Meanwhile, down Nevada way (ACM in the MOA?) .. PIC HEAVY

[DemoTex]

The good thing about being a fire lookout is that you get to look out. Not much in the sky goes un-noticed. This morning it looks as if the boys and girls from Nellis AFB are practicing some air combat maneuvers (ACM) in the military operations area (MOA) to my distant southeast - down Nevada way.

Some of these turns were incredibly sharp for the speeds being flown. Somebody's G-suit got a workout up there today. The last pic is a WTF? in my aviation opinion. A quintessential WTF?.

















Thanks to EarlG for allowing these dispatches in DU's GD Forum

[slipslidingaway]

1. Always enjoy your pictures and updates, that last picture is strange....

thanks for posting.

[malaise]

20. +1

Stunning as usual

[denbot]

2. I'm guessing t he last one is from a F-22 Raptor

The pilot must have forced ocular fluid behind his/her toe nails on that turn..

[FiveGoodMen]

3. I don't believe the last pic

Newton hasn't been overturned yet.

[WeDidIt]

5. The X-31 could have easily done the last one

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-009-DFRC.html

I've seen the footage. The X-31 regularly performed such maneuvers.

This obviously wasn't an X-31 (the program is dead), but that doesn't mean there isn't another experimental aircraft capable of such maneuvers being tested.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. Nope.

The diagram at the link you provided clearly shows a tight turn (a curve).

What you've got in that picture (of the jet trail) is a 90 degree angle. A turn that occupies no space whatsoever.

They must have some kind of Star-Trek-like inertial dampers if the plane's going to instantly stop and begin a new trajectory.

[WeDidIt]

8. Try a Kulbit Maneuver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HWdh8I_dNY&feature=related

and note where the exhaust would be during that maneuver.

[FiveGoodMen]

16. Interesting

Not a 90 degree turn, exactly, but it might leave a trail suggesting one.

[hootinholler]

10. Wasn't that Marty Martian's space demodulator? n/t

[MineralMan]

4. That last photo was the UFO observer

from Zzyzx or somewhere. They can do those right-angle turns, then jump to hyperspace. Yeah...that's the ticket.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=zzyzx&ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=35.142779,-116.103891&spn=0.002334,0.003449&t=h&z=18

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

7. Chemtrails!!!!!!

...or not..... :evilgrin:

[hootinholler]

9. Well if you want to see if something is scheduled...

Try here.

;)

-Hoot

[XemaSab]

11. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

:o

[DemoTex]

14. Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot indeed.

I have calls in to old friends at AW&ST.

[Liberal In Texas]

12. I'm glad to see Area 51 is still testing those captured alien spacecraft.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. how the hell ?!

:o

[DemoTex]

15. More to this story .. I'll post the pics tomorrow (to dark and bandwidth problems 2-nite)

I heard a rather loud jet noise early this afternoon. I almost ignored it, but with all the strange things I've seen in the sky in the last two weeks I thought better of that idea. I ran out on the catwalk and looked up to see an amazing sight. Two four-engine jets, tankers I assumed (but maybe different from the KC-135 I knew), had two small deltoid jets in formation. The small fighter-size jets were not on the refueling booms. They were actually in formation with the lead tanker, with tanker #2 bringing up the rear.

I cropped the pics greatly to get an I-D on the small jets. Like I said, I'll post those grainy pics tomorrow after I get them uploaded to Flickr or PhotoBucket.

Engine-34 came out today for a lemonade-social call, with the regular engine commander and two female fire-fighters from another engine (getting their wilderness orientation .. seriously!). I told them about the putative Aurora (SR-91) and my pics of the donuts-on-a-rope contrails. Then I told them about the big dog-fight (ACM maneuvers) over northern Nevada yesterday with the square-turn contrail. I then mentioned the delta-wings with the tankers today. The young women, perhaps visiting their first fire lookout tower, looked at me like I was Ranger Gord (out of his gord).

Then I showed them the pics: The possible Aurora contrail pics; the ACM maneuver pics from yesterday, and; today's pics of the deltoid fighter jets. They lost their skepticism very quickly.

[alfredo]

17. With Drones they can pull that type of G's.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Post #8 might have an explanation

But I don't think simple G-forces can really make 90 degree angles.

[alfredo]

21. I was thinking about the effect on a pilot. There's a limit.

[FiveGoodMen]

22. I agree, but even with that problem eliminated, a real right angle still isn't possible

It takes time for the forward momentum to be redirected and during that time a fast moving plane would have moved forward some more. You might get a tight turn, but not a square corner.

However, that other link has video of a maneuver in which the plane turns around and practically stops itself with thrust going the opposite of its inertial movement, then turns and starts up again. In the video, there's no visible jet trail to speak of, but maybe if there were it would resemble a sharp right turn. I don't really know.

[alfredo]

23. They have to come to a near stop to do the maneuver

[FiveGoodMen]

24. The difference being that they spin around and use the main

thrust to stop themselves.

Which is quite a bit different from simply turning really, really sharp.

[alfredo]

25. That's a neat trick.

[Renew Deal]

18. CHEMTRAILS!!!

Now, with right angles!!!! :tinfoilhat: