Message posted by BlackWatcher (Member since 01/29/2012) on February 19, 2023 at 16:44:59 PST:
Hi, This is an interesting sighting I've found using Wayback Machine sometime ago. Just wonder what you guys think about it as it sounds like being a sighting of a mystery aircraft of some kind but... the devil is in details... but let's get to the beginning firstly. Here is a quote: My personal opinion - I'm not sure of validity or truth on this, for several reasons, you cannot judge height by surrounding nountains of which the highest Mount Washington is only 6255ft. Second you would not see that much detail at 45,000 let along at 65,000ehete it would be almost invisible. Lastly at that height I very much doubt you would hear anything at all let alone different sounds.... I may be wrong and I hope I am as this sounds like a great sighting to say the least! Now the questions I would left: 2. Engine sound. Could you hear a plane from 65k feet? Other inputs or answers are welcome, as always!
"I would like to describe the sighting of what I can only term a very unusual aircraft. Whether or not this sighting pertains to Aurora I cannot say for sure, you will have to judge for yourself. I live in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, sighting various military aircraft in the area is nothing new, A-10 "Warthogs" for example can be seen training in the area as often as several times a week. Other aircraft I have seen include the B-52 and various tanker or cargo planes which are difficult to identify by varient (usually around the time of a military deployment). About a month ago a friend and I saw something outside my experience, as far as I know nothing in the "public" US inventory can do what this plane did. It was about 20 minutes before sunset and the sky was clear. We first sighted the plane on the Western horizon at what I estimate was an altitude of 45,000 feet, I base this estimate on other aircraft I have observed in the area and the known height of nearby mountains. What seemed to be the contrail of another aircraft could be seen several miles behind the aircraft and perhaps 10,000 ft. lower and headed north or northwest (a tanker perhaps?) From the moment we saw the aircraft it was gaining altitude and continued to climb the entire time it was in view. By the time it was directly over my position it was perhaps 65,000 ft. up though I admit I had no kind of instrument or calculation to confirm this. It was certainly higher than I had ever seen any military or comercial aircraft fly. In my estimate the plane was between 100 and 130 ft. long and had a delta wing design not too far removed from an SR71 except that the edges of the wings were more rounded and seemed to taper slightly towards the tail. The wingspan was perhaps 60 ft. The color reflected in the full light of the sunset was a muted grey and seemed to reflect very little sunlight, though darkly colored I would not say it was black though it is hard to say in those lighting conditions. The aircraft moved very fast, faster than any other I have seen though I could not give a specific estimate. We did not hear any obvious sonic booms. The aircraft had either two or four engines, placed in the rear and located on either side perhaps 10 - 20 ft. from the center beam of the tail. The tail seemed to taper back slightly in the center behind the engine exhaust points. The confusion on the number of engines comes from the appearance of the contrail, two sets of contrails were evident and both seemed to twist or corkscrew somehow, not unlike the way the contrail from two paired engines on a B-52 will look like one somewhat "twisted" contrail, except there you see four of these instead of two and the engines are distinct and obvious on the wings. In retrospect I've concluded that their were two very powerful engines on the plane. The aircraft's rate of climb seemed to increase and at this point we heard the only engine noise since we sighted it, a strange "wail" followed by a low pitched "wooshing" sound. Never heard anything like it. The aircraft then seemed to continue to increase speed as well as altitude, it continued on a course of almost due east until it vanished from sight. I would not hazard even a guess of its altitude when last sighted, but I have never seen anything even come close. Far beyond the range of standard aircraft. I am quite sure about the shape and layout of the aircraft. That shape resembles nothing except the SR71 or the "Valkyrie" which are not flying any longer. I found this page in an attempt to explain what my friend and I had seen, only after ruling out everthing else did I consider the possibility of the Aurora. When my friend (who does not know anything about airplanes) saw several shots of the possible Aurora contrails remarked "thats just like the trail that strange plane we saw left" I began to consider the possibility. Recently my friend and I saw a program with video footage of what might be two Auroura's in flight, we were shocked and were both convinced this was the aircraft we had seen. If you choose to post this account please refer to me only by initials. If you could offer an alternate explanation, please do so, I have never been at such a loss to identify an aircraft, I am certain we saw something outside of the public inventory.
Thanks, CH"
1. Do you think it is possible to see so much details on such height?(of course it is possible the guys saw it through binos or lenses/scopes as we cannot rule out that theory or possibility and then such details would be noticeable I believe.
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