Black Triangle Sighting - Franklin Tennessee

We have received another detailed report of a black triangle UFO. This time the sighting is all the way on the other side of the country in Franklin, Tennessee. This eye witness contacted the Object Report after doing a Google image search for black triangle and subsequently contacted TOR with a good, detailed email of what he saw. This witness provided a (highly) verifiable email which includes an avatar head shot. The witness also provided detailed photos of his house and the location of the black triangle sighting. I am highly confident in the integrity of the eye witness. This eye witness has done such a thorough job with his description, to the point of providing on site photographs with clever overlays and text notes, that I do not feel I need to elaborate much further. The final image at bottom is an illustration by the Object Report which is based on his notes as follow:




Good afternoon,  

In all my 45 years I thought I would never have the opportunity to say this, but last night I saw a UFO. More specifically, I saw a black triangle.

Let me just state that this is probably going to be one of the most boring reports that you have received, but I felt I should share it none-the-less.

Last night, 5/14/2013, between 2045 and 2100 central time, I opened my front door to let my dog outside.  I followed her, and just like always, I happened to look up into the sky.  There it was, moving swiftly and silently, directly over my home.

My first thought was that it was some type of drone aircraft, then I immediately realized I heard no sound.  What truly caught and kept my attention was the lighted tips of the object, which formed a perfect triangle.  Also, the lights were not very bright, however they were white (non-colored).  All three lights seemed to radiate at the same intensity, and the best way I can describe it is as if a dimmer light switch is adjusted to about 70%.

Another thing struck me as interesting is that it was flying in a "skewed" position.  Let me try to describe.  If you imagine an airplane, with a light at the nose and a light at the end of each wing, the light at the nose will always be in the lead, and the wing lights will always stay equidistant in their position, and  uniform as the plane moves forward.  The same would be true if there was no light on the nose, but two lights at the tips of the wing and one on the tail.  From a view on the ground, the flat side with the two lights at the tips/edges would be moving forward (in the lead), followed by the light at the tail.  

This object flew forward as if it was turned at about 30 degrees off the center axis, so I could not tell what was in the "lead".  It only kept its  uniform,  steady shape as it flew.  

This entire sighting lasted approximately 10 seconds.  Of course, I had no camera with me, and I did run in and inform my wife of what I saw, and unfortunately there were no other witnesses. 

I have always had a historical fascination with "stuff" like this.  I had read enough non fiction about such instances to know that black triangles and the "cigar" shaped crafts are some of the most recognized shapes that have been recorded. So, I knew exactly what it was when I saw it.  

After I told my wife, I immediately googled "black triangle with lighted tips", and your sight was one of the first to be returned, so I clicked it.

I read the lengthy article and I want to try to contribute best I can to what I saw:  First here is that link:

http://www.unknowncountry.com/insight/anatomy-black-triangle-sighting

I sent an email to the eye witness asking him a few standard questions and this is his second email sent to The Object Report:

Shape: What I saw was most closely described as what you have in this link as Fig 5. First version of tip lights illustration.  The tips definitely seemed a little rounded, not pointed.

Speed: well, I could not judge the speed but it seemed to be moving swiftly for the sighting to only last for about 10 seconds, especially from the point of view I had.  

Size: If you take a silver dollar out of your pocket and hold it between your index finger and thumb, and then extend your arm above you and look at the flat side of the coin, that is approximately how large the object appeared from my ground perspective.  I have read that some witnesses state that these things are very, very large.  Well, if they are, then from my view (size of a silver dollar), it was fairly high up.

Other features: Some articles I have seen reference a light (red) in the center of the underside of the craft.  There were no other lights visible on the object that I saw.

Direction:  I found my home on Google Maps and judging by its direction, it was traveling due north.  If you continue due north from Franklin TN, you will pass by the western edge of the city limits of Nashville.

I hope this helps for your records.  Again, I never thought I would be reporting anything such as this, so this has truly been a fun exercise.  However, if you do need any more information, I will be happy to help.  I just wish I had more to share.  

Most sincerely,

(witness name has been hidden by AgentD)

Anatomy of a Black Triangle Sighting

On March 20th, 2013 we received an exceptionally detailed email from an eyewitness who recounted an up close and personal sighting of a very large black triangle craft near Camarillo, California, which he observed from within a 400 foot range. As our readers know, we have reported on the recent upswing in big black triangle sightings, but this one was different on multiple points which we’ll go into in further detail later. We will refer to the eyewitness as “Willard” from this point on as we respect his privacy. Over the course of about 7 weeks we corresponded with him, asking detailed questions and recieving equally detailed answers. What follows is a transcript of those communications, unedited and in their entirety.

Here is his original email to us: 

Hi,

Sorry, this email got way too long but I want to share and capture the relevant details. You may post this account but please do not post this with my full name. You can contact me if you want more details.

I observed a big, black triangular craft hovering motionless from about 300-400 feet away last night (Tuesday, March 19th, 7:55pm PST) near Camarillo, CA in the vicinity of the Naval Base (Point Mugu NAS) just inland.

After sharing my account last night with my family and two friends one of them directed me to your website today. Like everybody, I hear occasional reports of UFO sightings in the news but I don't follow it in much detail. Frankly, in contrast to your story (http://theobjectreport.blogspot.ca/2012/12/special-report-update-dramatic-increase.html) I'm skeptical about these being of extraterrestrial origin and put more faith in the military. But whatever it was I was very surprised to learn that others had seen something so similar. When I think of UFO's I think "round" and now here are all these reports of a black triangle. I observed this relatively close up and got a very good look at it from within a few hundred feet, watched it hovering motionless for a few minutes on approach, then was able to study it as it hovered within a distance I'd estimate to be about under 400 ft away. This morning I still can't get over the fact that now I know these accounts are actually happening because I experienced this first hand.

I don't have a photo of the craft because I was driving and had the phone attached to the hands-free cable tucked inside the console. I didn't want to take my eyes off the road or the craft to fumble with a phone. After I parked, rolled down the window and was staring right at the craft just off the road side I was mesmerized studying it's details, knowing I'd want to be able to describe this and that it probably won't photograph well anyway, just another grainy out of focus UFO shot on the internet. Within probably 15 seconds after I sat there with the window down, craning out of the window and observing it, it shot away and disappeared from view in under 10 seconds. But as soon as it was gone I called a friend partly to create a timestamp for what I'd just observed. I know the location because I recall crossing Laguna Road, thinking how it's the only bright intersection in the middle of this field area. I believe it's difficult to accurately judge size and distance when looking at something in the sky. In my experience objects tend to be larger and further away than they look to me when I have to opportunity to get to them up close to them. So, for my size and distance estimates I'll use something familiar from the ground - the tallest building in Ventura Country. Based on that, it appeared the craft was about 300 feet above the ground and about as tall as a "slice" of that office tower 1-2 stories high. I've attended a few Camarillo Air shows and seen aircraft up close, and watched one Blue Angels show close to where this sighting occurred, so I also use that for comparison of surface materials and noise levels.

Original image provided by the eyewitness.

