A UFO-like aircraft was spotted while being carried to a top-secret US military base in California. Earlier, another alleged UFO (unidentified flying object) was sighted near a US military base in Colorado, fuelling curiosity among the citizens and netizens alike.
A short video of the unidentified aircraft first popped up on TikTok and was then shared on other social media platforms. The clip shows what seems to be an inverted stealth aircraft being towed on a large flatbed trailer.
Seeing the video on Twitter, Ruben Hofs (@rubenhofs) used an open-source intelligence (OSINT) comparison of constructions and foliage in the locale to determine that the location of the video.
The video was almost definitely taken at the secretive Helendale radar-cross section (RCS) measurement facility that belongs to Lockheed Martin and is located in the Mojave Desert, California. This site is close to the company’s Skunk Works headquarters at Plant 42 in California’s Palmdale.
This video of what looks like prototype aircraft was posted to TikTok today. It was spotted in the Mojave Desert near a Lockheed Skunkworks facility. #ufotwitter pic.twitter.com/1076H8J8vs
— UFO Study ? (@UfoStudy) September 23, 2021
Skunk Works HQ is one of the most advanced ones of its kind. It has played a crucial role in the development of the US’ stealth aircraft since the early 1980s.
The aircraft’s shape is distinct from usual “pole caps”, which are used at Helendale and other facilities for calibration of the pylons used in RCS tests. Yet, the test shape has some broad similarities with several next-generation fighter designs.
It also seems broadly familiar to some concepts for Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) known to date. There seems to be a diamond-like, tailless, along with an elongated fuselage and one prominent chine line. There is a ‘hump’, perhaps either for where the cockpit would be or intended to depict an unmanned concept.
An Open Secret?
It seems unlikely that the test model in the video clip is some highly sensitive aspect of an ongoing program, especially since it was seen being transported in broad daylight, and in plain view of facility workers and contractors. Although, on the other hand, this Skunk Works facility has an established history of being at the frontier of stealth aircraft developments.
This sighting of the aircraft becomes all the more intriguing in the context of the recent expansion at Helendale. The addition of over 1,800 square meters of “classified storage” to the site was completed in April this year. This construction work is known to be a part of Lockheed Martin’s broader effort to expand its available facilities for the purpose of developing and building sophisticated aerospace vehicles.
For now, it seems that the sighting of this peculiar UFO-like object within a week of a shape-shifting, “tic-tac” shaped UFO being spotted near the US Space Force Base is nothing more than a coincidence.
Coincidentally, this morning I stumbled upon a very interesting tiktok video of an unknown shape on a flatbed trailer. The scaffolding in the background got my interest and this appears to be the Helendale Radar Cross Section Facility. Also, this does not seem to resemble the pic.twitter.com/Yo9WcKrDkQ
— Ruben Hofs (@rubenhofs) September 22, 2021
Continued Sightings Of UFOs
UFOs have ruled the public imagination for several decades now. They are the source of multiple conspiracy theories and have been linked to military aircraft, aliens, and even the Illuminati!
The first well-known UFO sighting occurred in 1947. US businessman Kenneth Arnold claimed that while flying his small plane, he saw a group of nine high-speed objects near Mount Rainier in Washington. He said that they were crescent-shaped objects that were moving at the speed of several thousand miles per hour.
They flew “like saucers skipping on water”, he said.
Continued sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena prompted the US Air Force (USAF) to begin an investigation of these reports in 1948. Initially, those involved in this project (dubbed Project Sign) opined that the UFOs were probably sophisticated Soviet aircraft.
Some of them suggested that they might be extraterrestrial aircraft from a different world. Project Sign was succeeded by Project Grudge, which was then replaced by Project Blue Book
By 1952, a sort of UFO mania had spread in the US. In July that year, a series of strange sightings were reported near National Airport in Washington, D.C. These mysterious radar blips would appear slow and clustered at first, and then zoom away at speeds of over 11,000 km/h.
The events were attributed to temperature inversions over the city. However, people were not fully convinced of it.
A report on the increased UFO sightings, that was presented by a panel set up by the CIA in 1953, concluded that close to 90% of the sightings could be attributed to astronomical and meteorologic phenomena or to some earthly objects and that there was no evidence to support the extraterrestrial hypothesis.
Parts of the report were kept classified until 1979. This prolonged period of secrecy fueled suspicions regarding a potential government cover-up.
Despite UFO sightings happening every once in a while, the flying saucer mania eventually settled down.
The Pentagon released three unclassified videos taken by Navy pilots of "unidentified aerial phenomena,” a step that comes after years of progress towards government transparency surrounding UFOs https://t.co/rwxWufwkj1 pic.twitter.com/01KrDMSDAW
— Forbes (@Forbes) April 29, 2020
In April 2020, the US Navy had released three videos, taken by Navy pilots, The EurAsian Times had reported. In one of the videos dating back to 2004, off the coast of San Diego, two super hornets from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, were asked to investigate mysterious aircraft flying in the area.
According to the operator of USS Princeton, which had been tracking these UAPs then, mysterious flying objects suddenly appeared at 80,000 ft. They then stopped at 20,000 ft and after hovering for some time, they disappeared from radar.
When the super hornets flew to the location of the UAPs, they found two hovering objects. The objects were found close to the surface of the water, one just below the surface, while the second was moving about 50 ft above the water surface. The unidentified object rose to the level of the super hornets but eventually moved away.
Later, the Pentagon released, what was categorized as “unclassified videos”, taken by the Navy pilots.
- Written by Shreya Mundhra/EurAsian Times Desk
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