Wichita UFO report draws wide attention

He estimated the object came no closer than 1,000 feet above the ground. It swooped in as if it was on "a bombing run." "Then in one smooth motion, it went back up," he said.

I must say that I'm siding with the unpopular prosaic explanation in suggesting it's a blurry bird. It was the first thing I thought when I saw the image. Even the guy's description of the swooping motion sounds bird-like.

Then again, perhaps it was a Thunderbird and the the guy was fooled by it's massive size combined with inhaling one too many times on some 'Jazz Tobacco'?

No matter how hard I try, I just can't see a 'UFO'... Yep, I'm crying 'fowl'!
Bad Pun Intended

IRM

I think the only true answer is this:

He is an amateur photographer looking for publicity. Who wouldn't want the UFO man to capture their wedding memories?

I slightly sharpened and then embossed, and sharpened the embossing just a bit... It's not a bird.



So- what is it? CGI? Model? Or real?

I have to respond to the previous poster, this guy is NOT looking for publicity, he's remaining anonymous. I believe that anyone that is intentionally going to hoax something, will certainly want the publicity.

This guy only came forward after his wife encouraged him.

Regarding this photo itself, I can see why everyone is thinking it's a bird, but I can't get past the notion that the set of trees to the left on the bottom of the original photo are out of focus, the tree in the foreground is not clearly in focus, and it looks like he may have had had the lens set for a long range shot. He was shooting the progress on his construction site, which would certainly make sense as to why he would not focus for a close-up shot.

I see an aircraft of some sort moving away from the camera, nose slighty pitched up for ascent, and the left side of the aircraft cannot be seen, only a partial glimpse of the left wing, with what appears to be a piggy-back operation of some sort.

I do not believe it is extra terrestrial and I do not believe it is a top-secret aircraft currently being tested. Those don't swoop down in the middle of the day in Wichita, KS.

What I do believe is that there are far too many existing, unclassified projects that this thing "could" be.

I personally see what appears to be a drone attached to one of the new UCAV's, maybe the Northrup Grumman X-47B? They are testing them now.

It could also be the D21 drone attached to an SR-71, they are still flying, and it's perfectly capable of making a low pass, and yes I know it normally operates at well over 60,000'.

Lastly, I would certainly give the guy a break. He saw something, didn't know what it was, asked for help, and isn't asking for anything in return. I would certainly think he knows what a bird looks like.

That makes what he saw a 'UFO'.

X-47:

www.is.northropgrumman.com...

SR-71 with a D-21:

i735.photobucket.com...


What the guy should do is come forward and let some other people analyze his camera, the location, all of his 'other' pictures, etc.

Originally posted by SlinkyDFW
I have to respond to the previous poster, this guy is NOT looking for publicity, he's remaining anonymous. I believe that anyone that is intentionally going to hoax something, will certainly want the publicity.

Did you miss the whole Isaac drones or Haiti UFO saga?

People went to a lot of trouble with that, photos, videos, even manuals with weird symbols and pseudoscientific 'technical' data and guess what: everything was released anonymously, no one claimed responsibility.

Only much later after the whole thing was debunked, people came forward and claimed responsibility for it.

People are motivated by all kinds of things and reasons. Maybe this guy just wanted to see if people would fall for it, maybe he's going to release more in the future and wanted to test the waters first.

Either way you can't assume to know that people will only these kinds of things for publicity, and because he's remaining anonymous it means the photos (and the story) are legitimate.

Regarding this photo itself ...

The pictures are basically useless. The one of the close-up is really useless, the other one gives you a little bit more detail and perspective, but everything is so low quality and pixelated that you can't do any significant analysis on it.

What the guy should do is come forward and let some other people analyze his camera, the location, all of his 'other' pictures, etc.

He should release the original pictures from the camera to start with. If we had those higher quality pictures we could do more with them. But... we won't. I'm sure no original pictures will be released and the guy won't come forward.

In the minds of these people (hoaxers) is better to have a low quality, pixelated picture that fools some people, than to risk release a higher quality one that could be debunked in a few seconds.

www.birds.cornell.edu...
hans.spiecker.oiseaux.net...
The white neck is not visible in these pictures, but the article explains that it is revealed by wind blowing the feathers.

Edit: found one with the white base:
www.mangoverde.com...

[edit on 2009-2-11 by nablator]

It sounds to me like everyone is just having fun with this picture of a bird.

Even the so-called "expert" at UFO Digest had this to say :

The surface looks similar to planes I have seen on television including the series Stargate and others.