When I got home I immediately searched the web for "black triangle UFO," then Photoshop'ed a similar image that resembled what I saw to make it a closer approximation. It really needs a 3-D rendering program to capture the mass and edges of the thing. An important distinction compared to the descriptions on your site is that the bottom of the craft I saw was smooth and devoid of any lights. In fact, that was one of it's most striking features. When observing it I remember thinking how it had no visible means of propulsion or any openings. Just a really big, smooth, black triangle with steady blue-white lights on the tips. It did not have the domed lights, black circle or stadium-style light(s) on the bottom that others have described. It appeared to be made of a seamless composite material, though at that distance small seams would not have been visible. I recall thinking for that reason maybe it was an unmanned drone but that it appeared large enough to easily hold a crew and more.

This craft hovered silently for a few minutes as I drove toward it, heading north on Las Posas Road, I had just exited PCH. From a distance of 1-2 miles during my approach I thought it was odd that a helicopter would have just three lights and in a triangular arrangement. I thought maybe there was an accident or something up ahead and it was a police helicopter hovering over the scene. As I got closer I was wondering how the lights could be so evenly spaced on a helicopter, and it became apparent there was no one else around or anything happening on the ground. Then I got close enough to see it was not a helicopter but a triangular craft, hovering motionlessly over the field just off the side of the road. When I was almost directly under it I pulled off the road and rolled down the window to get a good look at it. It was very clear conditions and the craft was relatively close to the ground. The sky was getting dark but there was still ample light to easily see it. No noise whatsoever as it hovered, then after 10-15 seconds it shot off in the direction of the ocean/base with a roaring sound, nothing as loud as a fighter jet but more like the roar of a really powerful truck engine. Acceleration was fast from its static hovering position but not supernaturally, physics-defying fast.

Here is my Photoshop mockup of what I saw and the location. It's based on a picture of a similar craft but altered to more closely resemble the one I saw. When viewed from an angle, the edges of the craft had a smooth curve and revealed its relative height and more massive form. Interestingly, I selected this picture from Google images because it looked the most like what I saw. Turns out the site I took this picture from was about a craft spotted just a few weeks ago in Oakdale, CA only 300 miles from here (http://massufosightings.blogspot.com/2013/03/ufo-sightings-mufon-case-black-triangle.html). And my location is less than 100 miles from Palmdale where the B-2 was unveiled. My event was adjacent to a Navy air weapons center. So, it's probably some classified military craft.

Willard

On Mar 20, 2013, at 3:35 PM, Object Reporter wrote:

Hi Willard,

First of all, thank you for this exceptionally detailed eyewitness testimony. This is the kind of report we absolutely love to get from our readers, and I'm glad to hear that someone you know pointed you in our direction. I have personally been investigating these giant black triangle sightings for nearly 20 years and it's becoming very clear to me that they fall into two categories: man-made and non-terrestrial. The reason I say "non-terrestrial" is because these sightings have occurred since the 1940's and I guarantee you this technology has only been within grasp of the military since the late 80's or early 90's at the earliest. The fact that these craft have been seen near military installations doesn't prove that they are military because in many cases the craft are far larger than what can fit within a hangar. That said, I'm fascinated by your sighting and I have some additional questions for you if you wouldn't mind answering...

Fig 1. Cross section diagram
provided to the eyewitness.

1) I'm curious about the cross-section shape of this craft which I've noticed varies greatly between reports. The Highland, Illinois craft was very thick/tall and had very sharp edges along with what looked to be vertical floor-to-ceiling windows, whereas other people have described rounded edges and a slight curvature to the dorsal and ventral sides. Take a look at this chart (Fig 1) and tell me what might be closest to what you remember seeing.

Definitely "A" in the set. I remember vividly that the edges were rounded.

2) In terms of the size of the craft at the distance you were observing it from, would you say this is too small, too large or just right? This street view (Fig 2.) is taken from the approximate vantage point you pointed out in your Google maps image looking toward the naval air station. This is approx. 400 feet away based upon some very rough distance calculations. I agree with you that it's very difficult to determine the size and distance of something hovering in the sky, especially if your adrenaline is pumping.

Fig 2. Initial "sketch" provided to the witness to determine relative size and orientation. 
Actual location: 34°10'56.09"N, 119° 4'10.79"W

I was actually much closer than the perspective of the observer in your mockup. As I interpret this, it was where the nearest vehicle is, on the right hand berm, with the craft a little closer to the road. The object was much larger that what's shown, it should take up 4 or 5 times the area of what's in your image. I was heading away from the base just like that car and stopped when the craft was directly perpendicular to my position, the closest I could get without crossing the road.

3) Was the coloration gray, black, gunmetal? Did you see any markings or insignia's at all? And in regards to the three lights at each corner, I noticed in your rendering you have the entire TIP looking as if it's glowing and lit up. So what you're saying is that the lights didn't seem to emanate from "lights" per se, it was more like the entire structure at each tip was glowing internally?

Color was a dark gray, very uniform as if it was new. I saw no evidence of seams. It had no insignias, no markings of any kind, no openings, no windows. To give an idea of its perceived size, if it had been created with windows or doors they could have been a full story high, meaning a man could stand in them and probably raise his arms over his head without touching the top, like a story of an office building, with enough room for the hull of the ship. That's what gave me the idea to use the height and size comparison of the tall building in Ventura (http://www.emporis.com/building/300-esplanade-oxnard-ca-usa). Imagine being in the parking lot of that building at a distance about 6 lanes from the base, looking up, with the top 1 or maybe 2 floors of that building hovering steady at about 80% of their normal height. Then you'd have a good feel for the distance and height of what I saw. The "base" area was perhaps at most half the size of a floor of that building. That's why I looked like it could hold a crew of several people with room for equipment or cargo. Often I've referred to this as "black" but actually it was dark grey. If it had been truly black it would not have been as visible as it was. And I'd describe it as a smooth matte finish. It looked very much like dark gray sand-able primer for automotive use.

And, yes, the entire structure of the tips glowed internally. The lights at the tips emitted their light uniformly from within. I couldn't really see the tops but as it sped away it appeared the tips gave off light on all surfaces. Imagine frosted white plexiglass with extremely powerful bluish-white light evenly distributed from within. These were not specular lights or spot lights in any way. The light coming from these helped to illuminate the surfaces of the craft so that I was able to see it so well, and contributed to some ground illumination but did not appear to be landing lights, per say. And the craft did not appear to have any intention of landing.

Did these lights look like landing lights on an aircraft, or were they less bright and directed than that? Also, there was NO red light in the center of the belly, correct? This is also another feature which is seen in 90%+ of all black triangle sightings.

They did not look like landing lights. Because they are so diffused it's sort of curious what they are for but they are very bight and big. They gave off enough light that I could "read a newspaper" and it was an even, diffused light. I'm absolutely certain there was no red light on the bottom. No features whatsoever. The bottom surface appeared perfectly flat and smooth.

Something more about the scale of this thing as it relates to your mockup from my description. Because in my account I initially thought it was a helicopter from the distance that may have you thinking it was about that size. It was much larger than that. If it wanted to serve as a floating landing pad it would have enough room for at least 2 heliports on the upper surface. Part of what hit me on the approach that it could not be a helicopter was the sheer size of it. Each side of the triangle was about the length of three houses - typical southern California track houses packed wall-to-wall. That's why I say there was plenty of room for a crew and cargo inside. It was like a flying floor of an office building. That's also what made its acceleration so impressive, like a small tanker going "0 to 60 in 3 seconds." Those lights on the tips appeared to be at least half the size of a car. So, not enormous like "Independence Day" but more like a sea vessel than an aircraft. That's what makes the stationary hover so amazing.

For an instant as I was taking it in from my parked car I thought "Could this be a balloon designed as a prank, intentionally made to look like some kind of UFO?" but the way it took off just implied a structural rigidity that seemed like it was solid and massive, and even a big balloon seems unlikely to have remained so stationary with no hint of movement for the duration it was hovering. Its always seemed to remain at the exact same altitude. From the first time I noticed it in the distance until it was out of site it appeared to never move up or down so much as a inch. The more that I think about it, the only "logical" explanation for something of this scale hovering would be a balloon, something the Macy's Thanksgiving parade people or a hot air balloon company would have to manufacture. But the movement was not like a balloon. Balloons inevitable bobble and want to move up. This object's altitude was rock solid. It moved more like something on rails than as an air craft.

I have a friend who's going to help me measure out the distances with a tape measure so we can put some hard numbers to the dimensions. I'll pass that along.

4) The noise you described I find interesting because there has never been a sound associated with these sightings other than a low hum or low frequency rumble, never an 'engine' sound like you described, so I find that detail interesting. You said you rolled the window down, did you happen to notice the smell of ozone or cinnamon in the air after your sighting?

As it hovered it was complete silence from the craft. A semi-truck crossed Laguna Rd as I was approaching the intersection on Las Posas. I suppose there's a slight chance the sound was coincidentally coming from across the field and just seemed like it was the craft, but honestly it stuck me as interesting, too, since you always hear these things are silent but I feel pretty sure the sound I heard was coming from the craft and seemed to start as it accelerated away, and in fact I even remember thinking "I thought these things didn't make any noise." There was no smell of ozone or cinnamon, and I have a pretty good nose. No unusual odors at all.

5) Lastly, the speed of it's acceleration... how would you describe that and could you guesstimate the speed at which it moved away from you? 60 mph? 100 mph? 300 mph? Was the acceleration gradual like an aircraft would be, or was it abrupt?

Acceleration was abrupt, non-aircraft like. I've watched a Harrier jet take off vertically and dart away and it was way faster than it could do. It was more like a ground vehicle that just very quickly got up to speed like a sports car doing a quarter mile, but after it got moving fast it appeared to maintain speed and was gone from view within 5-8 seconds. Today I asked myself why I didn't chase it just in case it stopped again, but I could never have kept up with it and I was in a spry little car if I were crazy enough to drive that fast. But if it weren't for my limitation of being on streets and it headed off diagonally from the road where I couldn't actually chase after it, I could have pursued it for a few more seconds, so I'll guess it topped out under 150 mph, maybe even under 100 but it got started so fast it wasn't worth doing a U-turn. I might try to draw something on paper. If I do I'll scan it and send it over.

Sorry for all the questions, but I feel it's important to get these details while they're fresh in your mind. I may be able to create a 3D model of this based upon your input.

Again, I appreciate your input on this and thank you for your excellent testimony. This will very likely become the core of an upcoming special report follow-up and I will certainly keep your identity anonymous.

Best Regards,

Agent K 

NOTE: At this point both Agent D and I began to work jointly with Willard to extract even more specific details from his sighting.

Hi Willard,

I'm thinking about doing a 3D rendering of your BT as I need one for an upcoming Special Report I'm working on and I think your sighting makes for the best rendering. I'll keep you in the loop and perhaps you can help me tweak as we move along with the 3D modeling.

I know Agent K asked you about the rounded edges, can you take a look at two graphics and see what looks to match the actual thickness and in the second graphic see what you think about the roundness of the points, the roundness of the lights. This is just a starting place, so please point out what is correct or not correct, this will only be as accurate as your feedback and it would of course be nice to post something online that is spot on to what you saw.

Agent D

Hi D,

Just wanted to give you a quick reply now and will follow up more within a day or so. Since observing this it really became the focal point of my week, to the detriment of my regular routine.  I re-visited the site 3 times, once with a friend. And, using a tape measure we were able to get some more accurate measurements by walking things out at a distance and stepping back to check the marks. I'll take a second stab at creating a more detailed image, something with call outs, that betters matches what I saw if only a hand drawing. That will probably help.

Regarding the latest questions:

Fig 3. Tip shape and shade diagram provided to eyewitness.

It was more like triangle A on the left. The lights on the corners had a distinctly "knocked off" design so that the tips of the craft were not really points but squared off in the last couple feet. That's clear in my mind. The craft was at least 150 feet on each side and the squared off lights of its tips were probably about 4-5 feet across from "tip" to the point where they met the hull.

As for color, I'm inclined to go with "E" in the shades (Fig 3). It sort of reminded me of those matte finish charcoal paints that are popular with high end cars lately. I'd call the color "anthracite with a matte to semi-flat finish."

Fig 4. Relative thickness diagram
provided to eyewitness.

For cross section, B looks like a good match with C coming in a close second (Fig 4).

I'm happy to help you tweak this. I intend to go back and get a photo tomorrow night from the exact angle and time, and another just a little earlier to adjust for the lesser sensitivity of the camera vs. human eye. You could use that as a backdrop. I'll also get one from about 150 feet away to show the relative distance, angle and scale of things compared to my car.

Something worth mentioning is that I got a great look at one side/edge and an ideal look at the entire bottom, plus all of a second side/edge as it hovered motionless. I never really saw the third side due to it's angle of departure, except a bit as I was approaching from the distance and just starting to realize it was not a helicopter. So there's no telling if that edge could have had windows or anything else going on. When it departed to my left as I watched it from the side of the road, it lead primarily with the tip on the left, so as it rushed away I got an even better look at the second "trailing" side/edge but never of the far side. However, on my initial approach as I was just realizing it was not a helicopter in the distance, there were no visible internal lights or indications of windows.

The bottom was perfectly smooth, devoid of any features, none of the domes and red lights of other pictures I've seen, no obvious signs of panels for landing gear.

I'll create some drawings to better explain all this, including drawing on the maps so my angle of approach, viewing angle, and the craft's angle of departure are better described

Willard

On Apr 18, 2013, at 11:53 AM, Object Reporter wrote:

Hi Willard,

Sorry for my delay in response, I've been traveling quite a bit lately and I'm just circling back around to this topic now. I see that Agent D has been in contact with you regarding details of your sighting. He's been working on a 3D model of the craft you saw that we hope to use in an animation sequence. I realize you're probably sick of thinking about this whole incident by now, but I have just a few more final questions for you. The special report we are putting together on your sighting is tentatively titled "Anatomy of a Black Triangle Sighting" We will be using large portions of our email conversation and your answers to our questions, we will of course change your name and not use any personally identifying information.

First off, you said you were headed north on Las Posas Rd. just past Laguna when you saw the craft. I'm assuming you pulled over on the right hand shoulder of the road, and if you were looking out the drivers side window then the craft must have been nearly directly overhead? Or was it more to one side of the road than the other? The reason I ask is that there are power lines running along the left side of the road, so were those lines at any point between the craft and your line of sight? Or was the craft still above those power lines?

Secondly, do you remember the orientation of the craft to you? ie: Was one corner facing you, or were you looking at one of the sides? And I believe you said it was perfectly stationary and not slowing rotating on it's axis, correct? When it took off toward the NAS did it rotate at all, or was it just a smooth motion in a single direction?

Lastly, the lights at the tips of this triangle I find most intriguing because of how you described them as "glowing internally" from within the structure. I have put together a rough illustration (Fig 5) showing the tip lights, I realize these might be too large or bright, so I would like your input on how close or far off I am in terms of size, shape and intensity;

Fig 5. First version of tip lights illustration.

Here's a version (Fig 6) with less intense lighting:

Fig 6. Second version of tip lights illustration.

Fig 7. Tip configuration and shape rendering.

Finally, here's a render (Fig 7) showing just the shape, thickness and tip configuration of the craft. I don't think we've yet nailed the shape of the tips, so we'll need a little more input from you on that aspect since we feel it's one of the most unique details about this sighting. Let us know if this is fairly accurate.

We're excited to put this article together with the support of your excellent eyewitness testimony. Thanks in advance for your time and patience answering our questions.

At this point Agent D and I felt like we could finalize the rendering based upon this final bit of input from Willard. His final email to us came about a week later, and clearly this was something he was ready to stop thinking about and put behind him. 

Agent K,

At first, I wasn't going to talk about this anymore. It was all I could think about for several days but I'm feeling like putting this behind me. Other people just don't understand. But when I opened your first image it brought it all back. The first image is the closest so I'll just focus my message on that. You've done a very good job so I'll help you refine this a bit more.

You need to rotate the craft so one of its sides is parallel to the road. It was almost directly overhead.

It looked about 3 times bigger than in your rendering in BT1 but part of that is due to me being almost directly under it. In your image we're still approaching it. The edge was lined up with the road. I pulled onto the right hand berm and parked, I don't recall the power lines obstructing my view at all but I was so in awe of what I was seeing if it turns out the angle is impossible then I'm probably filtering them out in my memory. From my parked view point, I was sitting on the right hand side barely off the road and I deliberately stopped at dead center of the craft's side. I distinctly recall trying to stick my head out of the open driver side window to take it in, so I guess it must have been partially or almost over the road. but I recall on my approach thinking that it was directly over the left edge of the road. It seems almost as if the craft were to decent directly down and land then it's edge would have been just a few feet off the left side of the road and parallel to it.

The color is right but in your rendering it's all so dark and uniform you can't really see any detail. Try to lighten it a tiny bit more to reveal the rounded sides. Maybe add a fill light coming from below. It gave off enough light that some of the light was reflecting back off the ground to provide the eye with plenty of fill light to see the surface. Although it didn't have defined panels or openings there was still enough illumination to see the curvature of the sides relative to the flat surface of its bottom.

When it took off, it nearly followed the edge of the road, as if there were an imaginary lane for it in the sky, except that there was ever so slight a departure angle that as it moved away it quickly moved further away from the road, more into the fields and abruptly into the darkness.

The shape of the lights are all wrong, but the lighting effect is very accurate. You've depicted rounded lights but they are actually trapezoids, i.e. four trapezoidal sides and a rectangular end. I wasn't clear about this before but it's one of the things I remember vividly. Aside from their shape, in your rendering the amount of glow effect makes them appear to protrude beyond the top and bottom of the craft but that's not correct; they perfectly match the edges and extend the surface of the hull.

I wish I could draw better than a 5 year old so, in lieu of drawing skills, let me try to describe how to construct it if working with real materials. Imagine you have an equilateral triangle cut from, say, a piece of 3/4" plywood. Now, to give it the rounded edges take some 3/4" half round trim and, using a miter, cut them to the properly length to fit perfectly against the sides (edges) so they meet at the tips. Then you can glue them onto the edges of the triangle to give it rounded sides (essentially, you've got this part right). At this stage of our model construction with its rounded sides, at each tip the trim strips we've added butt against each other so their otter surfaces results a circular cross sect. (I think each trim board is mitered at a 60 degree angle to form it's half of the 120 degree angles of the triangle's corners.) Now, we want to flatten off the corners (i.e., the tips of our triangular model) to make them blunt. Suppose you had some sort of flat belt sander mounted such that it operated in a vertical, 90 degree position to a table top, and you placed our model flat on the table top (just the way it hovers over the road) and you touched each tip to the sander to slightly grind each tip flat. Forget about aerodynamics and do just the opposite - give it a blunt flat nose on each tip. Now, since everything is made of wood, we need to indicate where the lights begin. So, draw a line a short distance in from the tip on each surface to denote the "seam" where the light meets the hull. For the finishing touch, to give the lights flat sides, using a sanding block flatten the sides of the lights from the squared off tips to where you've drawn the line. Where the bottom surface meets the light i think this will be a line because it's where two flat surfaces meet. On the sides, it's some sort of curve because the squared off "nose" at each corner is transitioning into the curvature of the sides. I've tried to draw this in plan view (attached).

Finally, your lights are too big. If you measured from the tip of the light to where they end, make them at most 1/3 the size you've shown. They really must look more like trapezoidal light fixtures on the corners. In your rendering they look like gigantic illuminated bumpers. But you did a great job on the lighting effect. It really takes me there.

Lastly, the whole size and perspective thing deserves to be closer. As mentioned, this is a good sense of what it looked like in the final approach (but the craft needs to be rotated to have a side parallel to the road). But I remember trying to crane my head out of the car and wanting to get out the car to really look up and see it, but was fumbling with getting the window down and getting out of the seat belt because it was restricting my ability to turn and stick my head out of the car to really take it in. I recall an extreme sense of frustration and feeling so restricted by the car, and at the same time not wanting to take my eyes off the craft because it was so amazing. The car became my enemy in that moment, I just wanted to peel it off and take in the craft with my eyes. I had put the top up just a few miles before when re-entering PCH on my return and kept wishing I had come upon this with the top down. Anyway, I digress on the feelings in that moment, so back to your rendering...

 

I've zoomed in more on your image and enlarged the craft. Wow, it's really starting to put me back in time. The sheer size of the thing. How it hovered so perfectly still. So utterly silent, just hanging there in the sky overhead. And the erie glow of those lights. It was so bright I could have read a newspaper, yet the light was wonderfully diffused and not at all specular. Given the massive surface of the craft's bottom, it reminded me of being in some domed amphitheater, except there were only three lights producing all this illumination. And no feeling of heat. Then, it suddenly accelerated and it was just gone in seconds. I mentioned hearing the roar of an engine, and I'm not changing my story, but after returning to the spot it is possible that it was from a truck on another road since the land there is just miles and miles of perfectly flat fields, crisscrossed with a grid of roads. Sounds carry a long distance, not to mention the naval base airport was not far away.

Attached is a re-scaled image with a placeholder car to help appreciate the relative sizes, at least this is what it seemed to be.

First off, you said you were headed north on Las Posas Rd. just past Laguna when you saw the craft. I'm assuming you pulled over on the right hand shoulder of the road, and if you were looking out the drivers side window then the craft must have been nearly directly overhead?

Yes, nearly overhead, me pulled off to the right, it hovering off the left side, with one of it's sides mostly parallel to the road.

...were you looking at one of the sides?

Yes, I got a great look at one of it's sides, the side parallel to the road. Had I known what I was approaching I might have gotten a better look at what turned out to be the "front" but when I parked it was no longer visible. I never saw the far side.

Willard

The final rendering (Fig 8) has been posted here for our readers and we feel that it's as close as we could get to the eyewitness account based upon the input we gathered. The next step in this investigation will be the release of an animated 3D sequence currently in development which recreates the overall motion, point of view and speed of acceleration.

Fig 8. Finalized rendering of Camarillo, CA black triangle sighting.
View full sized version of rendering here. Illustrative rendering © TheObjectReport.com

Final Thoughts

I find the general tone of his final email to us to be quite telling. The fact that he does not believe his own sighting speaks volumes about the stigma associated with giant black triangle sightings, as well as UFO sightings in general. I'm a firm believer that most eyewitnesses fall into two categories: People who accept that what they've seen is genuinely unexplainable and people who continue to struggle to find a logical, rational explanation for their sighting. I think Willard falls into the latter category. Regardless of the reality of his sighting and the impact it had on him, he continues to believe it's military-related because the alternative possibility is too hard to accept. People will go out of their way to debunk those who have witnessed something extraordinary, our society has been taught to ridicule anyone with an alternative viewpoint and to immediately place an 'unknown' into a 'known' category, regardless of the facts and details. Did Willard have an up close and personal experience with a highly classified military craft above farmland in Ventura County? It's a possibility. Or did he witness something not of this earth? Perhaps. The silent black triangles are still a mystery so it's difficult to form a conclusion, although we can form a good visual based upon eyewitness testimony like this and hopefully we will have more black triangle close encounters to dissect in the near future.

We thank the eyewitness for his cooperation in this investigation. For any further inquiry into this sighting or to share your own black triangle sighting, please contact us directly.

- Agent K

_____________________________________________________________________________
Some additional information about Point Mugu Naval Air Station

NBVC (Naval Base Ventura County) is a diverse installation comprising three main facilities: Point Mugu, Port Hueneme and San Nicolas Island. NBVC supports approximately 80 tenant commands with a base population of more than 19,000 personnel, making it the largest employer in Ventura County. At Point Mugu, NBVC operates two runways and encompasses a 36,000 square mile sea test range, anchored by San Nicolas Island. The range allows the military to test and track weapons systems in restricted air- and sea-space without encroaching on civilian air traffic or shipping lanes. The range can be expanded through interagency coordination between the U.S. Navy and the Federal Aviation Administration. Telemetry data can be tracked and recorded using technology housed at San Nicolas Island, Point Mugu and Laguna Peak, a Tier 1 facility also controlled by NBVC.

Point Mugu NAS overview.

Nearby Laguna Peak tracking station. The Camarillo Black Triangle craft
exited the area directly between Point Mugu NAS and Laguna Peak.

The facility in Point Mugu, California, started as a United States Navy anti-aircraft training center during World War II and was developed in the late 1940s as the Navy's major missile development and test facility. This facility was the site where most of the Navy's missiles were developed and tested during the 1950/1960 era, including the AIM-7 Sparrow family and the AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air, Bullpup air-to-surface, and Regulus surface-to-surface missiles.
Pt. Mugu has dominated the area since the 1940s, and is one of the few places in the area that is not agricultural. The base has been home to many ordnance testing programs, and the test range extends offshore to the Navy-owned San Nicolas Island in the Channel Islands. (Wikipedia)

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Original images and Illustrative Renderings © 2013 TheObjectReport.com | Reposting is allowed so long as a link to the original source is provided.

Citizen Hearing on UFO Disclosure April 29th, 2013 (Part 1)

Did Neil Armstrong Encounter an Alien Presence on the Moon?

Image © TheObjectReport.com | Reposting is allowed so long as a link to the original source is provided.
Download full sized version

That's a great question we were recently asked by one of our readers and I felt compelled to give him a worthwhile answer. (name has been changed for privacy)

On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 7:53 AM, <"Jon"> wrote:

I have a question, when Neil Armstrong was on the moon he reported seeing something Spectacular, Was told to go back. We know whats there, who was he talking to in Houston? Maybe someone should find out and talk to him, as he obviously knows something.

Hello Jon,

Yes, this is a story that has been circulating for decades and the confirmation of this can be traced back to two ex-NASA employees in particular--Otto Binder and Maurice Chatelain. According to Binder, unnamed radio hams with their own VHF receiving facilities that bypassed NASA's broadcasting outlets picked up the following exchange:

NASA: What's there? Mission Control calling Apollo 11...

Apollo: These "Babies" are huge, Sir! Enormous! OH MY GOD! You wouldn't believe it! I'm telling you there are other spacecraft out there, lined up on the far side of the crater edge! They're on the Moon watching us!

Maurice Chatelain

In 1979, Maurice Chatelain, former chief of NASA Communications Systems confirmed that Armstrong had indeed reported seeing two UFOs on the rim of a crater. "The encounter was common knowledge in NASA, but nobody has talked about it until now."

Soviet scientists were allegedly the first to confirm the incident.  

"According to our information, the encounter was reported immediately after the landing of the module," said Dr. Vladimir Azhazha, a physicist and Professor of Mathematics at Moscow University. "Neil Armstrong relayed the message to Mission Control that two large, mysterious objects were watching them after having landed near the moon module. But his message was never heard by the public-because NASA censored it."

According to another Soviet scientist, Dr. Aleksandr Kazantsev, Buzz Aldrin took color movie film of the UFOs from inside the module, and continued filming them after he and Armstrong went outside. Dr. Azhazha claims that the UFOs departed minutes after the astronauts came out on to the lunar surface. Maurice Chatelain also confirmed that Apollo 11's radio transmissions were interrupted on several occasions in order to hide the news from the public (this can actually be confirmed because recordings exist in the public domain of these radio 'blackouts'). He went on to claim that "all Apollo and Gemini flights were followed, both at a distance and sometimes also quite closely, by space vehicles of extraterrestrial origin-flying saucers, or UFOs, if you want to call them by that name. Every time it occurred, the astronauts informed Mission Control, who then ordered absolute silence."

