Message posted by Sundog on February 26, 2003 at 21:07:48 PST:

Just for the record, what your friend saw may have been a blimp, but not the kind you are thinking of, e.g. Goodyear blimp, etc. If you search the U.S. Patent Office, you will find some designs by Lockheed Martin, one of which looks like a reconnaisance platform, very similar to a standard blimp, but much larger. However, it is most likely a dirigible (That means it has a rigid structure, in the same sence that the Hindenberg did) and there is also a UAV blimp/dirigible (They don't reveal how it is constructed to know) which is very large and shaped like a lifting body with a tail. I bring this up, because it has been reported that the U.S. Material Command has some Hybrid aircraft which are large delta's, about the size your friend reported seeing. A hybrid vehicle is a highly specialized dirigible, such that at lowspeeds, it behaves like a dirigible, but due to it's shape, behaves more like an aircraft cruising. If the engines are on the top of the vehicle and are some sort of low RPM ducted fan with the engines driving them within the vehicle and well muffled, it would be very easy to make such a vehicle relatively silent. Also, some people have reported seeing them glow. As an aero-engineer, I remember reading a paper by Northrop back when I was in college while doing research, about a system Northrop was developing in the late 60's that created an electrical field on an aircrafts screen and added a charge to the air in front of the vehicle that would be repelled by the charge on the aircraft's skin to reduce parasitic drag. They were doing this research for SST's at the time. However, it would be very useful for a craft the size of which has been reported. Below are many links on the subject. I only bring these up as, what to me, is the most plausable explanation for what your friend may have seen. I hope at the least, you find it interesting. :) I should also note that I cannot back up the validity of any of the following articles.

http://www.nidsci.org/news/ufomap.html

http://198.63.56.18/pdf/illinois_trianglehypothesis.pdf

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/classified_aircraft_010815-1.html

http://www.sushi-x.com/4fun/nonseq/triangle/triangle.html

http://www.nidsci.org/news/illinois/physicsanalysis.html

In Reply to: Re: TR-3B posted by lone wolf on February 25, 2003 at 11:32:44 PST:

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