Message posted by Peter Merlin (Member since 11/13/2003) on May 10, 2023 at 8:48:54 PST:
The Amarillo sighting has always looked like B-2 bombers. Someone "enhanced" the image until it looked like something more exotic. Definitely not the Phantom Ray. The Wichita image looks very much like a B-2 from directly underneath. The triangle appearance results from either optical distortion or intentional photoshop retouching. There was another image several years ago that was highly suspect. The source claimed it showed a B-2 flying formation with a B-21. (Let's put aside for the moment the fact that the actual B-21 had yet to be completed by that point.) I noticed that the alleged "B-21" in the image had some underside details that were very specific to a B-2. Just for fun, I did a quick photoshop pass. It proved extremely easy to modify both aircraft in the image, converting the B-2 to a "B-21" and restoring the purported "B-21" to a B-2. Just another quick comment about image enhancement. In 1991, Time-Life books released a title called Electronic Spies that featured a color satellite image of Area 51 with several aircraft clearly visible on the North Ramp. They included a B-1 and a couple of C-130s. Anyone familiar with the base would notice that some of the nearby buildings looked wrong. Someone had obtained an electronic file of a 1988 Soviet satellite image of rather poor resolution and "enhanced" it until it looked very clear and crisp. In the process, several indistinct blobs on the North Ramp (clearly visible in low altitude aerial photos as stains on the concrete) became airplanes. A number of building also changed size and shape through the enhancement process. If I recall correctly, half of hangar 18 simply disappeared. That is why I am now always leery of enhanced images.
In Reply to: Re: classified aircraft posted by Q-nimbus on May 10, 2023 at 2:31:05 PST:
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