F-16s Pursue Unknown Craft Over Region

Washington Post ^ | Saturday, July 27, 2002 | Steve Vogel

[Pro Consul]

"It was this object, this light-blue object, traveling at a phenomenal rate of speed," Rogers said. "This Air Force jet was right behind it, chasing it, but the object was just leaving him in the dust. I told my neighbor, 'I think those jets are chasing a UFO.' "

Military officials confirm that two F-16 jets from Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled early yesterday after radar detected an unknown aircraft in area airspace. But they scoff at the idea that the jets were chasing a strange and speedy, blue unidentified flying object.

[Gunrunner2]

F-14's. . .no. F-14's are quick, but not that quick, with their old engines and all.

Operationally, all modern fighters have max speeds about the same. The F-15, F-16, F-18, they all are about the same. The question is max speed when configured for a mission with all that stuff hanging off the jet causing parasitic drag. And altitude as well.

At any rate, I'd take the F-15 to be the quickest, overall.

[fiftymegaton]

Aurora

[maquiladora]

Military officials confirm that two F-16 jets from Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled early yesterday after radar detected an unknown aircraft in area airspace. But they scoff at the idea that the jets were chasing a strange and speedy, blue unidentified flying object.

So what were they chasing then?

[El Gato]

Can anyone tell me what type of aircraft can outrun an F-16? F-22s and Sr-71s.

Amoung others. The F-16 (also F-15, F-18) were designed for manueverability not raw top end speed. And old F-4, maybe and an F-104 for certain could easily outrun one, although not out accellerate it for short distances. None of them could outclimb any of the 3 more modern aircraft, which have much higher thrust to weight ratios.

[maquiladora]

Yeah, or whatever they're calling it now.

[El Gato]

F-14's. . .no. F-14's are quick, but not that quick, with their old engines and all

F-14D has more modern engines, the same used by F-15s and some F-16s, IIRC. The airplane finally got to perform as designed, the originally spec'd engines were closer to the new ones than to the TF-30s they were stuck with for so long. Then they converted 'em to ground attack. (They still retain their interceptor abilities though and would be used in that capacity if there was a credible air threat to the carrier/task force.

[Mulder]

If they were, in fact, aliens from another world in search of intelligent life, Washington DC is the last place they'll find it.

[maquiladora]

F-14's. . .no. F-14's are quick, but not that quick, with their old engines and all.

F-14 : 1,564mph at level flight.
F-16 : 1,320mph at level flight.

[fiftymegaton]

What exactly do you call it??

[RJCogburn]

Figure you to drop in on a truth is out there topic.

[berned]

Look guys. This is reported in the WP and acknowledged by the USAF. This was over Wash DC airspace. It showed up on radar. Jets were scrambled. This cannot just be glibly shrugged off.

Does anyone here believe in UFO's? (Hint: they may NOT be extraterrestrial "aliens")

[Scott from the Left Coast]

A Fulcrum can. Probably more than one kind of U.S. fighter as well. Light Blue? Maybe a Blue Angel went bonkers?

[fiftymegaton]

Russians got some new toys??

[berned]

Considering Russia can't even feed it's people, I doubt it was Russian in origin. Even if Russia had such a thing, they wouldn't be messing with Wash DC airspace (the "holy of holies"). NO nation on earth would risk putting ANY kind of craft in Wash DC airspace, after 9-11.

A plane of any kind wouldn't be described by onlookers as a "ball of blue light traveling at fantastic speeds".

[tomkat]

assuming the guy in your pics was in pursuit of that frisbee:

unless the other 'guy' was pulling a mad ivan, why weren't his wings swept ?

[maquiladora]

What would I call it?

Well, everyone calls it Aurora, that came out in a Pentagon budget document and the plane buffs thought it was the codename for the SR-71 follow-up, turned out that 'Aurora' was a fund for some B-2 spending. But the name stuck. People were seeing this craft in the sky, and Aurora stuck.

Whats it really called? Who knows, the A-17? XB-71? Brilliant Buzzard, Blue Eyes? FDL-5?

Heck, who knows what it's offically called. But I still call it Aurora.

[strela]

My brother claims there are only classes of warfighting hardware - P-3s and targets. But, that's just him.

[maquiladora]

Look guys. This is reported in the WP and acknowledged by the USAF. This was over Wash DC airspace. It showed up on radar. Jets were scrambled. This cannot just be glibly shrugged off.

Could be just an experimental plane being tested without the knowledge of Andrews.

[kinghorse]

Relieved the see Mulder weigh in.

[Pistias]

If they were, in fact, aliens from another world in search of intelligent life

Nah, they just wanted one last picture to put on a postcard for their auntie on Betelguese (I seriously have no clue how to spell that).