Is U.S. Drone Shown on Iran TV Real?

ABC NEWS ^ | December 8, 2011 | MARTHA RADDATZ, LEE FERRAN, LUIS MARTINEZ

[exit82]

I’ll even bet that a hard drive was onboard, and that the Iranians quickly rushed up to plug this into their network....releasing another stupid virus onto their military grid.

How cool would that be?!!

[freebird5850]

What do you make of what is in the red circle in the 1st photo?

[Mr. Jeeves]

You are right, and it may be even worse than that:

Our military is THIS stupid?

[Sidebar Moderator]

To prevent duplication, please do not alter thr published title.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

The fact that they are masking the landing gear from view is a tip off that theirs is a fake. The landing gear would give away a fake.

Or, that it belly-landed on a rocky surface and ripped out the bottom of the aircraft in the process.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Good eyes, that appears to be an assembly seam, outboard of the wheel wells. The Iranians copied that seam but covering it with putty or duct tape, per the video, is just comical.

If they had the real deal the seam would be flawless like the photo.

Thanks.

Or, they 'disassembled' the aircraft for transport and were unable to reassemble it correctly and used the putty and tape to hide the seams.

BTW, look at the width of the aileron on the trailing edge of the wing. Compare that with the size and location of the ailerons on the video fake.

Typically, flying wings use three sets of controls: Flaps, elevons and drag rudders.

The flaps are inboard and the outboard controls mix elevons and drag rudders.

What you are calling 'ailerons' are the outboard controls. (elevons/drag rudders)

Comparing this photo to the 3-view, it looks to me like the controls in the Iranian match those in the 3-view.

[Tommyjo]

The writer of the article is highlighting the damage that he sees on the left wing.

[Tommyjo]

Good eyes! I noticed that and others have highlighted it on other forums.

[tanknetter]

What do you make of this?:

"John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a consulting firm, said he would have expected far more damage if the aircraft had hit the ground in an uncontrolled crash. But Richard F. Healing, an aviation consultant and former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said many unmanned vehicles were “basically gliders,” with large wings relative to their weight. If it ran out of fuel, he said, a drone “might come down gently” and be damaged only lightly if it did not hit a tree or building."

Read and see the full set of pictures here.



This is what an F-106 looked like after an unmanned descent and "crash" from 12,000'. It was fixed and returned to service.