posted on Sep, 14 2009 @ 01:37 PM
A couple of weeks ago i was coming back from a motorcycle race in tonapah nv, and was headed south on us 395 just north of ridgecrest, ca.
We were still in the owens valley, a sparsely populated, not so much any more, area at the foot of the eastern sierra nevada, and between the white
mtns.
In an area of few ranches I saw what appeared to be an F-16 flying along the highway, at very low altitude(LESS THAN 150') and impossibly slow.
I pointed it out to my companions, but they were gabbing about footbal or something and didnt really pay any attention.
There nothing remarkable about seeing an F-16 flying around, except it was like 3/4 scale or something.
There were plenty of visual clues for gaging size and distance, the roads and trails in the back ground, the electrical high tension towers,
telephone poles and such, and Im pretty good at that sort of thing anyway.
This had to be the largest RC scale aircraft ive ever seen, there was no way it was a real F-16, which I see on a daily basis flying out of the local
ang base.
This thought occured to me when I could see the plane being moved around by the air, in such a fashion that ruled out a fullsize full weight
aircraft.
It was also virtualy silent, you couldnt hear the engines at all over the highway noise, and at the distance we were from it it should have been very
loud indeed.
Just as the pair that just flew by a couple miles away, loud enough to drown out a skill saw being run right outside my window.
There was nobody within a sight that could gave been controlling it.
Ive been out to the local rc clubs fly-in, in the past, and have seen some prety amazing model aircraft, but what I saw flying along the highway puts
them all to shame.
All sorts of ATS inspired ideas have popped into my head.
1)Its just the worlds biggest rc model, but thats no fun
2)Its still the worlds largest rc model, except that its built the airforce. A little more interesting, but why do such a thing.
3) maybe its an advanced tech demonstrator of some sort, related to the above. It is testing something aeronuaticaly related but not nescesarily
aerodynamicaly related.
It needs to be tested in the real world, but they dont want to draw any atttention to it by putting it in an experimental aircraft, or your program
doesnt have enough pull to get it into a black project workshop.
im sure everyone will come up with an ats suitable response.