Actual Mystery Object (Aircraft?) Photographed at TTR April 2024

[quellish]

Discovering new spot NORTH of TTR, April 15-16, 2024

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To me this looks like a very overgrown RQ-170. RQ-170s are much smaller than this, and the fuselage looks different (taller). It is very difficult to estimate size/distance in the photo, but an RQ-170 would still not appear this large.

 

[serg.gonzp]

Discovering new spot NORTH of TTR, April 15-16, 2024

(Scroll to bottom)

To me this looks like a very overgrown RQ-170. RQ-170s are much smaller than this, and the fuselage looks different (taller). It is very difficult to estimate size/distance in the photo, but an RQ-170 would still not appear this large.

Could it be the rq-180? since this has a wider wingspan than the rq-170

 

[CiTrus90]

I'm trying to understand the angle from which the picture was taken.

From what I've read of Rokita's account, the vehicle sighted was on the Delta ramp, which should be at the northern edge of the TTR airport, according to this map:


I've tried to match his picture to a Google Earth view.


If my assessment of Rokita's POV is correct (and it might not be, since there are a number of buildings I'm not too sure about in the pics), there is a significant amount of perspective distortion caused by the lens of the camera.

If we can conclusively identify the spot we are looking at, we might still be able to estimate an approximate wingspan though.

 

[CiTrus90]

Ok, my previous geolocation was in the correct place but at the wrong angle.

I've taken a look at the panoramic view that was not cropped and now I'm fairly sure at the position:


There are a number of buildings that are clearly not present in the Google Maps/Earth views.

And looking at the panoramic view (use that one and zoom in and out - do not use cropped views), I think I'm 90% certain we are looking at a F-35B seen from the rear with its nozzle in the downward position (you can almost see the panels open underneath):

 

[flateric]

What F-35B would do there at TTR?

 

[dark sidius]

Ok, my previous geolocation was in the correct place but at the wrong angle.

I've taken a look at the panoramic view that was not cropped and now I'm fairly sure at the position:
View attachment 727787

There are a number of buildings that are clearly not present in the Google Maps/Earth views.

And looking at the panoramic view (use that one and zoom in and out - do not use cropped views), I think I'm 90% certain we are looking at a F-35B seen from the rear with its nozzle in the downward position (you can almost see the panels open underneath):
View attachment 727788
View attachment 727789

In some fact I agree but..... It is in a front of a new built hangar , in the picture we don't see the tail ? the wings seem realy short and the Front seem to look the sky , what is strange is the little wings, could it be related to the NGAD program?

 

[dark sidius]

What F-35B would do there at TTR?

Sure and in a front of a new hangar ?....There is no wings ? not a plane may be

 

[SK2]

It seems to me that the wings are much lower than normal F-35. There is obviously a fuselage bump/bulge above the wing section, with wingspan unknown due to blending in to the background. I guess it's not a flying wing.

 

[sferrin]

Almost makes me think of this:

 

[CiTrus90]

What F-35B would do there at TTR?

I have no idea, I'm just looking at the picture and saying what I see.

It might look like an exercise in pareidolia, but I'm 90% sure (which doesn't mean that I'm right) that I see something that resembles a F-35B. I see a dorsal hump, I see the nozzle facing downward, I can see at least the canted vertical tail on the left side, I can see the 3 landing gears and I can see both wings.

Do not take into consideration the cropped image, because there is way to much noise and it doesn't add clarity, it erodes details, see below here (look at hangar on the right for example, how much gets lost in both shadows and chromatic differences):


That line that may be interpreted as a long wing appears to be in fact part of the background.
Zooming in and out of the panorama picture gives a much clearer impression than just looking at the zoomed and enhanced crop.

Don't expect it to be extremely clear and detailed, neither are the trucks parked next to the thing that we are looking at.
I wouldn't be able to tell you what make and model those are, but I can tell you with confidence that there is 2 of them (one behind the other), they are white, have 4 wheels and they are SUVs/trucks.