So....was it confirmed? Yes, if you believe Binder, Chatelain, Azhazha and Kazantsev. But is there any PROOF in the form of recordings? Sadly, no. NASA even managed to lose most of the Apollo 11 mission tapes never to be recovered. I do find it very interesting that Armstrong initially refused to participate in any of NASA's 40th celebration ceremonies. He's certainly a man of integrity, and perhaps that's why he refused to be put into situations where he might be forced to lie about UFO's and a possible alien presence on moon? At a conference presented to new NASA apprentices which was aired on CSPAN, Armstrong first compared himself and the other astronauts to a parrot before claiming that parrots don't fly too well (but they do repeat what they are told). Armstrong then went on to state that 'there are great freedoms available to those who could strip away one of truth's protective layers.' Was this a reference to the disinformation surrounding the UFO topic? Either way, it's a fascinating story that--if true--will probably never be disclosed to the public.

Best Regards,

Agent K

The Object Report: T-Minus 10 Minutes (episode 1)

Welcome to the first episode of "T-Minus 10 Minutes" with Agent D and Agent K. Due to budgetary constraints and sequestration our normally long and detailed pod casts have been slashed to 10 minutes.

The articles we talk about are listed below chronologically starting from the bottom of the Object Report website and working our way up to the top.

1. Expert analysis UFO Sighting In Sweden 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuUsN9igi3M

2. The Falcon Project -- The most penetrating search for the legendary Sasquatch ever undertaken
http://the-falconproject.com/main_site/?p=492

3. Silent triangle UFO reported at 500 feet was size of football field
http://www.examiner.com/article/silent-triangle-ufo-reported-at-500-feet-over-small-florida-town

4. "Sirius" a new documentary film by Dr. Steven Greer
http://www.sirius.neverendinglight.com/

5. Giant squid filmed in Pacific depths, Japan scientists report
http://phys.org/news/2013-01-giant-squid-pacific-depths-japan.html

6. UFO Documentary - Australia (2009) - Westall 1966: A Suburban UFO Mystery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTqE805dhOE

7. The Extraordinary 1968 Minot B52 UFO Encounter -- a remarkable example of a latent and almost lost scientific opportunity
http://scienceandtheufocontroversy.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/the-extraordinary-1968-minot-b52-ufo.html

8. "Bears don't throw pinecones." John Mionczynski's Bigfoot Encounter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF27XY4Zibo&feature=youtu.be

9. World trembles in confusion and/or fear at Iran's fiberglass airplane
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/02/world-trembles-in-confusion-andor-fear-at-irans-fiberglass-airplane/#image-2

10. Asteroid 2012 DA14: First Images of Space Rock Approaching Earth
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/02/asteroid-2012-da14-first-images-of-space-rock-approaching-earth/

11.  Bigfoot examined in great detail by Musky Allen, interviewed by Jeff Andersen & Jack Barnes, founders of FB/FB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DICfIict--Q&feature=youtu.be

12. The Chelyabinsk Meteor: Separating Fact From Fiction
http://theobjectreport.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-chelyabinsk-meteor-separating-fact.html

13. Third State Of Magnetism Discovered By MIT Researchers
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112752884/magnetism-mit-quantum-spin-liquid-herbertsmithite-122112/

14. Eyeballing the Nevada Test Range Part 1: Area 51 & S-4
http://theobjectreport.blogspot.com/2013/01/eyeballing-nevada-test-range-part-1.html

15. Bigfoot DNA: the Deepening Mystery, the Staggering Possibilities
http://www.unknowncountry.com/dreamland/bigfoot-dna-deepening-mystery-staggering-possibilities

16. The Allagash Abductions
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case466.htm

17. Robert Hastings: UFOs and Nukes
http://www.ufohastings.com/documents

18. Nevermore: The MIB at Edgar Allan Poe's Grave
http://gralienreport.com/folklore/nevermore-the-mib-at-edgar-allan-poes-grave/

19. DHS built domestic surveillance tech into Predator drones
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57572207-38/dhs-built-domestic-surveillance-tech-into-predator-drones/

20. After Mysterious Booms, Why Do Military Helicopters Fly Search Patterns Below 500 Feet Over Residential Houses?
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=2069&category=Environment

_____________________________________________________________________________
The Object Report - Breaking UFO News Worldwide 24/7
http://www.theobjectreport.com

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ObjectReporter

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The Chelyabinsk Meteor: Separating Fact From Fiction

Image credit: Space.com

Almost as soon as footage of this extraordinary event hit the internet, so too did the conspiracy theories...

"This has all the earmarks of a false flag event."
"It wasn't a meteor at all, it was a secret weapons test."
"I think it was a top secret satellite crashing back to earth."
"The meteor was 10 times lower than what we've been told, that town should have been vaporized!"

Everyone please take a deep breath and calm down. This was an unprecedented event to be sure, but nothing more or less than a meteor strike, albeit a rather large one.

Just the Facts, Please

NASA, NORAD and the Russian Federal Space Agency have all verified the facts and figures of this meteor: it was approximately 56 feet in diameter and weighed around 10,000 tons--likely a nickle-iron meteorite with an extremely high density. This meteor and it’s effects–by the numbers–makes perfect scientific sense. The physical effects of a 500 kiloton blast at 90,000 feet would look and feel exactly as it did. It seemed lower than it was in the video because it was so intensely burning. The size of the pocket of superheated, ionized gas around the shock boundary was many times larger than the object itself. The human eye simply wouldn’t be able to detect an object 56′ in diameter (stationary or moving) at 90,000 feet, but something burning up at potentially Mach 57 (44,000 mph) is quite another story. Even if the actual entry speed turned out to be half that speed, it's still devastatingly fast. 

Why Didn't a Blast 30x Larger Than Hiroshima Vaporize Everything?

Take a look at footage from “Operation Grapple X” where the UK detonated a series of hydrogen bombs over Christmas Island in the late 1950′s. Grapple X mk2 was 1.8 megatons detonated at only 8,000 feet (asl) over land and within 20 miles of 1,200 troops standing out in the open. They were hit with a shock wave that knocked a few people off their feet accompanied by an earth shattering bang (as you can see and hear in the footage). There was naturally some damage to structures on the island directly beneath the blast, but nothing was leveled or vaporized, and we’re talking about a blast 3 times larger and 8x lower in altitude than this meteor was. Keep in mind that this meteor was also traveling at an extraordinary speed, so the shock wave is actually conical as it’s impacting the ground. Even the initial largest blast wave would still be affected by the forward momentum of the object. The Tunguska shock wave was later found to have impacted the ground in the shape of a butterfly due to it’s angle of trajectory.

An animation of the meteor's trajectory and breakup has been produced, courtesy of Analytical Graphics, and it recently came to light that Meteosat-9 also managed to capture the atmospheric explosion from space. A joint venture of the European Space Agency and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites Meteosat-9 was launched in 2005 to keep watch on Earth's weather from space. The satellite also took video of the fireball.

Image by Stefan Greens | ogleearth.com

Stefan Greens over at ogleearth.com put together a fantastic reconstruction of the path of the meteor using Google Earth, YouTube and high-school math. He even used light shadows from the streetlamp poles in Revolution Square to back-trace the trajectory. I highly recommend checking out the article.

Could it Have Been a Satellite?

