What is this?

[PsychoDiablo]

Found something in Google earth, think it may be a tomahawk or something but i did not know they tested them in Utah :-?

38

[Mobius]

It looks to me like a regular commercial or private jet.  It looks like a tomahawk, but if you look closely, you can see it has regular looking wings.

[C]

It looks to me like a regular commercial or private jet.  It looks like a tomahawk, but if you look closely, you can see it has regular looking wings.

Very small wings too, and a interesting tail...

Interesting indeed...

[Mictheslik]

Very nice catch...I'm no aircraft identifyer person, but I would say that is a missile...most probably a tomahawk....I cant see any wings really...just fins.

.mic

[elite marksman]

I would say that no, it is most definitely not a tomahawk.
A tomahawk is 18' 3", according to Raytheon's own product specs sheet. the object in Google Earth comes out to just shy of 91' 8". Also, the diameter of a tomahawk is 20.4", the object is approximately 144" wide. The wingspan of a tomahawk is 8' 9"; the object has a wingspan of just under 20' 8".

Using trig, you should be able to come up with similar results. The dimensions will vary due to the unknown altitude and estimation of earth's radius, but the dimensions are an average of 4 times that of the tomahawk.

My two conclusions are that the object is either:
a) the experimental hyper-sonic testbed at high altitude (highly unlikely)
b) atmospheric conditions playing with the camera.

The object is, in all likelihood, a standard commercial aircraft that many of us see flying over our houses every day.

EDIT, just thought of it being a tomahawk at high altitude, but no, that is also not correct.
Firstly, tomahawks are programmed with TERCON and DSMAC, to allow them to fly at minimum altitude to allow them to safely get to their target.
Second, as the object nears the viewer, all  sections increase in apparent size at the same time. The length is about 5x too large for a tomahawk while the diameter is about 7 times too large and the wingspan is only about 2.25 times too large.

[PsychoDiablo]

I would say that no, it is most definitely not a tomahawk.
A tomahawk is 18' 3", according to Raytheon's own product specs sheet. the object in Google Earth comes out to just shy of 91' 8". Also, the diameter of a tomahawk is 20.4", the object is approximately 144" wide. The wingspan of a tomahawk is 8' 9"; the object has a wingspan of just under 20' 8".

Using trig, you should be able to come up with similar results. The dimensions will vary due to the unknown altitude and estimation of earth's radius, but the dimensions are an average of 4 times that of the tomahawk.

My two conclusions are that the object is either:
a) the experimental hyper-sonic testbed at high altitude (highly unlikely)
b) atmospheric conditions playing with the camera.

The object is, in all likelihood, a standard commercial aircraft that many of us see flying over our houses every day.

EDIT, just thought of it being a tomahawk at high altitude, but no, that is also not correct.
Firstly, tomahawks are programmed with TERCON and DSMAC, to allow them to fly at minimum altitude to allow them to safely get to their target.
Second, as the object nears the viewer, all  sections increase in apparent size at the same time. The length is about 5x too large for a tomahawk while the diameter is about 7 times too large and the wingspan is only about 2.25 times too large.

you might be right, but it just has that missile appearence

[Craig.]

whatever it is, it is at a high altitude as it has the old vapour trails coming out behind it.

[elite marksman]

I agree, it does look an awful lot like a missile, but I can't think of any missile in the US arsenal that large, except for an ICBM/SLBM, but we no longer have any of those in use, and they do not have any wings.


Due to the engines being mounted on the tail, which I concluded from the separation of the contrails and the total width of the contrail, it rules out all major airliners. However a CRJ-700+ or a Citation X may be large enough to fit the dimensions, but that still doesn't explain the oddly shaped wings or tail. It looks almost like a cross between some heavy iron and a F-104 Starfighter.

After some research on google images, it looks similar to an SA-5 or an SA-3. But why the hell one of those would be over Utah is anyones guess. Also those are not jet-powered, so they would not leave contrails.

[Mobius]

I think you guys are missing the big wings attached to the fuselage.  It looks like some sort of RJ to me...

[C]

I think you guys are missing the big wings attached to the fuselage.  It looks like some sort of RJ to me...

Nope, didn't miss them - or the fact the roots look remarkably square - although could be a resolution issue. Unfortunately the tail is hard to make out - although on looking again the white bits are looking remarkably like engines, with the tail being a very dark section behind the white body which when I looked last night was impossible to make out.

[Craig.]

remember a lot of google images are distorted because its two pictures stuck together  not very precisely. This could be the case here. two images taken one after the other could cause what appears to be two sets of engines.

[Jakemaster]

I think you guys are missing the big wings attached to the fuselage.  It looks like some sort of RJ to me...

OH!  When I first looked at it on my computer it definately looked like a Tomahawk.  NOW that picture looks like a jet, I would say a CRJ or possibly an MD-80.

The 'tomahawk wings' are just the white strips over the wing for emergency exits.

[Craig.]

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0487794/M/
heres your bad boy. Most likely considering the area.

[elite marksman]

That would be it. If you look very closely you can see the faint outline of the wings against the ground. They are very difficult to spot because of the resolution and color of the wings and ground.

[C]

Doubt it. Wrong colour engines for a start - maybe a Delta/Comair CRJ?

It's something CRJ-600/Global Express proportions, maybe a MD-8X. There's a couple of airlines, but top views are hard to come by!