- The following four images were found on a Chinese website
and forwarded to us for possible identification. Please send in any pertinent
information...
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- Comments
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- From Todd Madson
- crash@waste.org
- 10-10-2
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- Regarding the pictures of an alleged Aurora/Stealth aircraft
that had
- pictures that were purported to be from a chinese website.
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- It looks a little bit too much like the plane posited
by Bill Sweetman in
- his book: "Aurora: the Pentagon's Hypersonic Spyplane"
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- see link at
- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0879387807/qid=1034279589/sr=8-
- 1/ref=sr_8_1/102-9752424-3576126?v=glance&n=507846
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- In fact, it looks so much like Sweetman's design that
one wonders if it
- might not be a model someone built and is flying via
remote control and
- was photographed on the ground which might explain why
the landing gear
- is in a down position.
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- If, for whatever reason the picture is of a real flying
aircraft one
- ponders where the pictures were taken. The top two photos
are sort of
- grainy and lack detail but the bottom two are sharper
which leads me
- to believe it might be a hoax of some kind, or someones
well meaning
- expose of the "real deal" albeit in the form
of a flying model aircraft
- a hobbyist/enthusiast put together.
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- Ultimately, if it does come to light that it's the real
deal you might
- wonder if Bill Sweetman can get some compensation - if
they copied his
- design to make a real aircraft it's either imitation
as the sincerest
- form of flattery or Sweetman is unknowingly psychic.
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-
- Comment
- From Carlino Pellegrini
- carlino_pellegrini@netzero.net
- 10-10-2
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- Jeff,
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- Regarding the recent story about the possible pictures
of the Aurora or new stealth it seems that this craft looks like the plans
for the Aurora seen on FAS.org and elsewhere. I for one would certainly
be interested in finding out more about these pictures- who took them,
where exactly did they originate, etc. To my knowledge no known pictures
of the Aurora have made it into the public domain and this may be the first.(?)
I hope to see some follow-up on this one!
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- Thanks for the great work,
- Carlino
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- Comment
- From Marc
- animateclay@charter.net
- 10-10-2
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- Hi Jeff,
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- In Photoshop I used the sharpened filter, and put the
brightness down - and contrast up on the photos. A thin fishing line string
seems to become apparent in some of the images. Also the images appear
to be of the air craft at many different angles, as if the model was spun
around in the same spot. If you notice there is a picture of the craft
going right, left, and over. What are the chances of this? Plus you notice
the lighting conditions are the same in all photos.
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- Just some skepticism,
- Marc
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- Comment
From Gene Stewart
10-11-2
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- My friend Dan, a minor authority on airframes and such,
made these comments about the possible Aurora pictures posted at your site.
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- --Gene Stewart
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- It looks real, though I see from the article that there
may be a fishing line attached to it.
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- The vertical stabilizers are not very stealthy, as they
would tend to form a corner reflector (unless they retract or are transparent
to radar).
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- There are no flaps or canards extended, and the angle
of attack seems very shallow for a delta winger aircraft flying at low
speed (i.e. with its gear down), though an advanced aircraft may have some
other kind of lift enhancement (like high pressure air from the engine
compressor blown over the top of the wing). There are no obvious control
surfaces, though at least some stealth proposals were intended to use thrusters
and moving engine nozzles for control.
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- The aircraft seems shaped for high speed flight, perhaps
with B-70 style compression lift. However, assuming that the wheels are
normal size, it seems too small to carry enough fuel to do much at hypersonic
speeds.
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- The second photo is rather suspect. It is hard to determine
if we are looking at the top or bottom of the aircraft, but the reflection
of the main gear door strongly suggests that we are looking at the bottom.
If the aircraft flew directly over a photographer on the ground then why
does it seem to be at a much higher magnification than the oblique photos,
which actually had to be taken from a greater distance? Unless the aircraft
made two passes, one much higher and more directly over the observer than
the other, the photo does not seem to belong with the rest. If we are
seeing the top of the aircraft, then either it had to be taken from another
aircraft , in which case the ground should be in view), or it was flying
around inverted with its gear down.
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- Still it does look real in many ways. Perhaps it's a
hoax cobbled up from various model kits?
-
- --Dan Waltimire
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