I took this photograph at EGLL in 2009 (13 October 2009 at 14.48) as a test of a rather cheap camera. The aeroplane is on short finals for 27Left. Above the Fokker 100 is a strangely grey cigar-like object. The conditions were very clear and the sun should have been lighting up the left side of the object (but it does not do that).
The wind was westerly which means it would have passed over the airport if it was going balloon-like with the wind. It also would have been in our field of view for the longest time so I believe it is travelling north to south across the airfield and toward the camera like an aircraft without wings. The only other reason we might have not seen it was that it was travelling at high speed.
It cannot be a rubbish bag balloon as the day was not hot enough to make one fly.
At first I thought it might be some sort of off course missile but it has no fins at all. We didn’t observe it at the time although the sky was clear and aeroplanes in it were vividly shown up. (We easily noticed an Easyjet 737 descending through FL200 toward Bristol so why not this?
Any ideas?
Also a nice aeroplane in the picture – I miss Fokker and their classy airliners.
By: KabirT - 18th May 2011 at 17:16
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lads stick to aviation please. Ghosts and goblins free to be discussed in GD. 🙂
By: Al - 18th May 2011 at 16:19
Didn’t realise bird droppings could reach ballistic velocities. 😉
Your certainty makes you sound like a minimalist scientist type. 🙂
Wish I could be so certain about reality. Apart from modern scientists of the only other group of people who show such absolute certainty about reality is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It must be just cluckin’ to have a true belief. If I had that I’d not have to think for myself at all, sweeeet, as the Cartman says! (If you don’t know who Cartman is you must be one of those sensible, grown-ups I am always criticised by. :))
I suspect the majority of us chickens have some uncertainty about stuff, and are forced to remain more open minded about phenomena we don’t yet understand. 😉
I would suggest that it is through the cracks in the current scientific paradigm that we glimpse the new scientific paradigm to come in the future. I am not so bright though, so I might be wrong. 😉
Ballistics is just projectile dynamics – doesn’t have to be a particular velocity.;)
My job title used to be scientist, but it was dropped when Tony Blair made all sorts of government departments ‘agencies’ to save money!
Oh, I’m by no means a disbeliever – I once saw a tall guy in a luminescent spacesuit in the middle of a forest I was driving through on the way to a night shift. Memorable, you would think, but it only came back to me when I read in the newspaper a few days later that two girls had seen exactly the same thing nearly 200 miles away on the same night.
This famous photo taken in 1964 always gives me the creeps, as the mysterious figure is very similar to what I saw. A Carlisle fireman took the photo of his daughter picking flowers, and the spaceman only appeared when he got the film developed.
Apparently he was interviewed by ‘men from the ministry’ as test firing of the Blue Streak missile in Woomera, Australia, had to be postponed when technicians monitoring video cameras saw two tall space-suited figures watching the launch…
By: VeeOne - 18th May 2011 at 14:55
Ballistic bird crap…
Didn’t realise bird droppings could reach ballistic velocities. 😉
Your certainty makes you sound like a minimalist scientist type. 🙂
Wish I could be so certain about reality. Apart from modern scientists of the only other group of people who show such absolute certainty about reality is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It must be just cluckin’ to have a true belief. If I had that I’d not have to think for myself at all, sweeeet, as the Cartman says! (If you don’t know who Cartman is you must be one of those sensible, grown-ups I am always criticised by. :))
I suspect the majority of us chickens have some uncertainty about stuff, and are forced to remain more open minded about phenomena we don’t yet understand. 😉
I would suggest that it is through the cracks in the current scientific paradigm that we glimpse the new scientific paradigm to come in the future. I am not so bright though, so I might be wrong. 😉
By: VeeOne - 18th May 2011 at 14:47
Could it have been a mark “Mirror” inside the camera?.
Lincoln .7
If so why not on any other image?
By: VeeOne - 18th May 2011 at 14:46
I had this once…….
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/album.php?albumid=222&pictureid=1683
Baz
Those weather balloons will fool you every time. 🙂
By: Al - 18th May 2011 at 03:08
Ballistic bird crap…
By: Lincoln 7 - 17th May 2011 at 17:30
Could it have been a mark “Mirror” inside the camera?.
Lincoln .7
By: spitfireman - 17th May 2011 at 17:28
I had this once…….
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/album.php?albumid=222&pictureid=1683
Baz
By: widmeister - 17th May 2011 at 16:58
Probably the captain’s cigar being ejected prior to landing. Cigar ejection is one of the neat features of the Fokker 100.
By: VeeOne - 13th May 2011 at 23:23
Interesting image. I have to say that it looks like a film fault to me, but I’m no expert. I have to admit however, that the object in the right hand box, does seem to look as though it is something solid being illuminated on its left side. A mystery indeed. Yes, I like the Fokker jets too, my particular favourite being the F28.
I do agree, the Fellowship was an elegant aeroplane. Fokker airliners were classy. The Fellowship had those air brakes in the tail in the style of a military aircraft which made it look unusual on finals. I wonder if it caused the aeroplane to feel rough. I once flew on a Carevelle and into Paris we had to lose altitude due to a runway change. While the wing air brakes were deployed the aeroplane virbrated unpleasantly.
By: MSR777 - 13th May 2011 at 09:02
Interesting image. I have to say that it looks like a film fault to me, but I’m no expert. I have to admit however, that the object in the right hand box, does seem to look as though it is something solid being illuminated on its left side. A mystery indeed. Yes, I like the Fokker jets too, my particular favourite being the F28.
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May 13, 2011 at 3:16 am