The lens of the camera, the distance, etc. can cause some aberrations that are difficult to resolve beyond reasonable doubt.

What I'm certain of is that, while I might be mistaken on the ID of the aircraft, the panorama image is way better to discern details than the cropped one. Don't use that picture to draw conclusions, use the other one.

 

[Flyaway]

I really cannot see that being an F-35B. There’s just too many differences in the shape.

 

[SK2]

From my guess the "V" of the V tail's angle is quite different from F-35, more towards RQ-4 I guess
Would it be an image distorted RQ-4?

 

[dark sidius]

I have no idea, I'm just looking at the picture and saying what I see.

It might look like an exercise in pareidolia, but I'm 90% sure (which doesn't mean that I'm right) that I see something that resembles a F-35B. I see a dorsal hump, I see the nozzle facing downward, I can see at least the canted vertical tail on the left side, I can see the 3 landing gears and I can see both wings.

Do not take into consideration the cropped image, because there is way to much noise and it doesn't add clarity, it erodes details, see below here (look at hangar on the right for example, how much gets lost in both shadows and chromatic differences):
View attachment 727806

That line that may be interpreted as a long wing appears to be in fact part of the background.
Zooming in and out of the panorama picture gives a much clearer impression than just looking at the zoomed and enhanced crop.

Don't expect it to be extremely clear and detailed, neither are the trucks parked next to the thing that we are looking at.
I wouldn't be able to tell you what make and model those are, but I can tell you with confidence that there is 2 of them (one behind the other), they are white, have 4 wheels and they are SUVs/trucks.

The lens of the camera, the distance, etc. can cause some aberrations that are difficult to resolve beyond reasonable doubt.

What I'm certain of is that, while I might be mistaken on the ID of the aircraft, the panorama image is way better to discern details than the cropped one. Don't use that picture to draw conclusions, use the other one.

What make me a question is, where are the wings, I see no wings in the pictures enhanced

 

[dark sidius]

 

[dark sidius]

V tail we see it but the wings ??

 

[bennyp]

Any reason this could not be an F-117?

 

[CiTrus90]

Dark Sidius, the enhanced pictures generate artifacts and that's why I insist on referencing only the panorama view.

I made a composite of both pictures here:

On the left side, we have the enhanced picture on top and the panorama picture on the bottom.
On the right side, it's still the enhanced picture on top and the panorama picture on bottom.
This way I hope it should be easier to see the differences I'm pointing out.

Look at the right column, there are some spots that I marked with a red arrow.
The arrow to the rightmost is pointing to an object in front of the hangar: in the top picture you can see that there is quite a visible white line on top of this object. Now look at the bottom picture: that white line is not as visible.
I believe this happens because, when the picture gets enhanced, to preserve the contrast in some areas this sort of artifact is generated by the software. It's a difference in light that gets "simplified" due to the small resolution of the objects in the picture.
Look in fact at the blue arrow pointing at an orange object/light, you can see how much duller the color has turned from the bottom pic vs the top image. Or, again, look at the color change between the top of the hangar and the bottom: in the enhanced picture the contrast between the colors of its roof and the side has almost disappeared, while the noise (i.e. the small dots) have increased substantially.

Now look at the leftmost red arrow. There is a similar phenomenon going on here, in my opinion. The contrast here is between an area of the ground between the hangars that is more illuminated vs the shadows projected on the ground by the other buildings.
You can see that the "white line" is way more pronounced in the top picture (the enhanced one).
This white streak seems to line up with the aircraft, giving the impression to be a part of the same object, while in reality I believe it's several meters in front of it.

I've also tried to make a gif that could give the contours of what I'm seeing:

Bear with me, it's not easy to point out every single pixel, there isn't many to begin with.
Zooming in and out of the larger panorama view helps, because the brain fills in the details in a way more precise than I can point out with an animated gif.

