From NBCWashington.com: Military clears up Beltway UFO mystery Courtesy Juliee London via Instagram The so-called "Beltway UFO" is actually an 82-foot drone. By Thomas Tobin and Carissa DiMargo, NBCWashington.com Beltway traffic in Washington, D.C., is bad enough without adding extraterrestrial vehicles into the mix. Wednesday night, Facebook and Twitter users went wild over sightings of a saucer-shaped vessel being towed on local highways. The buzz called to mind the frenzy in 1947 Roswell, albeit in a much more modern way. Drivers spotted the craft on I-270 and on the Beltway as it was pulled behind a tractor trailer. But we can take the "unidentified" out of "unidentified flying object." (And yes, we realize that it wasn't actually flying, either.) The military has confirmed to NBC News affiliate News4 that the 82-foot-long craft is an unmanned military aircraft, known as an X-47B. Maryland State Police towed it on a flatbed trailer from Garrett County, Md., to Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The drone had come all the way from California -- and yes, it "always attracts attention," a military spokesperson told NBC4's Melissa Mollet. The craft is the second of its kind to come to the area. An X-47B arrived in late 2011 -- although if they towed that one on the Beltway, no one must have noticed. "In the coming months, you can expect to see the X-47B flying over the base and surrounding area along the Chesapeake Bay," said Matt Funk, lead test engineer. According to a military press release: The X-47B is the first unmanned vehicle designed to take off and land on an aircraft carrier. As part of the program's demonstration, the X-47B will perform arrested landings and catapult launches at Pax to validate its ability to conduct precision approaches to the carrier. The base is one of only a few sites in the world where the Navy can run performance tests on aircraft-carrier catapult operations at a land-based facility with flight test and engineering support resources not available on a ship. Although Maryland State Police helped orchestrate the the drone's Wednesday night commute, even they didn't know what it was at the time, police told News4. "Don't worry, that's not an alien spacecraft, just a flying military robot. [That was a] totally normal sentence in 2012. I love the future," Ben Jacobs tweeted. Image Unavailable, Please Login
A friend and old coworker of mine was involved in the shipping of that from california. I was expecting to see it in the news pretty soon. Pretty awesome. Jim
Wouldn't it be more efficient to simply make it capable of floating/submerging and just land it in the water and winch it on to the carrier. They could even put rotating hooks on it and it could just climb up the sides by itself. That would be cool...think I will send that in to the Air Force command and ask for a little reward (Mini Me pose). I did read recently that they are trying to make somewhat drones crash resistant with external shells and legs that can help put them upright in case the landing doesn't go as planned.
For speeding, the targets are always going to go along a known route, past a known point. Much cheaper to put in an statioinary monitor/reporting system somewhere along the route. Ergo cameras on poles. Chases could get interesting. Especially if non-lethal weaponry is deployed. If the target is deemed to be putting endangering others, a drone could even be programmed to sacrifice itself in an attempt to bring the renegade vehicle to a stop. Along these lines, it would be cool to have a Sikorsky Sky Crane-type of chase drone--if a vehicle is not stopping, the cops could summon one of these to simply grab on and lift it up and move it away from the roadway so that even if it ends up dropping the vehicle back, it wouldn't pose a danger to others.
While I don't disagree, the notion that drones will be used for speeding enforcement is currently being contemplated. CW
From what I read and understand this is functional drone...why not just fly it to where it needs to go??? Seems like a lot of work to tow it to a new location for flight tests.
Some idiot actually called 911 and told them an alien spaceship was traveling down the road. Really, looking at these photos of what was going on, how dumb do you have to be?
True, but if they were testing this sort of AC at Area 51, you could perhaps understand how it was viewed, um, suspiciously. Not like any other AC I've seen outside of SciFi movies. CW
Actually it looks a lot like a miniture B-2, which isn't too surprising considering it is built by Northrop.
I thought the B2 was akin to the Flying Wing. This was described as "saucer-shaped", which makes me believe it was round. And, from the looks of it, it appears like a turned-over plate. But, perhaps my take on the photos is misleading. However, further searches for X47-B shows something that looks more like the B2. CW
You can't just fly an experimental drone across the country. These idiots calling I a UFO..god people are so stupid. Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2
And, wait until they start arming them with air-to-ground missiles. It will take speeding enforcement to an entirely new level! CW
The cost of running a drone for speed enforecement may well exceed the benefit in these budget concious times. Plus it would negate the need for so many patrol officers, which would work against the interests of union employment. More interesting to see the fatality statistics on the 85 mph texas toll roads. We might actualy get to an era of a balanced approach to speed patrol, especialy if the feds stop subsidising enforcement.
