January 2026 'Dorito' sighting over Area 51

There have been rumors of an equilateral triangle shaped EW strike companion going all the way back to the F-117. To the best of my knowledge, no compelling evidence has ever been offered. That said, it's a persuasive use case. I anticipate some folks objecting on account of a low observable EW platform being contradictory on its face, but there's a lot more in that mission than shooting trons back at emitters. In my mind it remains one of the plausible purposes for this platform.

Edit: As for the straight trailing edge, if it indicates anything meaningful, perhaps the airplane is shaped with the expectation that the radars it will encounter will be abeam the flight path. Maybe it was designed with an orbit around a target in mind.
 
targetpractice said:
Straight trailing edge hints at other strike platforms like A-12 or Northrop LAP.
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This is a blurry thermal camera image taken from very far away. There is no way to say there is a straight trailing edge. Shapes such as the F-117, B-2, RQ-170 will all look like triangles with straight edges under these conditions.
 
quellish said:
This is a blurry thermal camera image taken from very far away. There is no way to say there is a straight trailing edge. Shapes such as the F-117, B-2, RQ-170 will all look like triangles with straight edges under these conditions.
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Here's a comparison of the aircraft in question and the b2 that was escorting (?) It in the video. It almost looks like an exaggerated cranked kite configuration at times, while at others it looks like a straight edge. I can definitely make out some sort of wing/ fin on either side of the back of the plane. Either way it deviates from the flying wing LO shapes we traditionally see.
 

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baseball801802 said:
Here's a comparison of the aircraft in question and the b2 that was escorting (?) It in the video. It almost looks like an exaggerated cranked kite configuration at times, while at others it looks like a straight edge. I can definitely make out some sort of wing/ fin on either side of the back of the plane. Either way it deviates from the flying wing LO shapes we traditionally see.
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After seeing the two images side-by-side, the mystery aircraft and the confirmed B-2, I now believe its quite possible the mystery aircraft was simply a B-2 seen from a shallow side angle. The image resolution is not sufficient to clearly show the sawtooth trailing edge in either view, even when the B-2 was seen from almost directly below.
 
Whisperstream said:
After seeing the two images side-by-side, the mystery aircraft and the confirmed B-2, I now believe its quite possible the mystery aircraft was simply a B-2 seen from a shallow side angle. The image resolution is not sufficient to clearly show the sawtooth trailing edge in either view, even when the B-2 was seen from almost directly below.
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fwiw I'm inclined to the same opinion. There are tantalisingly short glimpses of 'shape' to the trailing edge of the 'other' vehicle which lead me to believe the nature of the recording device is misleading to a degree. Occams razor says that if there was known to be a B-2 in the area and there is footage of something that is not a million miles from a B-2 profile...
 
Dew said:
fwiw I'm inclined to the same opinion. There are tantalisingly short glimpses of 'shape' to the trailing edge of the 'other' vehicle which lead me to believe the nature of the recording device is misleading to a degree. Occams razor says that if there was known to be a B-2 in the area and there is footage of something that is not a million miles from a B-2 profile...
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View: https://youtu.be/V1xujbcCVvU?si=DYVMdxhnpQcSFVHp
this video has longer footage of both so u can make a better comparison. I noticed the b-2 has two contrails while the other plane has one..
 
Dew said:
fwiw I'm inclined to the same opinion. There are tantalisingly short glimpses of 'shape' to the trailing edge of the 'other' vehicle which lead me to believe the nature of the recording device is misleading to a degree. Occams razor says that if there was known to be a B-2 in the area and there is footage of something that is not a million miles from a B-2 profile...
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Most affordable-ish civilian thermal imagers are in the neighborhood of 640x480 resolution.
 
if they want it to be stealthy, what the point of making the trailing edge perpendicular with direction of travel?, and also, why make an electronic attack aircraft stealthy? what the point?
 
Ronny said:
why make an electronic attack aircraft stealthy? what the point?
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Presumably one might wish to get inside the air defence bubble before carrying out electronic attack, rather than giving up surprise by using it as a means to enter the air defence bubble.
 
Ronny said:
if they want it to be stealthy, what the point of making the trailing edge perpendicular with direction of travel?, and also, why make an electronic attack aircraft stealthy? what the point?
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The lower image is an A-12 Avenger (cancelled), just for artistic purposes presumably. This is the source article:

We’ve probably just seen the USAF’s secret electromagnetic attacker
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/weve-probably-just-seen-the-usafs-secret-electromagnetic-attacker/
Which references this video at 10:00:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1xujbcCVvU&t=600s
 
There is no evidence for anything other than something vaguely triangular flew. Could be anything, from loitering munition to UCAV.
 
sublight_ said:
Never let logic stand in the way of a juicy bullshat filled conversation....
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It feels like people are desperate for something interesting to happen in the defense industry like in the cold war documentaries, but the modern defense industry is more boring, more corporate and much less opaque thanks to government reports, bills, social media and shareholders want to know what's up too.
 