It's an angle similar (but not the same - it should be a bit turned to the left and from a slightly higher vantage point) to this picture:

There is something else to the front of the aircraft (hidden by it) that appears to have a lighter shade, almost white. I believe that's another of those white trucks that we can see parked to the left, which in this case is parked up further ahead and lines up to give the impression of being part of the aircraft.

Keep in mind that we are looking at pixels here, I can't guarantee that I'm correct in my assessment, but I'm reasonably sure about this being a F-35. I also think I see the swiveling nozzle pointed down, but again...pixels.
I would be more than happy to be wrong though.

I'd also love to get my hands on a higher resolution picture, but I think I should be already thankful to Mr. Rokita to have shared any pictures of his trip at all.

 

[Dew]

..or a black tow truck facing right infront of another white SUV facing left.

 

[CiTrus90]

..or a black tow truck facing right infront of another white SUV facing left.

Possible as well.
But it seemed a bit too big to me when compared to the white trucks on the left (it's further up from the camera, so it's a bigger object than those).
I thought it might have been a tanker truck for refuelling, but I still lean more on the F-35 hypothesis.

 

[Dew]

Possible as well.
But it seemed a bit too big to me when compared to the white trucks on the left (it's further up from the camera, so it's a bigger object than those).
I thought it might have been a tanker truck for refuelling, but I still lean more on the F-35 hypothesis.

I'm thinking if you consider the yellow '3' to be the front of that building (you know: the one with all the SUV's & trucks parked around it ) it looks like a white pickup facing to the left parked off of the front right corner of the building (right side facing frontage), the top left highlight being it's windshield. This is partially obscured by a black bobtail tow truck-or-something parked out front of the building towards the left hand side (rear facing the frontage).
Or an F-35

 

[dark sidius]

Dark Sidius, the enhanced pictures generate artifacts and that's why I insist on referencing only the panorama view.

I made a composite of both pictures here:
View attachment 727822
On the left side, we have the enhanced picture on top and the panorama picture on the bottom.
On the right side, it's still the enhanced picture on top and the panorama picture on bottom.
This way I hope it should be easier to see the differences I'm pointing out.

Look at the right column, there are some spots that I marked with a red arrow.
The arrow to the rightmost is pointing to an object in front of the hangar: in the top picture you can see that there is quite a visible white line on top of this object. Now look at the bottom picture: that white line is not as visible.
I believe this happens because, when the picture gets enhanced, to preserve the contrast in some areas this sort of artifact is generated by the software. It's a difference in light that gets "simplified" due to the small resolution of the objects in the picture.
Look in fact at the blue arrow pointing at an orange object/light, you can see how much duller the color has turned from the bottom pic vs the top image. Or, again, look at the color change between the top of the hangar and the bottom: in the enhanced picture the contrast between the colors of its roof and the side has almost disappeared, while the noise (i.e. the small dots) have increased substantially.

Now look at the leftmost red arrow. There is a similar phenomenon going on here, in my opinion. The contrast here is between an area of the ground between the hangars that is more illuminated vs the shadows projected on the ground by the other buildings.
You can see that the "white line" is way more pronounced in the top picture (the enhanced one).
This white streak seems to line up with the aircraft, giving the impression to be a part of the same object, while in reality I believe it's several meters in front of it.

I've also tried to make a gif that could give the contours of what I'm seeing:
View attachment 727823
Bear with me, it's not easy to point out every single pixel, there isn't many to begin with.
Zooming in and out of the larger panorama view helps, because the brain fills in the details in a way more precise than I can point out with an animated gif.

It's an angle similar (but not the same - it should be a bit turned to the left and from a slightly higher vantage point) to this picture:

There is something else to the front of the aircraft (hidden by it) that appears to have a lighter shade, almost white. I believe that's another of those white trucks that we can see parked to the left, which in this case is parked up further ahead and lines up to give the impression of being part of the aircraft.

Keep in mind that we are looking at pixels here, I can't guarantee that I'm correct in my assessment, but I'm reasonably sure about this being a F-35. I also think I see the swiveling nozzle pointed down, but again...pixels.
I would be more than happy to be wrong though.

I'd also love to get my hands on a higher resolution picture, but I think I should be already thankful to Mr. Rokita to have shared any pictures of his trip at all.

I guess it is a possibility , but F-35 B are Marine corps why it would stand in a semi secret USAF Base ?

 

[Sundog]

I can't even see wings on it. I was thinking it was just an F-35 Fuselage used for weapons integration/fitting tests on the ground. Such as with the B-61. Without better information, that's all I've got.

 

[Purpletrouble]

This is obviously a F-35B. Given the test & evaluation unit is literally just down the road at edwards (in flying time) its no surprise to see one at TTR, either to get more time on one of the ranges or as a result of a divert for some issue whilst up there (lots of ranges in the region, all slighlty different purposes as well as using others when some are down for whatever reason). More likely the latter (divert) given otherwise you have to shift tools, parts and people and get them inside the wire. Plus its put at the far end which smacks of “not usual people so shove them down there out of the way”.

And it could be a non US F-35B…

 

[bennyp]

I've also tried to make a gif that could give the contours of what I'm seeing:
View attachment 727823

i don't buy it, how are you deciding which values to register as part of the aircraft and which ones to ignore? like that that light chunk above the starboard wing root? since the sun is coming in from the left, the soft gradient suggests that it should be a part of the aircraft that is receiving bounce light from the hangars on the right and not some lit background element.

we're just reading tea leaves here right?

 

[The K2]

When I first saw the photo, I thought it was a T-7.

 

[dark sidius]

i don't buy it, how are you deciding which values to register as part of the aircraft and which ones to ignore? like that that light chunk above the starboard wing root? since the sun is coming in from the left, the soft gradient suggests that it should be a part of the aircraft that is receiving bounce light from the hangars on the right and not some lit background element.

we're just reading tea leaves here right?
View attachment 727836

For me it is not a F-35 B , new hangar, mystery plane , more NGAD program related for me....

 

[CiTrus90]

i don't buy it, how are you deciding which values to register as part of the aircraft and which ones to ignore? like that that light chunk above the starboard wing root? since the sun is coming in from the left, the soft gradient suggests that it should be a part of the aircraft that is receiving bounce light from the hangars on the right and not some lit background element.
View attachment 727836

As you say, the sun is coming in from the left:

If the "white chunk" is receiving light from the hangars then:
1 - the rest of the right side of the aircraft would be lit, including the interior of the left ruddervator (if this is a F-117);
2 - other objects nearby would receive light in the same way on their right sides, including the SUVs/pick ups;
3 - to make that part look so white it would need to be quite a powerful light, enough to illuminate the ground around it as well;
I don't see any of those things happening.

To me, that excludes that this is bounced light or that there is another source of light coming from the right side of the aircraft.
The only light I see coming from the hangars is that orange glow on the ground that I pointed out in my previous post.

If there is no additional source of light coming from the right and this aircraft were a F-117 like you suggest, take a look at the left ruddervator you outlined in purple in your picture: is it darker than the rest of the fuselage?
If the answer is yes, that means that the light is coming in low from the left side (which is compatible with the long shadows of the hangars seen on the ground), but it also means that the right side of the airframe should be in the shadow.
The F-117 is almost "triangular" so, if one side is receiving light, then the opposite side will be in the shadow.
This, at least for me, excludes that the "white chunk" is part of the object we are looking at, since it doesn't seem consistent with the rest of the lightning in the picture, unless it's another object further ahead lined up with our object of interest.

I don't exclude it may be a F-117, it just looks more like a F-35 to me than anything else from what I can see so far, at this point.

And I think we can all certainly agree that it does not have the long wings that everyone thought it had at first.

we're just reading tea leaves here right?

We are not reading tea leaves, we are looking at pixels and trying to interpret them in a way that makes sense. If you expect me to give you a definitive answer as if I were the Commander of the TTR airport, I can already tell you (and everybody else reading) that your expectations need to be lowered.

 

[FighterJock]

I think that it could be a secret aircraft that is soon to be revealed something like what happened to the F-117A back in 1988. Why would it be flying out of the same place that the F-117A was all those years ago especially during the daytime?

 

[BAROBA]

I think we are seeing things that are just not there...
Like that submarine with two sails a bit to the left on the bottom ( or are it two submarines?)
See screenshot attached.
Of course if you look at the bigger picture, there is no submarine, because we are in a desert.
But our minds can make it a submarine if it wants to see a submarine.
Same thing with the fighter.
If there is a fighter, then not everything you see is part of it.
I think the red part is a mini-van?
Then it becomes hard to see a fighter in it....
The blue part could be a fighter jet, with its (roundish) nose pointing forwards. A bit brighter pixel could be a reflection on it cockpit.
Interesting is that the seam of two pictures ( yellow Line) run right next to the objects in question. While the pixels below suggest they match up pretty closely, pixels higher up suggest that they do not match up and show a considerable gap. You real need to have the source files.
What we are looking at is most likely a artifact of the software trying to stitch together two pictures. Without having access to the sourcefiles, we have no idea what we are looking at. Panorama software will do all kinds of things that we have no idea about when we don't know what software is used.
It could even been the result of something moving between pictures and our brain makes it into sometime we can recognise.
It could even be the result of a heat-shimmer over long distances.
See the top of the fuel truck in the 3rd attachment.

In conclusion:
The chance that we see a plane is extremely small, the distortions present in the image and the fact that the subject is located at a seam in the panorama makes it very unlikely that it is something unknown.


( 20 years of experience in photo-manipulations with Photoshop )

 

[The K2]

I bet the DOD guys are having fun reading this thread.

 

[dark sidius]

I bet the DOD guys are having fun reading this thread.

First F-117 picture was grainy one

 

[dark sidius]

I think we are seeing things that are just not there...
Like that submarine with two sails a bit to the left on the bottom ( or are it two submarines?)
See screenshot attached.
Of course if you look at the bigger picture, there is no submarine, because we are in a desert.
But our minds can make it a submarine if it wants to see a submarine.
Same thing with the fighter.
If there is a fighter, then not everything you see is part of it.
I think the red part is a mini-van?
Then it becomes hard to see a fighter in it....
The blue part could be a fighter jet, with its (roundish) nose pointing forwards. A bit brighter pixel could be a reflection on it cockpit.
Interesting is that the seam of two pictures ( yellow Line) run right next to the objects in question. While the pixels below suggest they match up pretty closely, pixels higher up suggest that they do not match up and show a considerable gap. You real need to have the source files.
What we are looking at is most likely a artifact of the software trying to stitch together two pictures. Without having access to the sourcefiles, we have no idea what we are looking at. Panorama software will do all kinds of things that we have no idea about when we don't know what software is used.
It could even been the result of something moving between pictures and our brain makes it into sometime we can recognise.
It could even be the result of a heat-shimmer over long distances.
See the top of the fuel truck in the 3rd attachment.

In conclusion:
The chance that we see a plane is extremely small, the distortions present in the image and the fact that the subject is located at a seam in the panorama makes it very unlikely that it is something unknown.


( 20 years of experience in photo-manipulations with Photoshop )

 

[dark sidius]

Aerial blue lift with a white van behind you are right Baroba

 

[RavenOne]

From my guess the "V" of the V tail's angle is quite different from F-35, more towards RQ-4 I guess
Would it be an image distorted RQ-4?

Hmmm, I was thinking that tooo…cursory glance and long wing, v shaped tails and engine Mount = global Hawk , cheers

 

[_Del_]

Wait. We're already ruling out the twin-sail submarine?

It's less than a 100 miles from Groom LAKE! And the Navy has been down the road in Fallon since the forties!

 

[publiusr]

It looked like the nose of a Shooting Star to me

Come in at night with a bright light to hide behind digital blooming…and make us squint. Then park a boom truck out in the open.

Me, I would have walked out, invited him him for a visit…and landed my saucer with he is in the water closet…

Best time to see odd aircraft?

