White Aircarft

Looks like an X-31 actually. I'm not sure what happened to those after they stopped flying them.

Zaphod58, just had a quick look at the X31 to remind myself of what it looks like and I think the wing is too far forward on the X31 when compared to the image and there are no canards visable on the image, which the X31 has!

Looks like we are back to the drawing board on this one.....did testor do the F19 in 1/2 scale........!!!!!!!

Sv Out....!

Was just going to post the same comment SV. thanks

Was looking at some the mods made to the F-16XL, but of course this aircraft would be to large.

I guess is it a X-36?

I dont know about that emile. I swear i can see a tail on that thing. and the wings appear to be very different then the 36's.

Now on further invesigation it appears emile is on the right track at least for size.
www.nasa.gov...
In the above link its states the follow about the 36.
"Fully fueled, the X-36 prototype weighs about 1,250 pounds. It is 19 feet long and three feet high with a wingspan of just over 10 feet. A Williams International F112 turbofan engine provides about 700 pounds of thrust. A typical research flight lasts approximately 35 to 45 minutes from takeoff to touchdown."

the size of the 36 would be about right. Does anyone know of either of the X-36's current where abouts?

[edit on 3-1-2006 by Canada_EH]

[edit on 3-1-2006 by Canada_EH]

Well, I've been studying the picture closely, and I reckon that it is, sadly, some ground equipment. The shape is not quite symmetrical enough for an aircraft planform, unless it is incomplete or damaged. I'd love for it to be an aircraft, 'cos it would be a helluva find, but I just can't convince myself.

There were 2 X36's built but only one actually flew and this one was donated to the Air Force Museum in Ohio. I cannot find the whereabouts of the other one but I have read somewhere it is in storage in a flyable condition in case it is needed for further research!

I personnally do not think the image is of a X36 as it is far to big to be a X36, which was basically a large radio control model and if you look at the recent X plane thread on ATS you will see a picture of it with some people next to it. No way is that big enough!

Also the basic design is completley different i.e differet wing planform, canards, fin etc!

Sorry to keep shooting down some of these ideas but this is the only way we might ascertain what it is.

I have worked with Aircraft ground support equipment for over 27 years, American, British, German in fact most of the Nato standard stuff and I have never seen any that look like the image at the centre of this thread!

It might be an as yet undisclosed UCAV or UAV......maybe its time Integurl stuck her twopenneth in and maybe shed a bit of light on it!

Who knows she might of worked on it?

Sv Out....!

It's a very intresting photo, but without a way to clean up the image, I'm afraid that it's of little value to ATS as far as black project research is concerned. The image lacks the detail to teach us anything about the aircraft. Now if someone had a way to clean the image up it could teach us a lot.

Tim

well after looking at it so long im starting to think that people could be right in saying that its ground eq unless someone can further clean up the image.

What about a 1/2 scale prototype of an FB 22?. I know it is supposed to be a tailess delta but the illustrations I have seen of what the FB 22 might look like look pretty similar to our blurred image.

As has been said numerous times the image needs cleaning up with a good software program but sometimes these can produce what you want them to i.e not what is really there ....if you see what I mean!

Sv Out....!

mirage or other european or asian plane?

It looks like an old style jet

How do you know that it is the aircraft? It can be some airfield stuff, or just aircraft-looking roof. Because that I have two questions:

If it is aircraft, why it is too small [compared to F-16]?

Why it is painted white?

Originally posted by ajsr71
Just had a reply on anther site and somebody thinks it a vehicle or ground equipment with some reflection or distortion

And I would have to agree with them. Look at the other things around in that area. There are other things causing pixels to 'bleed' (or whatever you'd want to call it) because of the reflection of the sun on a white/reflective surface. There are examples of that happening all over Area 51. Even on a 737 just south of the base.

[edit on 6-8-2006 by AngryKoconut]

It's possible that it's ground equipment....... although the shadow doesn't seem to fit with standard ground eqipment - or the other ground eqipment shown.

I'll defend that it's some sort of aircraft even though it is rather doubtful that you could catch a top-secret (or even 'standard secret') aircraft on a commercial satelite photo....

Sort of reminds me of a mini-concorde mixed with an SR-71.... But there again - we are known for our ability to recognized familiar patterns in any set of data.