There is absolutely no way this was a satellite or man-made object because of two very important factors:

1) Mass. The largest satellite in orbit (aside from the Hubble) is the NRO’s L-32 spysat which tips the scales at 5,200 kg or 5.5 tons (estimated). Even the International Space Station (440 tons) doesn't come anywhere close to matching the sheer density of this meteor. Besides, if something we put in orbit was going to catastrophically deorbit above Russia, I'm pretty certain everyone would be warned ahead of time. Mistakes like that start world wars. Interestingly, there seems to be some discrepancy over the actual weight of this bolide. Russian scientists say the meteor weighed about 10 tons before it entered the Earth's atmosphere, and broke apart 30–50 km (20–30 miles) above ground level. NASA estimated the diameter of the bolide at about 17 meters and its mass at about 10,000 tons. Since NASA likely had input from other sources--namely NORAD--I'll stick with their estimation for the time being, but it's still open to debate as far as I'm concerned. Looking at the relative visual sizes of these objects it wouldn't seem like you could cram the entire density of a warship into an object exponentially smaller, but it's entirely possible when you're talking about an iron-nickel meteor. Have you ever picked up a baseball-sized meteor and held it in your hand? I have, and it was deceivingly, freakishly heavy.

Image © TheObjectReport.com | Reposting is allowed so long as a link to the original source is provided. 
Download full sized version here

2) Velocity. A satellite re-entering the atmosphere would do so from orbital velocity which is about one-quarter of the speed at which this meteor was traveling, nor would there be a massive explosion and concussive shock wave like this. That blast was from the sheer density of the object. It may have only been 56 feet in diameter, but it weighed more than a Ticonderoga class missile cruiser! When you put size and density into perspective it's easy to see how a 10,000 ton rock hurtling through the atmosphere at 44,000 mph could result in a 500 kiloton blast.

Finally, there were actual pieces of the rock that impacted earth along with evidence of those impact points, one of which was in a nearby frozen lake. Russian authorities have already begun the hunt to find any remaining fragments of the meteor, which are extremely valuable not only to scientific study, but from a monetary standpoint as well. 

For the sake of contrast, here's footage of a Russian military communications satellite Meridian-5 deorbiting over the city of Novosibirsk after a failed launch attempt (note the speed):

 

But it Looked So Much Lower to the Ground in the Videos! 

The visual evidence we have to go on is based upon Russian dashcams and security camera footage, which are mediocre at best, but can still provide us with some valuable data. For instance, the speed can be fairly accurately measured based upon it's transit speed across the sky and height relative to the ground. In the video footage it certainly seems to be much closer to the ground than 90,000 feet, but it's quite deceiving because of the sheer intensity of the burn. We also know it's relative altitude based upon the time it took for the sound of the shockwave to reach the ground, which was just over a minute. Sound (at sea level) travels at approximately 1,115 feet per second. Based upon, let's say 80 seconds, well that works out to 89,200 feet. In the grand scheme of things, that's not very high at all.

To put things into perspective, the Tunguska event--which was most likely a comet fragment--exploded only 6 miles (31,000 feet) above ground level with the force of nearly 30 megatons and as we know that blast knocked down an estimated 80 million trees over an area covering 2,150 square kilometres (830 square miles). It is estimated that the shock wave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. To see an excellent visual representation of what this event may have looked like, check out Don Davis' 100th anniversary commemorative illustration here. An explosion of this magnitude is capable of destroying a large metropolitan area. If the Chelyabinsk meteor had exploded at that height we would have certainly seen much more widespread damage and likely more fragments actually impacting the ground.

If it Looks, Sounds and Acts Like a Meteor--It's Probably a Meteor

I think this was just what it was–a meteor strike over a populated area. Nothing more, nothing less. There are an estimated 5-10 meteors of this size which strike Earth every couple months but the vast majority of them are over oceans or polar regions where they go unnoticed by the population. I find it quite extraordinary to have actually witnessed something like this in our lifetime.

There will always be extraordinary conspiracy theories surrounding extraordinary natural events, but they also require extraordinary evidence to back them up. This wasn't a wayward UFO, it wasn't a military experiment gone awry, nor was it one of the Decepticons coming from the dark side of the moon. Chelyabinsk will go down in the history books as one of the most well documented cases of a meteor strike on record and we should all be thrilled to have seen such an astronomical treat as it unfolded in real time.

Agent K

Eyeballing the Nevada Test Range Part 1: Area 51 & S-4

Overview of the area we'll be discussing in Part 1 (above)

We've reached a point in our society where anyone with an internet connection and a web browser can play armchair satellite imagery analyst. Google Earth and the availability of high quality, relatively inexpensive commercial imagery has empowered a new generation of online explorers. How many of us have gotten lost in Google Earth for countless hours? The world has been revealed to all of us and personally I can't imagine what we ever did without it.

But not everyone is thrilled about such transparency in the public eye. There are countless articles about the US government requesting the censorship of certain sensitive areas, mostly military installations and key buildings and facilities in Washington DC. Sometimes it's hard to follow the government's logic on what gets censored and what doesn't. For instance, the ultra secret Mount Weather underground bunker outside Washington which would serve as a continuity of government facility in the event of a nuclear war can be clearly explored in satellite imagery. However, the roof structure details of the White House have quite obviously been digitally obscured. Area 51--a facility that officially doesn't exist--is there for the world to see and it's even been recently updated, yet we're not allowed to see Dick Cheney's digs! The guys over at IT Security have compiled a list of 51 other things we're not allowed to see on Google Earth, worth checking out.

The Desert Holds Many Secrets

Since The Object Report is first and foremost about full disclosure, I decided it might be interesting to do a multi-part piece on one of the most secretive areas in the world: the Nevada Test Range, an area encompassing 4,687 square miles and the largest military range in the northern hemisphere. This range includes the Groom Lake facility, aka: Area 51, as well as the Yucca Flats nuclear test range, Rainer Mesa underground nuclear test facility and the lesser known Tonopah flight research facility. Together these facilities form what was previously known as the Nellis Air Force Range (NAFR), but in 2001 it was renamed to the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR). NTTR borders (on three sides) the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site; between them the two complexes control much of the land in southern Nevada. NTTR is operated from Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas. The National Wildhorse Management Area is entirely enclosed inside the NTTR, and much of the eastern section of the NTTR overlaps with the Desert National Wildlife Refuge.

Peeking at "The Ranch"

No military facility has historically garnered as much attention as the base that doesn't exist: Area 51. Much like the Roswell story, it has become iconic in Ufology lore over the past two decades thanks in part to the testimony of Robert Lazar, a physicist employed by the US military to help reverse-engineer 'foreign technology' they had acquired. If you're not familiar with Lazar's story, I highly recommend exploring his entire detailed backstory here. Regardless of what your stance on Lazar's claims are, there's no doubt the facility exists and we can only speculate about what kind of exotic hardware is being tested there. I won't delve too much further into Area 51 because there's already plenty of great information and analysis available on the web. I would just like to point out a few key items that I find interesting.

Note: I suggest clicking the "view full size image" link for each of these, I wanted to keep these very large and detailed for the sake of this article. Each image should open in a new browser window. 

