Civilian Sightings of ML866 Airship, Reported to UFO-Sightings Websites

Aeroscraft ML866 "Dragon Dream": Sightings by civilians, reported to UFO-sightings database sites.





I do not have experience or much interest in aircraft engineering, or in the specifications of aircraft. I do not know if the following specs are impressive. From the Aeroscraft company's website, I report that THEY report a cruise speed of 100-120 knots, 12,000 ft -18,000 op.altitude, 66-ton payload, 38oo nautical mile flight range (for the current, small, proof-of-concept version), & 1/3 the fuel use of 'fixed-wing aircraft'. Aeros has now completed the successful testing of the Aeroscraft proof-of-design technology demonstrator and met all of the design targets set by partners at the DoD, NASA and DARPA."
***When it says "partners", I assume this was partially funded by the military. Is that incorrect?

"The completed testing schedule proves the scalable vertical takeoff and landing technology of a full-scale Aeroscraft that can be deployed globally for the heavy-lift operations and massive-cargo construction and transportation projects.

***So this is a small, proof-of-concept "model", (though large and functional, for the sake of a discussion of sightings)... Someone here may be able to interpret what that means to us. Will this company, or any company, get the approval and funds to take this to completion? Will there be a 200 or 500 ton-payload Aeroscraft? Will there be any number of this small version in our skies?

Here is another application for the designed craft, from the Aeroscraft website.. This content seems rather earnest, idealistic, & optimistic... like a company attempting to get investors, in my opinion:

ENERGY DIVISION The current trend in wind turbine design is to build ever-larger turbine units. The industry has demonstrated that building one larger turbine (7MW+) is more economical than building multiple smaller systems (2MW+) with an equivalent total power output. However, if larger-sized wind components are produced, the current transportation infrastructure (trucks, helicopters, ships, rail, etc.) would have extreme difficulty transporting them, because these vehicles are already experiencing problems delivering much smaller existing components. The Aeros Energy Division was created to address this current logistic problem by creating a new transportation solution called the Aeroscraft.

It also has oil & gas exploration on that page, as an industry which needs the aircraft.
***Are there problems delivering wind-turbine components presently, via trucks, helicopters, ships, and rail? Problems such that wind turbines can't be made much larger, as it would render them undeliverable? Is it feasible that this application of the aircraft could justify the production of it, should the military say "nevermind"? I'm talking in terms of cost. I don't know.




Here on ATS, in the following thread from 2006, a member by the name of sardion2000 links to information on a set of aircraft (Aeros' D-4 & D-8) which has the same hopeful "other uses" section (oil derricks! bridges!) and the comment that a "prototype was tested on DARPA's dime, but canceled." www.abovetopsecret.com... (I'm not going to research this avenue, as that's not what I'm interested in for the purposes of this thread, unless someone else wants to contribute.)

***What I'm interested in is the question my significant other asked when we saw this craft in the back of the April, 2013 issue of Smithsonian magazine in a short writeup on the last page (pg.100): "The Flying Submarine". It shows a photo of the shiny, flattened-egg-shaped craft, silver in color, in a huge bay. How many people have seen this in the air? They HAVE done test flights, presumably. Though the article says "Float tests inside the hangar have been completed. Worldwide Aeros hopes to conduct the first flight test outside the hangar before the summer." Which means they may have done test flights by now, or not yet. However, it'd be ridiculous! if they have not flown test flights before this article... just not mentioning it, as it's not "official", or didn't have the success they planned. No test flights? That would render my thread and consideration moot. Perhaps some other company's airship, if not this company's, has been flown above civilians, right? It's reasonable to surmise that Aeros, the company mentioned in the 2006 thread, is now called Worldwide Aeros, the company that developed the ML866 aircraft. They MUST have flown a silvery blimp-like object over people. Plans do not progress to this level without actual flying, right? Excuse the err, colloquial language.

Next I will look at MUFON and NUFORC sightings in the areas of Montebello, CA, from 2006-2013

November 12, 2007 nuforc.org... "Sphere shape, red, blue and white lights, over Montebello headed north west toward ELA / Monterey Park
It was approximately a couple or a few hours after the Mosely vs. Cotto fight. As me and my friend were walking to my car so I can take him home. My friend spotted the object first and told me to look. At first glance I thought it was a balloon because it was round and white, it was hovering pretty low, I told him it looks like a balloon. He disagreed, As I focused in on the object the object started to move very quickly going North west towards East Los Angeles / Monterey Park area, it had blue, white and red lights, Not extremely bright but bright enough to see once your eyes have focused in on it. As the object seemed to be weightless because of the way in was moving, it was moving side to side but still on a straight path, we observed till the object faded out. We were in the area of Whittier Blvd and Montebello Blvd @ approximately 11:00 p.m." (There are 2 "similar" sightings from same area, same time: www.sightingsreport.com...)


THREAD CONTINUED, BELOW

February 4, 2009 mufoncms.com...
"...It was very slow and flying very low (500' - 1000').
I thought it might be a blimp, but it had no markings as most blimps do.
The shape appeared to be like an over inflated football.
The bottom half appeared to be illuminated with a white light.
There was a small solid green marker light at each end, and a flashing red light at the top center.
There were other aircraft visible at the same time. I could see what appeared to be a helicopter traveling west and south of it. Another helicopter traveling west and north of it.
It was later trailed by a prop driven plane.
If it was a blimp, then why didn't it have a gondola?
If it was extraterrestrial, then why did it have the marker lights?
I watched it for about 15 minutes until it traveled west and out of site behind a tree line.
It appeared to be traveling parallel and just north of the interstate 10 freeway in Fontana, CA."

October 17, 2006 mufoncms.com...
"I saw a shadow on the ground from the sky, sometimes aircraft will pass through the sun at just the right angle and you can see the shadow real quick on the ground, this was the same case except I couldnt hear anything. Its been very overcast over here the last couple days, the clouds have been moving in and out of the suns way all day today.
...I was able to see a blimp or cigar like shape, it was more shaped like a cigar, or a submarine. It wasnt moving very fast, maybe....150MPH. Thats just a guess, its hard to tell when its so high. Im going to also guess that it was three quarters of a mile high, It moved in and out of the clouds, no unusual movments. No visual markings, possibly round windows or portholes on the side. maybe 10-15.
...It finally vanished when it hovered and went straight up into the air, not like a fighter jet with the nose pointed up, this was like a helecopter taking off from the ground. It just kept going up and up and then once it went through the clouds, I couldnt see it anymore. Im not going to suggest that it was Extraterrestrial, but I will say that it wasnt normal at all. To low to be a test aircraft, I could see it, and It didnt move fast at all like modern technology. It acted just like a blimp, but im 100% sure it wasnt."

June 10, 2006, from mufoncms.com...
"I was walking east when I looked straight ahead about 100 feet up in the air and one block away from where I was standing- a silver saucer sort of fat with red, blue, yellow lights all around the rim. I have always had an interest in UFO's and it happened on a day when I was not looking for one. It was still day light. A weird sense of calmness came over me. As I turned to look for other witnesses, I didn't find not one person. It was very strange. Just me and my dog. I stopped and stared at it for at least two minutes which is a long time then suddenly (by the way no noise, it was just hoovering so still) the brightest, whitest light came out from the bottom of it, strectching straight down perfectly. I've never seen light like that. It slowly went straight down and obviously landed on someones yard as it was a typical neighborhood..." This report also describes a Vancouver sighting of a silver craft, seen from inside a passenger flight (albeit a somewhat fanciful description from the person reporting sighting). Vancouver is listed as a location in Aeroscraft's website: www.aeroscraft.com...#/contact-locations/4565064774

October 16, 2012 www.sightingsreport.com...
"Ive seen this before in my area 10+ times since March of 2012, but last night was the closest Ive ever seen it. I was able to zoom in and take a photo with my iPhone. The object on camera looks like a massive glowing blimp and is non-symmetrical. There is a disc with a bottom piece coming out that looks like the rudder of a boat that points at a diagonal down to the ground..."

April 17, 2012 www.sightingsreport.com...
"I was driving out of my complex, which is located high up in the hills of La Mesa, when I spotted an object in the SW skies. I see planes coming in all the time, and this was no plane. It was just hovering above the tree tops in the distance. I pulled my car over to try and get a better look and it started to move VERY SLOWLY. Twice it kind of rotated to a 45 degree angle, hovered like that, then it straightened back out and kept up it's crawling pace. It was not shaped like a plane, but rather like a blimp or a cigar. It was so far away I was having a hard time watching it, really. That being said, the planes that were coming in, and there were at least four that passed as I watched, were much closer in proximity to me, and this object at it's far-off distance appeared to be the same size. So it must have been huge.....Now, it could very well have been a blimp, I have no clue, but do blimps rotate at 45 degree angles and hover? I would like to know this... and I looked on the internet to see if I could find anything about blimps flying over San Diego and I couldn't find anything. This is my second sighting of something unusual in exactly 7 days... I have never seen a UFO, now I have seen TWO in just a week..."

