Current mystery aircraft / urban legends

crusader97 said:
[...] It would also explain why they decided to paint a canopy on the X-36 - I don't think any other unmanned x-planes have a fake canopy painted on them.
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Stargazer said:
Is this supposed to be a quiz game or what? It's not a real nighttime photo. The noise and darkness in this image have been added intentionally, in order to not make the aircraft immediately clear, but anyone with basic skills in photo edition can enhance it fairly easily. Although nothing proves it is an actual photo of an actual aircraft, it looks the part (though I don't understand the front landing gear doors)... and if fake, it is more convincing than the previous image. So if you've got the original, undoctored image, please share it, but don't tease us like that!
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I made it with chatgpt, which isn't even the best image generator. Hopefully everyone can see that if this is an AI image, the previously discussed image can also be AI.

Edit: not only that, but the previous AI image is much much worse, made with a greatly inferior model. Compare the two:

Its time to admit that unless you know the provenance of an image, you can't be certain as to whether it's AI. These models get better every month.
 

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Matej said:
Looking back I realized, that during the 90s we had a lot of famous mysterious and hypothetical projects, from which almost all were explained as a disinterpretation or fake. Rumours like F-19, Brilliant Buzard, Aurora, Northrop AX-17, TR-3 Black Manta and such. My question is, if we have some similar mysterious projects now, that are known worldwide. I cant think of any.
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All -
“ The Beast of Kandahar “….. an actual UAV flown over Afghanistan ( to name one country ).


Regards,
357Mag
 
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357Mag said:
All -
“ The Beast of Kandahar “….. an actual UAV flown over Afghanistan ( to name one country ).


Regards,
357Mag
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Correct, and it’s the now not so secretive anymore RQ-170. It was based in Afghanistan, but it’s missions were over Pakistan and Iran.

It might have been based in Pakistan, too.
 
TsrJoe said:
Can we add the rumoured US. 5th gen. demonstrators to the list ?
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This thread is about unconfirmed, and hypothetical aircraft, most of these have already been debunked. Demonstrators are real aircraft that aren't wacky rumors, and have proof backing them up.
 
I'd still like to see 'proof' they exist :) currently they are nothing more than words

F/A-XX, F-X, NGAD., PCA., ASFS., X-??, F-47, 'F-55'

​

 
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TsrJoe said:
I'd still like to see 'proof' they exist :) currently they are nothing more than words
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Yes, “pics or it didn’t happen”, we get that.

If photos of the X-planes were posted here half the forum would fall into a deep depression upon seeing that the aircraft were not C-17-sized “battlestars”. And then the photos would be posted by commercial sites without attributing the original source.

So…. Keep waiting.
 
quellish said:
Yes, “pics or it didn’t happen”, we get that.

If photos of the X-planes were posted here half the forum would fall into a deep depression upon seeing that the aircraft were not C-17-sized “battlestars”. And then the photos would be posted by commercial sites without attributing the original source.

So…. Keep waiting.
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You’re not implying you’re in possession of some interesting pictures aren’t you…?
 
quellish said:
Yes, “pics or it didn’t happen”, we get that.

If photos of the X-planes were posted here half the forum would fall into a deep depression upon seeing that the aircraft were not C-17-sized “battlestars”. And then the photos would be posted by commercial sites without attributing the original source.

So…. Keep waiting.
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picture?
 
Magic question ---are there any manned nor unmanned classified programs that anyone has heard rumblings around? Surely not all hush hush programs like RQ-180 etc gonna be unmanned..

cheers
 
I don’t have any proof but I’m sure we’ve seen the follow up to the RQ-170 on video. As the Israeli’s don’t seem to have the capability to develop one themselves, I think the Americans gave it to them.

A new generation of RQ-170’s would make sense. It has a pretty basic design, and it seems it was developed in a rush. It’s also around 2 decades old, maybe even older - pretty old for a drone, where developments go really fast.

I’m pretty sure there must be patches around, if only we knew which program they belong to.

Speaking of patches, is there a central website/archive for these things, also with the classified ones?
 
wtna7 said:
What is this?
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https://www.reddit.com/r/Planespotting/comments/1lyoj0r/anyone_know_what_this_might_be_video_was_taken
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Planespotting/comments/1lyoj0r/anyone_know_what_this_might_be_video_was_taken/
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Kind of high up in order to get a reasonable idea of the planform but could be a still-flying NGAD demonstrator (or F-15, or something else)? As an example, just because LM lost to Boeing, doesn't mean there are possibly other applications for their design, especially in regards to China's aircraft development. Our black world is quite busy these days.
 
I remember the day this came out it could be a f22 f35 or whatever b-21s where seen flying within a couple days of this post from the same photographer its probably just another flight
 
quellish said:
I should make a mystery aircraft beauty filter app. Turns any aircraft photo into a blob. Presto! Get featured on TWZ
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If social media, Photoshop, or AI had existed in the 90s during the Aurora/Black Manta boom, we would have seen tons of supposed photos of these black projects, not to mention the famous edit with the KC-135 and the two F-111s :p:p
 
serg.gonzp said:
If social media, Photoshop, or AI had existed in the 90s during the Aurora/Black Manta boom, we would have seen tons of supposed photos of these black projects, not to mention the famous edit with the KC-135 and the two F-111s :p:p
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The odd thing about that photo is that it was, as originally published in Astronomy Now magazine, clearly labelled as a mock up. It was only presented as a genuine photo when it was used months later in another magazine and presented as being taken from a beach with an unfeasibly long lens.

Chris
 
Astronomy Now? An unusual place for an article on unusual plane spotting mysteries.
 

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