stationary jet

on the way home one day i looked up and there were several lights in the sky over a short distance. One of these was brighter. had flashing lights on either end with the middle bit lit up like a windshield. It was quiete high up. It appeared to be hovering in the same place.

As I drove under it i looked up and for a few seconds caught glimpse of it. It looked like shape of a airplane. But im pretty sure planes cant hover in one place like that, it wasnt landing or moving really slow (that wouldnt be possible) neither was it flying toward me, if it was the size and angle would have changed accordingly.

It most def was not a blimp or helicopter.

So is there aircraft in UK that can stay in stationary position in the sky?

reply to post by rkingpin


The harrier could, but they are all decommissioned.

The F-35 can but as far as i am aware they are still all at Pax River in the USA.

Motion Parallax.....

Sorry its short, but its the most likely answer to your question. Lots of videos on Youtube showing the thing you describe, but it is just an illusion.

well, in uk there is harrier..
en.wikipedia.org...
and in the USA is under development..
www.worldwide-military.com...
Have a check.
take care

reply to post by rkingpin


What part of the country are you in? If there was anything sticking up like you described it's an F-35B. Both the US Marines and the UK are buying them along with a couple others. There are a couple at Pax River, a few at MCAS Yuma, but the majority are at Eglin AFB in Florida. They're built at Fort Worth at the Lockheed Martin plant.

reply to post by justwokeup


The US military was supposed to buy the harriers and parts from the RAF. I thought the english were supposed to get the new jets already from the manufacturer. I don't know if this happened though, seems that there are no articles about it. Why would the English go without these kind of planes for a while, I suppose they should have kept what they have till replacements came if they are smart.

So someone made a decision to spend Taxpayer money here in the USA to buy those harriers probably at a high price so England would buy new jets from one of our defense contractors. I suppose these harriers will be sitting somewhere in Arizona unused. I wonder if the Airforce even wanted them? I suppose they are probably better built than the new planes that are replacing them though The USA really treats the defense contractors well using taxpayer money, then the government goes and borrows money to pay our bills.

reply to post by rickymouse


The plan was that they would get rid of the Harriers by selling them to the US and wait for the F-35B to enter service. The UK no longer has a carrier fleet to carry the Harriers, so there is really no need for them anymore. Until the Queen Elizabeth enters service the RN only has the HMS Illustrious and HMS Ocean, both of which are certified for helicopters. Ocean is undergoing refit, and when she returns to service Illustrious will be retired.

rickymouse
reply to post by justwokeup

 

The US military was supposed to buy the harriers and parts from the RAF. I thought the english were supposed to get the new jets already from the manufacturer. I don't know if this happened though, seems that there are no articles about it. Why would the English go without these kind of planes for a while, I suppose they should have kept what they have till replacements came if they are smart.

So someone made a decision to spend Taxpayer money here in the USA to buy those harriers probably at a high price so England would buy new jets from one of our defense contractors. I suppose these harriers will be sitting somewhere in Arizona unused. I wonder if the Airforce even wanted them? I suppose they are probably better built than the new planes that are replacing them though The USA really treats the defense contractors well using taxpayer money, then the government goes and borrows money to pay our bills.

Its something of a sore point. Its because the UK government is grossly incompetent.

We had GR9 harriers come straight out of a multiple hundred million pound capability upgrade making them one of the most capable harrier variant and then get sold immediately for spares to the USMC.

The RAF was forced to make savings by the treasury and in a pure power projection comparison was probably right to sacrifice GR9 rather than Tornado GR4. The whole sorry mess leaves a bad taste however.

F-35 is a step change away from the Harrier. It'll all come good in the end. With QE and the F-35B Britain will be back with a Maritime strike capability it hasn't had for 30 years. Its just a mismanaged way to get there.

reply to post by justwokeup


Personally, the Tornado is much more flexible than the Harrier. The GR9 was a nice jet, but I'd much rather have the Tornado around than it. But it was a screwed up way to get there.

AmberLeaf
Motion Parallax.....

Sorry its short, but its the most likely answer to your question. Lots of videos on Youtube showing the thing you describe, but it is just an illusion.

edit on 14-9-2013 by AmberLeaf because: (no reason given)

I was going to suggest the same thing.. glad I read through first =) agreed.

But that's logical .. and logic isn't always welcomed

reply to post by rkingpin


Ah! I know what it was. I completely forgot.

It's an MV-22 Osprey. The US just started basing them at Mildenhall recently, along with some MC-130Js.

MV-22

reply to post by Zaphod58


Agreed. Its the inconsistency and the waste that arises from the inconsistency that annoys me.

We never seem to be able to carry through any sort of procurement plan that makes sense. Its constant cycle of short term reactions to previous mistakes.

I suppose we are not alone in that.

Two people I work with saw a pair (at least) of stationary "airplanes" at a height of only a couple hundred feet in broad daylight. One appeared to be preparing to land or crash in the field right next to the road when it stopped in mid-air and performed a flat turn. The others were just hovering with no movement aside from a gentle rocking. No sound was heard from any of the aircraft despite their proximity to the observers. These people were on their way to work in separate vehicles and told me about it at the start of our shift. Weird stuff.

reply to post by bigfootgurl


Most likely MV-22s doing training (if it was a grassy field). If the wind is blowing right you won't hear a sound from them.

north of england.

reply to post by rkingpin


Did it look anything like the V-22? It has to be either the F-35, or the V-22, and I don't think they've even taken a demonstrator F-35 out of the US yet, so almost has to be the V-22 if it was an airplane shape.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Could be I suppose. The one guy was just about directly underneath the thing, which was between 100 and 200 feet off the ground. I'm not very familiar with various kinds of aircraft and how much noise they make.

Can those kind of planes rotate in that way? That was the thing that got me the most about what he said. It just hovered and made a flat 90-degree turn. I guess we probably have that kind of technology by now.

reply to post by bigfootgurl


Both the V-22 and the F-35 can do that. But the F-35 wouldn't land anywhere near a non-paved area.

V-22: