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Does anybody know what the heck this is???
- Thread starter DevilDog
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It's a military aircraft. Don't remember the name. What? That was just as helpful as every other post in this thread. 
DevilDog said:I saw it in Dayton OH while walking out of a restauraunt... my third day having my new dslr and I had left it in burst mode.
it was flying 'left', which is backwards to a conventional airplane. And I know my way around airplanes... I've been in the B2 simulator.
I'm not sure what you mean by flying left, but was the engine at the front or rear of plane? Or are the wings swept backward or forward?
I'm sure I've seen both configurations on an aircraft, but haven't found any pictures yet. Looks like one of those 'ground effect' planes, that 'flys' a few feet above the ground.
DevilDog said:I saw it in Dayton OH while walking out of a restauraunt... my third day having my new dslr and I had left it in burst mode.
it was flying 'left', which is backwards to a conventional airplane. And I know my way around airplanes... I've been in the B2 simulator.
That's a Long-EZ, which neocell has a pic of. It was a low-cost carbon-fiber composite one or two-seat plane designed by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites (yes, the same Scaled Composites that just won the X-PRIZE with SpaceShipOne.) The actual production company was called Rutan Aircraft Factory; and it was primarily sold as a 'kit-plane' (one that you bought the parts, then built in your garage,) but it could also be bought (for more, obviously,) assembled.
See Wikipedia.
It is *NOT* a military aircraft. The one solvs is thinking of is probably the NASA test craft X-29.
Also similar in design is my favorite civilian aircraft, the Beechcraft Starship, yet again designed by Scaled Composites. It's basically a business-jet-sized verison of the Long EZ.
Ah, yeah, you're right. But no, that wasn't what I was thinking of. It was something else, but I have no idea what it was. I know it was black, and I had a model of it when I was a kid.ehurtley said:
That one's cool too though.
Seeing an unusual aircraft in Dayton is no big deal...Wright-Patterson AFB is nearby and used to be the "Area 51" of the early 20th century as far as Air Force R&D is concerned. Located on the base is the National Air Force Museum which has some of the coolest and (wierdest) things that ever flew on display like the sole remaining XB-70 Valkyrie (a personal favorite), the X-15, X-29, XF-85 Goblin, as well as many more conventional but extremely significant aircraft (SR-71/A-12 for example).
EGT said:UFO !!
It's very similar to the Beechcraft Starship. Poor Starship, failed miserably.
Well, they were designed by the same company.
Yeah, I loved the Starship. If I ever get in the position to buy a biz jet, I'm going to try to find one of the few that are left. (There are some dedicated owners that refuse to seel them back to Raytheon; who is trying to buy them all back and destroy them so they don't have any support obligation.)
Yes, it cost as much as a jet, while being slower; and was millions more than an equivalent 'normal' turboprop (some of which could outperform it,) but dammit, it's frickin' COOL!
Back in high school, (very soon after the Starship's release,) I was in my school's aviation program. Senior year, those of us in the program decided to paint an airplane on the classroom wall. Largely due to my prompting, we chose the Starship. It's about 6 feet long, above the door. (It's still painted there, although they installed a new sprinkler system, and one of the supply pipes goes in front of it. And prior classes had painted other aircraft around the class. Not every year has done it, in fact, none since has.)
DevilDog said:
If what I see in the pic is the navigation light, it appears to be flying forward as usual, not backward. That is why they have the navigation lights, so other pilots know which direction the plane is flying.
Of course, if that was not the navigation light, then ignore this.
The Past said:If what I see in the pic is the navigation light, it appears to be flying forward as usual, not backward. That is why they have the navigation lights, so other pilots know which direction the plane is flying.
Of course, if that was not the navigation light, then ignore this.
I think he meant that it was flying with the wing behind the 'tail'. In most aircraft, the large surface is in front of the small surface. (Horzontal stabilizer in back.) On this aircraft, the large surface is behind the small one (Canard in front.) Plus, the propeller is on the back, pushing it, where on most small airplanes, the prop is in front, pulling. So, to a layman, it looks like it's flying 'backward'.
calebjohnston said:
Neither would I. I seem to recall that singer John Denver was killed flying in one of these things a few years ago.
erickkoch said:
He did indeed.
Which is odd, since I figured he' be leavin' on a jet plane, not a prop plane.
(Sorry, too easy.)
Lord Blackadder said:
It's probably one of the latest in a long line of experimental unmanned aerial drones - possibly for reconnaissance.