What have you seen?

[Stan Woolley]

Originally Posted by Private jet

August 1988, I was 19, parents away abroad so teenage party prevailed. It was one of those rare but fabulous nights (in the UK!) warm with a starlight sky. We were all laid on the front lawn (after booze yes & before sex obviously) staring at the heavens and talking philosophical nonsense as teenagers do. Then something triangular, unlit and very quiet flew overhead. I can't say how big it was because there was no point of reference, It was a moonless night & it only blanked out the stars. That was the only way anyone saw it. There was lots of "Whoa, what was that?", "Did you just see that?" etc etc. But tbh, it was quickly overlooked, sex was on the agenda after all! I must add this was in East Anglia, Mildenhall, Lakenheath etc about 30 miles to run, in aviation terms "just down the road"

This triangular object sounds very much the same as one my ex-boss saw in the North of Scotland while in the RAF, he’s been a pro pilot for many years and isn’t a gullible person.

[ex_matelot]

In '96 was on HMS Cumberland, taking part in Ex-Purple Star. About ten at night, one of the wrens, who had been having a cig on the starboard waist came into the ops room and said "come and have a look at this!". I went outside and saw what I can only describe as a star zig-zagging across the sky.
About an hour later - two sea knight (I think) ploughed into each other - killing all pax, and the night got busy.

[ve3id]

One night I was flying a 172 in the standard VFR sightseeing circuit for Niagara Falls. You know, low for rotary, higher for fixed wing, further out the faster you are.

Bright landing light appeared to lap me. In the darkness thought it might be a King Air or something. Asked over area frequency. what type are you?'

Reply came back with alarms going off in the background, we're an A320.

I got out of there pretty quickly!

[cavuman1]

Though I flew through this airspace with some frequency back in the late 1970's, I never saw anything like this recently viewed phenomenon:

UFO off of Kiawah Island

- Ed

[lomapaseo]

Fake fighter planes on the tarmac next to a commercial airport

[megan]

Odd radar returns may be explained partly by the atmospheric ducting of the signal. Google "radar ducting". Have experienced the phenomena with VHF, listening to someone, a hundred miles away with a 6,000' range of mountains between us, transmitting a taxiing call while I was sitting in an office with a radio connected to a wire coat hangar as an antenna. Ships have reported picking up returns of coastlines 2,000 miles distant. Army instructors told of listening to PRC-25 (a VHF-FM set) transmissions made in Vietnam and being received 4,000 miles away in Australia. I don't know whether attack aircraft ever used the procedure, but it has been written the nature of ducting on a particular day could be predicted and the aircraft could make use of the duct (by avoidance) to close with the target to a much closer range than could be expected. Same principal the submariners use to avoid sonar by knowing where the duct, if any, is located.

Electronic Warfare and Radar Systems Engineering Handbook - RF Atmospheric Absorption / Ducting - RF Cafe

https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN...RADTWOA-2.html

https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN...H-P-08-04.html

[andy148]

Ok tin foil hat on.... In 2006 i was conducting a hand over patrol while in a certain hot spot, we were the out going team being reassigned and the incoming team were being taken on a familierisation patrol so they could get to know the Area of Operations. While we were waiting to go out, a large fire fight broke out in the local town between the police and insurgents. This delayed the patrol from leaving as new plans were drawn up to support the police. While we were waiting to leave i was playing with the thermal imager (looks like a large set of ruggedised binoculars), adjusting the contrast etc to account for the local conditions. While moving it around something caught my eye in the sky, i looked up and saw what i can only describe as a low flying aircraft (no higher than 5000ft) in the shape of what i can only describe as an F-117. Except it had around 4-6 rectangular hot spots that showed up white (imager was set to white hot) around the outer parts of the fuselage. This thing was silent, not a single sound heard on the ground. By the time i'd given the imager to someone else it was just a glowing dot going away from us. To this day i have no idea what it was, or who it was.

[B2N2]

I have once...seen blue/purple jets shoot out the top of a thunderstorm over Central USA.
We were at FL 410 bumping along as this monster grew beside us.
This is a Google pic but same phenomena:

[Capt Scribble]

Sprites, but never seen one myself.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(lightning)

[compressor stall]

There was some debate about their existence a couple of decades ago, just anecdotal pilot reports amongst others. Then the advent of high def high speed cameras got them on film. They are part of the global electrical circuit. I spent some time in Antarctica with a couple of guys setting up steel balls on wires that were to record the electricity when it came back to earth (not as lightning) completing the current.

[loveair]

Originally Posted by Private jet

August 1988, I was 19, parents away abroad so teenage party prevailed. It was one of those rare but fabulous nights (in the UK!) warm with a starlight sky. We were all laid on the front lawn (after booze yes & before sex obviously) staring at the heavens and talking philosophical nonsense as teenagers do. Then something triangular, unlit and very quiet flew overhead. I can't say how big it was because there was no point of reference, It was a moonless night & it only blanked out the stars. That was the only way anyone saw it. There was lots of "Whoa, what was that?", "Did you just see that?" etc etc. But tbh, it was quickly overlooked, sex was on the agenda after all! I must add this was in East Anglia, Mildenhall, Lakenheath etc about 30 miles to run, in aviation terms "just down the road"

Check out "TR-3A Black Manta, TR-3B Astra - What are these black triangle UFOs" on YouTube.

Black triangles have been seen many, many times. One wonders if they are another example of a new military craft that is yet to be revealed, in the same way that the F-117 Nighthawk was kept a closely guarded secret for years before it was announced. Anyone seeing it in the early 1980s could be forgiven for thinking it was an ET UFO.