to have external tanks to achieve altitude.. A hybrid engine system is the only thing I think of.

The Shuttle had to have external tanks because 1) they wanted to recover the expensive rocket motors for reuse and the Shuttle was the only part that made the round trip, and 2) they were going all the way to orbit (around 7.8 km/sec).

The rocket equation tells you what fraction of the starting weight of your rocket has to be fuel in order to achieve a particular final speed, depending on what fuel/oxidizer choice you make. Because the rocket equation is exponential, the propellant mass fraction grows very fast. For example, if you tried to go all the way to orbit (7.8 km/sec) with the propellant combination used in the ME-163, in a single stage rocket, the rocket equation says that about 97% of the starting mass would have to be fuel, meaning that only 3% would be left for tanks, motors, payload, and everything else. Nobody knows how to build a rocket that light weight.

However, if you only want to boost the speed by about 1/3 of orbital velocity (about 2.6 km/sec) and you could use a propellant combination about as good as LOX/Kerosene, the propellant mass fraction would be about 55%. If you started the rocket portion of the flight with an initial speed of around Mach = 1 you would burn out at a speed of around Mach = 9, but outside the atmosphere. So you would have a horizontal hypersonic glide trajectory from about M=9 down to about M=2.

For reference, the SR-71 could take off with a propellant mass fraction of 60%, so this seems feasible.

Any links to that mate. I wouldn't mind checking that out. I must be the only one here who has not heard of it

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
a reply to: Zaphod58

But what they saw wasnt the rq170

a reply to: GrumpyBollocks

Were both of the platforms flying in the 90s?
While telling about larger platform(the one that the aircrew being swapped during one landing of it) do you mean about this bird? :

a reply to: nelloh62

darkstar
Last paragraph on that page mate it's all I could find for now there is another article on foxtrot I think.

a reply to: nelloh62

There was one report, that covered about two lines of an article.

Years ago i heard stories Of another drone like the Lockheed D-21 that was also a wedge shaped craft but could go higher then the D-21.
and it also was launched from the A-12 (M21)

a reply to: penroc3

a reply to: Woody510

I was referring to Dan Tanna. Definitely one of the more memorable and entertaining ATS members. One of the best trolls I have ever seen. Come to think of it, we don't see people like that online anymore!

Here's the thread:

Violent encounter with an alien being.

irc, he also showed a photo of "something" over the North Sea. Probably fake. Which is why I brought him up.

When this U2 reports appear ?

a reply to: darksidius

The article I added in was last updated 2006 so possibly within the last 15 years

Cheers Woody for the link. I have researched lots of data on Darkstar, and cannot believe I missed that. I must pay more attention

originally posted by: Woody510
a reply to: nelloh62

darkstar
Last paragraph on that page mate it's all I could find for now there is another article on foxtrot I think.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Is that the one Woody linked ?

a reply to: nelloh62

link 1
link 2
Couple more links I managed to find as well both basically say the same thing.

a reply to: Woody510

Cheers mate

a reply to: Woody510
Ok so something was operational at this time, after that there is still the Green Lady may be the UK mystery craft is the same aircraft.

a reply to: darksidius

Think they may be separate as this states a red light in the OP wondering if it's maybe more connected to the orange/yellow light that myself and others have seen rather than the green lady. Grumpy also said two fast movers have been here so maybe one is the green lady the other is red strobing light /yellow orange light??
Parts of the OP don't add for me mainly the C17 as I said in a previous post on here.

originally posted by: darksidius
a reply to: Woody510
Ok so something was operational at this time, after that there is still the Green Lady may be the UK mystery craft is the same aircraft.

I'm not sure if you're suggesting that the craft described by 2495 is the same as the green lady?

If the various witnesses are to be believed, the answer has to be "no". When the green lady is seen at speed it's obviously a high speed air breather in steady state cruise. The UK wedge is a rocket powered boost-glide vehicle that lands empty (has to do S-turns for energy management).