Stealth bomber lights?

Hope this section is ok for this post.

Does anyone know what lights (if any) a stealth bomber has? and if they are quiet at low altitude? I cant find any pictures/info on this.

I live not too far from an airport so I see planes all the time, but last night at my friends welcome back from afghan party I saw something strange.

It was 3 rather bright distinct lights in a triangle formation, flying relatively low and pretty quick. I joking said "what is that, a ufo?" then realised I saw no strobe lights nor could I really hear the thing. It ALMOST flew infront of the moon, I wish I could have seen its silhouette, but when it came very close to us I saw 1 very small/dim red light that stayed on (no strobing), the light was in the center of the 3 triangular lights. There was no green light like most aircraft have. I almost thought it was 3 jets in formation until I saw the red light, but the fact that I could barely hear the aircraft makes me think that it could be a stealth bomber.

Sorry I have no pic, go figure I run the battery in my droid dead before I finally see something cool. Although with its altitude and speed I dont think I would have been quick enough to get the pic anyway.

any thoughts appreciated.

I cannot tell you what you saw.

The lighting pattern on the Spirits can be variable, depending on the circumstances. However, the first key to this question is what airport were you near? The USAF doesn't land them at just any old airport, so unless it was a military base, it is highly unlikely they just decided to do a touch and go at a civilian airfield.

reply to post by A-Dub


Stealth bombers are NOT silent, so if you were within sight of it and didnt hear it, then either there was some SERIOUS atmospheric disturbance taking the sound away from you, or you werent looking at a stealth craft. The name stealth refers to the design of the body shell , which makes it hard to track using radar and so forth, but the engines are far from quiet , as anyone who lives near , or works with them will attest.

Back when the Gulf War first started, I saw a few of them fly over Chicago. Naturally, no one at home believed me until a documentary came out about that flight on the Military Channel

They weren't crazy-low -- about the same height as a typical jet liner. They were black against the sky (it was dusk) and had 3 lights I saw -- one in front, and one at each wingtip. Usually, when a airliner flies overhead, you hear the low rumble of their engines. I didn't hear anything with these guys, though. As stated, they don't run silently, but I suspect more care is taken in making quieter engines than is done with a 747.

It was a while ago, though, so I may have some of my memory wrong

FYI Any aircraft, including military, that is flown in US airspace must have navigation lights and anti-collision light.
Red light on left wingtip. Green on Right wingtip. Anti-collision white strobe or rotating beacon as far aft as possible..tail or wingtips.

If its flying and doesn't have these lights on then pay attention.

Originally posted by junglejake
They weren't crazy-low -- about the same height as a typical jet liner. They were black against the sky (it was dusk) and had 3 lights I saw -- one in front, and one at each wingtip. Usually, when a airliner flies overhead, you hear the low rumble of their engines. I didn't hear anything with these guys, though. As stated, they don't run silently, but I suspect more care is taken in making quieter engines than is done with a 747.

It was a while ago, though, so I may have some of my memory wrong

it was pretty low but not like scraping the trees, im near detroit metro airport so there were plenty of other planes in the sky for me to compare it with.

it sounds a lot like what you describe though, 1 light in the front and 2 behind it to the side to make a triangle, but with the 1 dim red light in the middle. I could hear an engine however it was pretty faint, but that could have been noise from one of the other airplanes in the air, so its hard to say.

really wish I could have gotten a video or pic to show you guys

guess it stays an unidentified flying object until I can find a night time pic of stealth bomber navigation lights