EmoBirb said:
It feels like people are desperate for something interesting to happen in the defense industry like in the cold war documentaries, but the modern defense industry is more boring, more corporate and much less opaque thanks to government reports, bills, social media and shareholders want to know what's up too.
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There are plenty of interesting things happening. Air warfare is going through massive changes, but a lot of people seem to be ignoring it because they are still thinking about things like its 1975.

As far as EW, it’s getting better and smaller using unmanned attritable and adaptive platforms
 
Cancerman said:
The Dorito (triangle) design is a poor all aspect configuration.
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And yet, someone at the Pentagon might think that triangle aircraft are workable, because several have been spotted over the years (over Wichita in 2014, and most recently a few days ago with a B-2 supposedly nearby). Unless this is some kind of expensive psyop to throw foreign intel agencies off about our designs, someone seems to be building and flying what appears to be straight trailing edge triangular shaped aircraft. I suppose these examples could be one-off test aircraft investigating some aspect of LO or another for further examination. But It has to be for a purpose, because I doubt any of these craft are cheap.

Mysterious ‘Dorito-Shaped’ Aircraft Spotted at Night Near Area 51
 
quellish said:
There are plenty of interesting things happening. Air warfare is going through massive changes, but a lot of people seem to be ignoring it because they are still thinking about things like its 1975.
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Yeah, but these changes lie with doctrine, infrastructure, software (including AI), sensors, propulsion, material science etc. and are spread across a wide selection of programs, academic research and private ventures and associated testing. And many such things are not all that hidden and can be looked up and read about, in many cases even on this very Forum.

A 'Black Project' aircraft flying around the Nevada desert that will definitely, certainly, onehundred percent be a game changer in air warfare is just what people want to see.

That was my point, we both agree on that. And I wasn't saying stuff nowadays as a whole is boring, aviation is always exciting. But what I meant when I said boring is that these things are not the bombastic area 51 stuff people want so hard to see and believe.
 
Never in history has the public had the kind of rapid and organized access to unclass information and one another to discuss, speculate, investigate. This coincides with with an exponential ramp of novel and secret technological progress taking place simultaneously with the preludes to a global great power conflict. This is a SUPER interesting time. But I promise, even with shareholders and media, there is no shortage of actual mysteries out there.

I can only speak for myself but it's interesting regardless of what it is, if for no other reason than that it's been flying for a while and whatever its purpose, it's advanced or unique enough that somebody thinks it's worth keeping in the black. I don't think anybody here thinks it's an OCA platform or something, it's the wrong shape for that, and nobody seems to mind.

Personally I do subscribe to the EW platform hypothesis, and that's cool enough for me.
 
DesScorp said:
someone seems to be building and flying what appears to be straight trailing edge triangular shaped aircraft
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A delta spanloader design is being actively deployed all over Europe and ME. That design is NOT optimized for significant observables reductions.

This wannabe Dorito might fit in the same case. Or it might not be a "Dorito" at all.
3000 God forfeited legal documents on the A-12 is the strongest prove there is to the unsuitability of the triangular design for LO reqs.
 
EmoBirb said:
There is no evidence for anything other than something vaguely triangular flew. Could be anything, from loitering munition to UCAV.
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This time you are saying bullshit with my respect, this is thermal video of a triangular type plane flying surely in exercice with a B-2 . There is audio proof too of something flying this night , the shape match perfectly the Kansas sighting of 2014. The size of this plane look medium just a little less of the B-2. Unmanned surely not with the audio exchange of this night , Joerg of Dreamland resort say they communicate on a secure canal for the Dorito. The B-21 program is about a family of system so this type could be in the family....
 
yeetmahboi said:
A delta spanloader design is being actively deployed all over Europe and ME. That design is NOT optimized for significant observables reductions.

This wannabe Dorito might fit in the same case. Or it might not be a "Dorito" at all.
3000 God forfeited legal documents on the A-12 is the strongest prove there is to the unsuitability of the triangular design for LO reqs.
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Cheetos.
 
yeetmahboi said:
A delta spanloader design is being actively deployed all over Europe and ME. That design is NOT optimized for significant observables reductions.

This wannabe Dorito might fit in the same case. Or it might not be a "Dorito" at all.
3000 God forfeited legal documents on the A-12 is the strongest prove there is to the unsuitability of the triangular design for LO reqs.
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It look to flying very well the Dorito in the video......
 

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