Wait until unusual rains fill up the lake bed and watch them fly out in the daytime.

Now back to my calculations needed for stealth cherry pickers…angle of incidence equals angle of boom…

 

[CiTrus90]

Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure it's on the taxiway (roughly the left side of the red highlighted area below) when considering its position relative to the POV and the other objects in the background:

Granted, there is a side road next to the taxiway (where I believe the first pair of white SUVs is located, #1) and the camera settings flatten the distances among the objects considerably, but the position should be accurate enough.

I somehow doubt there would be a lift parked on the taxiway where there are no floodlights, antennas, etc. for which a lift would be needed. It could have been conducting work on the hangars (maybe), but why staying so far from them? I don't see a crane basket deployed, so it's either on the move going somewhere (on its own) or just parked there on the left side.

I still think it's a F-35 and I suspect there might even be some kind of ground equipment next to it:

It looked like the nose of a Shooting Star to me
Come in at night with a bright light to hide behind digital blooming…and make us squint. Then park a boom truck out in the open.
Me, I would have walked out, invited him him for a visit…and landed my saucer with he is in the water closet…
Best time to see odd aircraft?
Wait until unusual rains fill up the lake bed and watch them fly out in the daytime.
Now back to my calculations needed for stealth cherry pickers…angle of incidence equals angle of boom…

The more I read your posts, the less I understand you and the more I think I understand Byeman instead...

 

[dark sidius]

Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure it's on the taxiway (roughly the left side of the red highlighted area below) when considering its position relative to the POV and the other objects in the background:
View attachment 727932
Granted, there is a side road next to the taxiway (where I believe the first pair of white SUVs is located, #1) and the camera settings flatten the distances among the objects considerably, but the position should be accurate enough.

I somehow doubt there would be a lift parked on the taxiway where there are no floodlights, antennas, etc. for which a lift would be needed. It could have been conducting work on the hangars (maybe), but why staying so far from them? I don't see a crane basket deployed, so it's either on the move going somewhere (on its own) or just parked there on the left side.

I still think it's a F-35 and I suspect there might even be some kind of ground equipment next to it:
View attachment 727933


The more I read your posts, the less I understand you and the more I think I understand Byeman instead...

Sorry I would love like you that it was a secret plane but , it is an aerial lift with white vehicle behind

 

[dark sidius]

 

[CiTrus90]

View attachment 727964

I disagree.
I don't see what you are seeing and it rather looks to me that you are including, in the shape that you are circling, things that are in the background (the basket that you are circling is a piece of the building in the background).

Besides that (as I already stated) that thing is sitting on the taxiway and there is too much light visible underneath it, which means it's significantly raised from the ground:

If it's a model similar to the crane you posted a pic of here then 1) that thing should appear smaller than the white SUVs in the foreground and 2) we should not be able to see that much light underneath it (there is no space you could crawl under).
If it's a truck sized aerial lift, then it would be bigger than the SUVs (which is compatible with what we see in the pic), but it would still not have that much space underneath it. We would see (if anything at all) a black blob, which would mark the left row of tires and, again, we would not be able to see all the way underneath it to what's in front of the vehicle.

Sorry I would love like you that it was a secret plane but , it is an aerial lift with white vehicle behind

I've never stated that...? On the contrary, you will see that I've been saying exactly the opposite.

About the RQ-4 speculations, I'd say there is no space for one in that part of the base.
First of all, the hangars on the Delta ramp are all too small to accommodate an RQ-4, so there is no reason to bring one up there (you'd rather stay on the Bravo ramp - where there are hangars big enough for it) and even if you were to bring a RQ-4 up there, the taxiway in that part of the Delta ramp is too small.
Centerline of the taxiway to hangar entrance is almost 20m, the wingspan of the RQ-4 is almost 40m total.
You are going to risk scraping the right wing against the buildings and bringing with you all kinds of stuff parked next to them (like the vehicles and equipment seen on this satellite picture):