Groom Lake Facility Closeup, Northern Hangars (37°14'41.64" N 115°48'53.23" W) - View full size image here

Zooming in on the northern portion of the air base we can see the four main hangars. Contrary to popular Area 51 folklore, these are not "massive" hangars with "two hundred foot tall doors" that some researchers have speculated. They're approximately 220' long by 130' wide and maybe 60-70' tall at best. You'd have to shear a couple feet off the wingtips of a C-130 Hercules to cram it into one of these hangars. Note the distances between them and the amount of room on the concrete apron surrounding them--nothing overly large is going in and out of these hangars.

Groom Lake Facility Closeup - Janet 737's (37°14'20.72" N 115°48'44.22" W) - View full size image here

Moving south through the base we see a couple Janet flights parked on the tarmac (above). "Janet" is the de facto name for a small fleet of passenger aircraft operated for the United States Air Force. Their aircraft transport military and contractor employees and currently serve mostly the Nevada National Security Site (most notably Area 51) from their terminal at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport. The origin of the term "Janet" is obscure and, while it is used as a radio callsign, it is not known whether it is an official name, code word or acronym. Currently, the Janet fleet consists of six Boeing 737-600s painted white with a prominent red cheatline. There are also five smaller executive turboprops (two Beechcraft 1900s and three Beechcraft 200Cs) painted white with less prominent blue trim stripes. One of these turboprops can be seen in the satellite image above.

Groom Lake Facility Closeup - Central Hangar (37°14'09.36" N 115°48'47.47" W) - View full size image here

Centrally situated is a larger 'drive-through' hangar (above) which can accommodate larger aircraft than the first four. You could tuck a C-17 Globemaster into this hangar very comfy, possibly even a C-5 Galaxy if you greased up the wingtips, but it would be quite the squeeze. Granted, do all aircraft really need to be inside hangars while at Area 51? Probably not...but for anything classified it would certainly be the norm. I'd be pretty surprised if Russia and China didn't have eyes in the sky that routinely peek at this facility.

Groom Lake South Hangar Closeup (37°13'44.31" N 115°48'38.72" W) - View full size image here

At the far south side of the base sits the newest hangar, a 350' wide, 185' deep beast large enough to swallow everything but the largest aircraft. A C-5 Galaxy is 247' long, so keep in mind that the tail section would still poke outside the doors. I keep bringing up dimensions here because none of these hangars (at least what we're allowed to see) is large enough to accommodate some ultra exotic football-field sized craft which, it has been speculated, operate from Groom Lake. I simply don't see any giant black delta's that are 300' on a side being safely stashed away here.

Groom Lake South Hangar Under Construction (37°13'44.31" N 115°48'38.72" W) - View full size image here

This newest hangar began construction around October/November of 2006 (above), and I would like to point out that there does not seem to be any indication of a recessed sub floor or any machinery that would indicate an underground storage area or elevator. It has been hypothesized that some of these hangars have elevators which can lower aircraft into a secret underground level. That may still be true, but I would venture to guess that the US government is far too busy to spend time photoshopping their various new construction projects to conceal details such as these. In the time it takes someone to notice it, the construction project is already done and the imagery has been updated.

Eyeballing Tips & Tricks

When investigating remote locations such as these facilities within the NTTR you should follow a few basic rules which can help you discover various points of interest:

• Always follow the paved highways to see where they lead. Often they'll connect one large facility to another. It's inadvisable to transport sensitive equipment and materials (like nukes) across a washboard dirt road for dozens of miles.
• Look for maintenance facilities filled with heavy equipment such as bucket loaders, diggers and graders, this usually points to a nearby excavation or new construction project.
• Sewage ponds are a telltale sign of long term habitation, especially in the desert.
• Make use of Google's timeline slider bar. Comparing older satellite imagery to the latest imagery can yield interesting results. You'll be able to determine if a particular location has been worked on recently or whether it has changed over time in an unnatural way.

Groom Lake, West access road (37°14'43.72" N 115°50'11.58" W) - View full size image here

Heading west out of the Groom Lake base leads us to several other interesting locations, most notably the elusive Area S-4 which was popularized by Bob Lazar in the early 90's as the ultra classified location where he worked on reverse engineering alien spacecraft. But before we get to that, let's take a look at something else interesting on the way to S-4...

Unidentified site 7 miles WSW of Groom Lake (37°12'03.48" N 115°55'40.56" W) - View full size image here

This unknown facility located about 7 miles WSW of Groom Lake has existed as far back as June of 2002 but it has since been expanded to roughly double it's original size. What this excavation site represents is still murky at best, all we know is that it involves at least two tunnels large enough to drive a tractor trailer truck into. Interestingly enough, the entrances to the tunnels do not seem to be heavily trafficked as evidenced by the lack of heavy tire tracks into them.

Area S-4: The Phantom Installation?

Note: If you aren't already familiar with the Bob Lazar story, I highly recommend you read that first and then come back here. Go ahead, I'll wait...

Okay, so now that you know there is supposed to be an ultra secret facility comprised of 9 hangars built into the side of a ridge spine on the east side of Papoose Dry Lake, let's take a closer look at this very controversial location. We'll start with an overview of the entire range to put things into better perspective:

Range overview for perspective (37°14'07.00" N 115°41'51.54" W) - View full size image here

According to Lazar's detailed descriptions of his trips to Area S-4 the most logical location would be Papoose dry lake. He described his 20 minute rides in a bus with blacked-out windows as being mostly on a dirt road which then turned to a flat, dry lake bed which was "approximately 15 miles south of Area 51."  Well, Papoose lake certainly fits the bill. Unfortunately for all of us armchair satellite analysts we've never managed to find evidence of the facility. There are a few tantalizing clues that lead us to believe that vehicles do visit Papoose, but nothing concrete. Yet...

Papoose Lake overview (37°06'59.29" N 115°50'38.44" W) - View full size image here

It would make sense that when crossing the dry, hard lake bed any tire tracks would be minimally visible and whatever does show up would be periodically blown away by wind and/or washed away by rains. That caramel colored area in the upper portion of the lake bed is from a recent accumulation of rainwater, so using it to drive on would actually make sense.

But what really makes things difficult is that there is literally ZERO visual evidence of any base being at this location. There isn't even any evidence of tampering with the imagery--no blurring, cloning, patching....nothing. When you think about the fact that this imagery is updated every couple years or so that means IF the image is being obscured they're doing one hell of a good job.

Take a look at this time-lapse animation that spans 2006 to 2011:

4 frame time-lapse of the area where the S-4 facility is allegedly located: 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011. 

I've worked in and around the field of image analysis for quite awhile, and I see no evidence of anything here now or having been here in the past. This leads me to a few possible conclusions about S-4:

1. Lazar was wrong about the location.
2. It's been obscured with some of the best image censoring on the planet.
3. It was there at one point but no longer is.
4. It never existed to begin with.

I think we'd all love to see something like this on Google Earth, but I'm afraid that's never going to happen...

Illustrative rendering of the S-4 facility. © 2013 TheObjectReport.com

In the next part of this Eyeballing series I'm going to cover everything from nuclear materials burial operations to the newly renovated Yucca Flats airstrip to the little-known Rainer Mesa facility. The desert holds many secrets indeed, and we've just gotten started...

Agent K