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Mystery aircraft is pictured flying over the Philippines

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A mysterious aircraft caught flying over the Philippines could be the United State's ultra-secret new RQ-180 stealth drone, aviation experts believe. Local landscape photographer Michael Fugnit captured the craft on Thursday when he was attempting to take pictures of the sunrise by the coast of Santa Magdalena, a resort town 364 miles south of Manila. Fugnit regularly watches the skies for planes, and quickly realized that the batwing-shaped flyer was unlike any commercial or military… (www.msn.com) और अधिक...

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hwh888
hwh888 13
Highly secret, well almost, except for the vapor trail.
FrankHarvey
Frank Harvey 1
Francis Gary Powers mentions that it his book. He was apparently over the Sinai area and realised he was leaving a contrail. Change of altitude resolved the issue.
locomoco
M.F. LaBoo 10
Now if they can only do something to dry up the contrails. Or maybe fly it only on moonless nights, like the guys who wanted to send a manned rocket to the sun at night so they wouldn't get burned up
Relics
Relics 4
Probably flying out of Diego Garcia. Definitely has that B-2 shape.
G2Hamilton
Gregory Galbraith-Hamilton 4
I'm guessing it would be targetable by its heat signature, I'm sure strikes will be attempted to evaluate defensive tactics, the fun never ends!
gmiller
gmiller 2
Stealth Technology addresses IR signature as well as RF, visual, and acoustic.
SkyAware123
SkyAware123 2
Pretty sure that such a basic thing is taken care of. And remember, strealth doesn't mean invisible. It just means LESS visible. If they get close enough to good radar, they'll still be spotted. They use radar coverage maps to fly paths with least chance of being detected by radar.
FrankHarvey
Frank Harvey 7
Hi Relics,
I wouldn't be sure about DG. Andersen on Guam is a lot closer and the Philippines is between Guam and all the Chicom activity around the Spratleys, if this bird was having a look at that. Now Wake is a little bit further east than Guam but flights also would have to cross the Philippines to get to the China Sea. Wake is also a lot more private than Guam. And there's been a lot of work going into Wake over the last couple of years, they relaid the 9800 foot runway and seriously expanded the aprons at both ends. So I'd think Wake over DG.
Lneward
Lance Neward 3
Question: Has there ever been a (known) air-to-air refueling of an unmanned drone?
quadrex
quadrex 2
Which way? Plane to drone or drone to plane? or how about drone to drone? The first two are yes, the drone to drone, I'm going to say maybe.
quadrex
quadrex 2
After a little googling, let me change my answers to yes / yes / yes.
Ifly2high
Trevor Sanschagrin 3
Ultra secret is no longer ultra secret.

djames225
djames225 5
So much for being "stealth" if it was in fact the RQ
Coalora
Coalora 5
You do understand, regardless radar signature it is still "visible" in visible light, right?
ghstark
Greg S 23
No cloaking device? You call that stealth?

The Klingons and Romulans are not impressed.
Cleffer
Cleffer 3
djames225
djames225 4
I see sarcasm escapes many
Heatseekerws6
Heatseekerws6 6
It's one thing having this aircraft's existence witnessed in a non-clandistine environment in a pic like this, but another thing that no one knows where its been or where it's going & doing. Gives the bad guys an 'oh-shit' feeling and the good guys & aircraft junkies a neat 'holy-shit!' moment.

[This comment has been downvoted. Show anyway.]

21voyageur
21voyageur 4
I think you can park your political rantings. Save us the noise.
AABABY
AABABY 2
The first asset of the Space Force on a test flight?
SkyAware123
SkyAware123 2
They need to work on that contrail... unless ofcourse they wanted it to be spotted.
w8trw
Allen Zapp 1
Hmmmm... Not so "ultra-secret" is it? Ya just never know who has a camera pointed at the sky!!!
criticalpath
frank theriault 1
Not so stealthy, is it? LOL!
DougHaviland
Doug Haviland 1
No mystery now. Thanks so much MSN.
lynx318
lynx318 1
I hope it is a U.S. aircraft and not the China wing craft known to be under development as a bomber.
Steventexas
Steven Heckler 1
More than likely an asset based at Andersen Air Force Base Guam USA "Where America's Day Begins" And might end too, things will heat up with the Chi Comms for sure. Must have a distraction from the FORCED medical Tyranny.
jptq63
jptq63 1
Speculation, a Micronesia location? Maybe Truk or Yap is just for a refuel stop?
SkyAware123
SkyAware123 2
I don't think these need many refuel stops. They can fly very long ranges without a tanker, like 12K nm.
stephenjshaner
s s -5
Maybe it can be used to detect Covid non-compliance. Australia should get first dibbs.

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