July 4, 2011 (I know, I know, 4th of July sightings are questionable... but there are a large number of people looking at nighttime skies on that night each year) mufoncms.com...
"...i glanced up at the mountains and saw lights in the sky that look unusual.I thought at first it was a blimp..."

Weird sighting: mufoncms.com...
Photo is at top of this page www.sightingsreport.com...
Location on map of this weird (probably hoaxed?) sighting: /m6qa2jb

I just realized I did not include the respective counties of the above sightings. The location information is in each link, if followed. Apologies that I did not include in the post, for ease of reading. However, here is a link to a map of California counties I was using to search the 3 databases: www.lib.utexas.edu... I was using the map of counties to identify areas near the 3 southern California locations listed by World Aeros website in their "locations" page. The 3 databases I pulled from are Mufon, Nuforc, and one I found today, SightingsReport, which appears to be an amalgamation of sightings databases. It is very easy to use.

This is my first thread. I hope you found it interesting, and entertaining. I hope it sparks some interest in those of our ATS community who enjoy perusing the UFO-sightings sites. Perhaps more examples will be posted here, of sightings which fit the M.O. of our silver blimp (which may have paint, as you can see by searching "aeroscraft" images on a search engine).

In closing, here are the 3 UFO-sightings report websites, for convenience:
www.sightingsreport.com... I entered "Montebello, CA, blimp" for example
www.mufon.com... This is where county map came in handy
www.nuforc.org... If you find a user-friendly way to search here, please let me know.

Thank you for spending some of your time here.
-kkrattiger in New Mexico

Good thread OP S+F for you.

I have nothing to add except (I can't resist) that second picture looks like thunderbird 2

King

Originally posted by kkrattiger

***Are there problems delivering wind-turbine components presently, via trucks, helicopters, ships, and rail? Problems such that wind turbines can't be made much larger, as it would render them undeliverable?

The problem is the truck end of things. At some point in time it HAS to be transported by a truck, and they've reached a size where the trucks can barely turn because they're so long. Pulling in to get fuel and getting back out again is a major production between the truck and their pilot cars.

This is in Europe, but it will give you an idea of what the trucks are dealing with...




That's part of the main tower that holds everything up.

This is a blade being transported in the US...

reply to post by Zaphod58


Thanks for the images, that's a nerve-inducing load, surely! Inspired by your reply, I found this article, $1oo-15o,ooo in transport costs per turbine (at the LOW end); moving at night while avoiding overpasses completely, & road damage from the heavy loads. Like the article mentions, I'm wondering why more isn't done by rail. Ah, what do I know about it anyway. Surely they've the most efficient transport methods available in this current time. I like the idea of turbine plants in many states, that means jobs! Energy grid could be the new WPA.

reply to post by kkrattiger


They've started moving them by train, but the train can only get so close to the construction site, so they have to move it at least part of the way by truck. If they were able to use this airship they could load it up, and fly it right to the site, and just have to move it from the ship to where they're constructing the turbines. It would be faster, and probably cheaper, certainly much easier.

Oh we move them by train all the time. My day job I'm an engineer for Union Pacific and we usually have about one train a week full of turbines move through KC. The only problem is they have to be moved on a direct route because of the turning radius. They are on specially designed cars that actually bend with the rail to keep the turbines straight. Actually, because of a screw up by a train dispatcher, a couple years ago a turbine train came through Kansas City and as it went around a turn they broke almost every turbine on the train...something like 27 million in damage! I'll see if I can find a link...

reply to post by boomer135


What an experience that must have been for the train dispatcher. Wow, what does one do after a screwup like that!
Yes, please DO find the link. Trains are a bit of an interest of mine (well, railroad history, actually), particularly the Santa Fe Route & pictures of the era, & trademarks/logos from 1870-1890s. You say it's your "day job". So no nightshifts? I wonder if train conductors spending nights going over the vast Western U.S. have any good UFO stories... Or any UfO silver blimp sightings.

Originally posted by kkrattiger
reply to post by boomer135

 

What an experience that must have been for the train dispatcher. Wow, what does one do after a screwup like that!
Yes, please DO find the link. Trains are a bit of an interest of mine (well, railroad history, actually), particularly the Santa Fe Route & pictures of the era, & trademarks/logos from 1870-1890s. You say it's your "day job". So no nightshifts? I wonder if train conductors spending nights going over the vast Western U.S. have any good UFO stories... Or any UfO silver blimp sightings.

Here's a text of our wind turbine movements and a pic of a train. Unfortunately I can't give the link because you have to be an employee it seems to see the article but here it is...

Omaha, Neb., September 29, 2009 – For centuries, the wind's energy has been harnessed to help grind corn and bring water out of the ground. Today, wind energy is helping Americans become less dependent on foreign oil by providing alternative energy sources, so it is fitting that the wind energy industry continues to ship more products with Union Pacific Railroad. In addition to being safer and more cost effective than trucks, freight trains are nearly four times more fuel efficient and three times cleaner than trucks in terms of air emissions. "The wind power business is an emerging market and we are proving to be a valuable transportation service provider in this growing industry," said Byron Willis, Union Pacific executive director – International Business. "Customer service, cost efficiency and safe transport have helped us grow our business into the complete logistics solution it is today."

Union Pacific provides numerous advantages for its wind energy customers:
• With its wealth of experience, the railroad has a clear understanding of the wind industry's unique shipping requirements and works closely with customers to engineer new equipment.
• Union Pacific's rail transportation solution is considerably less expensive due to simplified logistics and economies of scale by working with its Union Pacific Distribution Services (UPDS) subsidiary.
• Union Pacific owns its own tracks and does not require the state-by-state permitting necessary for trucks.
• Its trains operate in a more controlled and safer environment. • Moving wind turbine components via Union Pacific trains helps reduce highway congestion; it takes considerably more trucks to deliver the same number of wind turbines.
• Union Pacific can move one ton 830 miles on a single gallon of fuel, the equivalent of a passenger vehicle getting more than 400 miles per gallon.

Union Pacific was the first railroad to offer a door-to-door transportation service for wind turbine components. The company began shipping wind turbine components in 2003. The parts that comprise wind turbine assemblies - towers, blades, nacelles (the turbine engine) and hubs - usually are transported in 40- to 60-rail car unit trains. Wind component dimensions and weights are perfectly suited for rail. Blades can range in length from 95-202 feet with the most common lengths being 140-160 feet long. Nacelles are extremely heavy, weighing in at 60-95 tons and the towers are shipped in three- or four-piece sections depending on the finished tower's height. Interest in transporting wind turbine components has grown over the years and in 2007 Union Pacific joined American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). "According to AWEA and our own research, many of the ports served by Union Pacific are expanding investments and capacity to make it easier to unload shipments of wind energy components and equipment. These investments along with those by Union Pacific are critical to create new sources of energy – a top priority for our nation," said Eric Butler, Union Pacific vice president and general manager - Industrial Products. "The combination of our in-transit visibility, inventory management and single-source billing makes it easy for customers to do business with us," said Beth Whited, Union Pacific Distribution Services assistant vice president and general manager. "Customers have one contact, one rate, door-to-door shipping and door-to-door monitoring through UP and UPDS."

So in essense, we do offere door to door transportation for wind turbine blades and generators, but probably not as close as you would think, as zaphod pointed out. I'm still looking for the accident report.

Sorry for the hi-jacked thread!




Edit: Youtube link of one (if it works)

Apologies for delay in response. Thanks for the post. The pic is a good example of showing the scale of these things. I saw what I now know to be a blade being trucked on I25 or HWY 70 & thought it was part of a space shuttle or a ship or submarine. Would be quite out-of-context, in a desert.

We were in Frankenmuth MI Monday night about 8 and several truck loads of parts went thru town. I think if you could bundle up a whole turbine and carry it in 1 piece there would be huge savings

reply to post by Zaphod58

Pulling in to get fuel and getting back out again is a major production between the truck and their pilot cars.

To be fair, that's very easy to solve with a little lateral thinking...the fuel comes to the lorry, not the lorry going to the fuel.

How hard is it to drive a fuel tanker truck to the lorry carrying the heavy load? Easy, the fueling in and out problem is now solved (my commission charges are very cheap turbine makers!)

While trucks can transport sections of these very large turbines where there are roads near to the final site, what happens where the ideal site (with the best wind, and no populations) doesn't have any roads nearby?

That's where these airships come in.

They can gracefully and cheaply deliver parts of turbines (and many other things) to the remotest of places, winch down the cargo and go and get more.

The construction crew accomodations, heavy machinery, supplies, and the building materials themselves can all be delivered to the top of a mountain if need be and left there until the build is finished, then simply moved to the next site.

A fleet of these airships would make short and cheap work of building large structures in remote areas.

NUFORC highlighted what looks to be an airship sighting, on the NUFORC site. This was also mentioned on Coast to Coast by Peter Davenport.
Enter Site, Case Database, Click By Date, Click 6/2015

And here's a link To the photo. Looks like it's a silver blimp!