So now we're getting analysis of UFO pictures from sci-fi shows?

"I've never seen a plane that looks like that."

I wonder why...

It's not a "flying machine" or a "prototype fighter jet", just a regular bird!

Here are two animations I just put together:

reply to post by JH80


That's a simple and extremely effective way to put across the bird rationale.

Nice one!

I don't post a lot on ATS but I have noticed an increase in pages and pages of debate on some really mundane stuff **COUGH - football hits invisible ufo - COUGH** that could be put to rest early on if common sense was a little more prevalent but that's probably being a bit too hopeful.

Any way nice one - star from me

berth

reply to post by JH80


Yes, I like it. Still doesn't prove anything but makes a point.

Greetings

Originally posted by wylekat
I slightly sharpened and then embossed, and sharpened the embossing just a bit... It's not a bird.

To be honest? It looks more like a dinosaur.
I have no clue what it is, but you also make a great point here.
Nobody can be right, but hey it is still an Unidentified Flying Object.

Greetings

[edit on 11-2-2009 by TheWriter]

reply to post by chefcollin


This looks like the object that flew past the Lincoln Memorial on CNN at the inaguration

reply to post by dimensionaljumper


I is shaped like a high-tech helicopter. Whoopie.

reply to post by JH80


Brilliant work... Gets your point across very effectively... Def needs a star for that.

Case closed in my eyes

BIRD

reply to post by JH80


Thank you for doing that. This topic and the amount of people who want to claim it's not a bird and is a UFO really just puts me down on the entire topic of UFO's.

I wonder if people are looking at it as moving from left to right, or right to left. The people who think it's a UFO must be looking at it as moving from right to left and the people who see the bird must be looking at it as moving from left to right.

My wife didn't think it was a bird at first and she was looking at it as moving from right to left. Once I pointed out it was moving from left to right she immediately saw it was a bird.

It's a hoax, probably done as a punch towards the bird UFO at the obama thingy. I'm just shocked that so many people didn't realize this was a bird from the start.

(JH80) Maybe this codie type call name is for John Handcock 80 bucks per post, false flag operative or x-something jack hole. You don't belong here and couldn't find anything positive or better to do then burst any believer/seekers bubbles today hua. Not that you have knack for it but really the flashy gif crossed the line for me. Santa clause hurt and you never let it down right. Too bad dude, better to attempt belief (Meier case, huhg,huhg)then to stay an outward rigid prude till the day your forgotten and crumbling in a coffin. oh yea, all my love sir.

Originally posted by converge
It's a bird out of focus.

You can clearly see the beak at the front and it's flapping its wings.

Birds reflect light?

reply to post by Erasurehead


Or the "background" which is actually the foreground is in focus and the "bird" is in the background and out of focus... you can't argue that fact... you can't know without knowing the meterage on the lense's zoom.

reply to post by converge


Lenses don't have speeds... Shutters do.

And a shutter on a standard camera will capture that without a blur. Especially on more expensive cameras. I would laugh at the photographer for saying "Lens Speed"... because lenses don't have speeds.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and agree with a previous poster
who thinks it's a space shuttle like craft atop a carrier.

It is quite possible this is the single-stage to orbit craft that supposedly
launches NSA satellites into low earth orbit or ferries Air Force astronauts
to a high orbit school-bus sized space station.

These 2 projects SSTO and Air Force Space Station have been rumoured
for years now and this might be the craft. Doesn't Northrup have a plant
that's similar to Lockheed Skunkworks or Boeing PhantomWorks
in Kansas or Missouri if I'm not mistaken?

And based purely on the weird look of the photo it also looks
to be possibly a blended wing type of craft with what looks
to be fully curled inward winglets on the outer wing-tips (i.e. would shape
wing vortices to desired streaming shape at high mach numbers)

It's truly difficult to see if this is a single craft or a piggy-back carrier
system type of aircraft, but the possibility of high mach numbers
cannot be dismissed due to witness reports.

The performance envelope looks to be pretty conventional
just merely being very fast and without the 90 degree angle turns
so often espoused in the UFO literature, so I doubt it's ALIEN!!!! ;-)

It could also be a whale-tail commercial craft used for
cargo or special testing purposes since the rear of the craft
in the photo could also be interpreted as one of those
old early 1970's era Lockheed commercial airliners
with the high winged tail fin and a three engine setup,
but that's just MY opinion.

Any Comments on My Suppositions?