It does make you wonder if the late 1970s Thermo-Skyship technology was taken further under wraps. This is the open-source version that flew at Cardington:
More details in this article:
https://lynceans.org/wp-content/uplo...compressed.pdf
This was the claim at the time in the late 70s as it was being developed:
A major European car ferry operator financed the development of the British Thermo-Skyship, a saucer-shaped airship using helium and super-heated air for lift and ducted thrust from turbofan engines for vertical take-off and landing and for cruise flight. A 9.14-m (30-ft) diameter model of the ship has flown, from which will be developed a Skyship car ferry capable of carrying 60 passengers and their cars from England to France at 165 kph (103 mph), and 152- and 508-tonne (150- and 500-ton) cargo-carrying saucers.
Thermo-Skyship was big news in the late ‘70s, and I remember reading about it in the aviation magazines as a very young kid. It even made a debate in the House of Lords as recorded in Hansard:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/...anAirTransport
Here is a colour still of the original flying mock-up:
This is a link to the video on YouTube:
But by the 1980s it kind of went all quiet. All too difficult and we saw some conventional airships being made a at Cardington instead. The linked article states:
Late 1982: In late 1982, a “de-merger” was agreed, and the former TSL rigid airship technical and management team left AI and formed Wren Skyships, Ltd. on the Isle of Man with Malcolm Wren serving as Managing Director. Their focus was on developing the R.30 and the RS.1 rigid, metal-clad airships. Roger Munk remained with AI and focused on developing the Skyship line of non-rigid airships.
Hmmm… “metal-clad airships”, “Isle of Man” and “demerger” of technology?
So, here is a way out theory, but probably more likely than “little green men”. Suppose that the Thermo-Skyship design and development was bought out by a British Defence consortium in 1982/3 leaving the Cardington-based company to switch to the more conventional SkyShip-500 design as seen in the 1985 Bond movie “A View To A Kill”? Suppose that the turbojet version of Thermo-Skyship was developed and built in secret? Suppose that this turbojet craft had a speed of closer to 150-200kts and the Hunter chase aircraft as shown in the photo was a T-bird with someone else operating it remotely over a fairly quiet area of Scotland? Or maybe they lost control of it and the Hunter (it still doesn’t look like a Harrier to me) was trying to regain control of it having flown out of the range at West Freugh? This technology is either now shelved or cancelled like several of the remote control craft built by British industry (Corax, Raven, Demon, HERTi, Mantis and Taranis come immediately to mind). Now, wouldn’t that make a more likely story than ET coming to visit?
Now, take a look at this:
Look at Thermo-Skyships and everything in between it and Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV). Also, look at the date of Airship-Industries being broken up - Aug 90 - 1 month before your alleged sighting. Then look at the HAV Airlander 10, that is a descendent of that Thermo-Skyship, and especially the ducted thrust unit on the tail - doesn’t it look similar to the tail-end arrangement in your 1990’s grainy photo? I also suspect the black blob on the side of the unidentified aircraft is another turbo-jet mounted on the side as per the original Thermo-Skyship design in the video to give manoeuvre and forward thrust when needed.
So, my guess is that the grainy photo above shows a highly secretive development of Thermo-Skyship, with the envisioned turbo-jets powering a more aerodynamic shape (possibly with some early stealth features) with a company test aircraft escorting it - probably a Hawker Hunter by the looks of it. I’d say that this is more plausible than some of the theories put out there…