Did a SR-71 Investigate a
Northern Ireland “Hoax”?
YOWUSA.COM, 11-April-01
Rachel Gilmore
…Continued
SR-71 Sensors and Northern Ireland
ASARS-1 is a type of Side Looking Airborne Radar (SLAR) system used aboard the SR-71 for continuous and spot tracking of the terrain below.
ADVANCED SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR SYSTEM (ASARS-1)
The ASARS-1 is a high-resolution radar imaging system. The system views terrain to the left or right of the ground track, at selected ranges. The airborne system produces digital data
representative of radar-imaged target areas. It also provides a real-time radar cockpit display. Ground-based processing equipment produces high-resolution radar imagery from
airborne-collected digital data.
-
Operating Modes: Search, acquisition and two high-resolution spotlight modes.
-
Terrain Coverage in Straight and Level Flight at 80,000 feet:
Small Spot, a rectangle approximately 1-nautical mile by 1/3 nautical mile. The spot can be positioned from 20 to
85 nautical miles to side of ground track.
Building on data provided by the helicopter search, three passes using the
Small Spot mode would have provided the best radar image.
The EMR system was probably not employed. If used at all, it would have been used to determine the magnetic qualities of the impactor and the land around it.
The Optical Bar camera was probably not employed, as the resolution would not have been high enough.
However, the Technical Objective Camera would have been used because it takes very high resolution photographs of specific areas. The target
areas can be anywhere from directly beneath the craft to 45 degrees to either side.
If modified to cover the same area covered by the SLAR at the same time, the TEOC, at maximum coverage, would have provided very high-quality visual support for the data gathered by the SLAR.
Explaining The "k" In Northern Ireland
While the profile below does not make mention of the lower case "k" pattern seen in the above accounts, that pattern would be logical for recon
use. The mission of the SR-71 was to get over an area, map it thoroughly and get out again as quickly as possible. It takes a minimum of three
straight lines to form a complete, closed image. The connection of the three lines in the letter "k" forms a triangle.
Mission Profile
From a forward operating location (FOL), it may be possible to access a target area using a single-legged, 1-hour mission. Where range to target is greater, mission is multi-legged.
Where extra range is required for a mission, top-off refueling is performed after takeoff, before ascent to first supersonic leg.
The following is a simplified diagram of both single and multi-legged missions.
The diagram shows airplane returning to original base, however, depending on mission plan, it may land at an alternate base.
Could It Have Been A Different Craft?
Though possible, it's unlikely that the people that reported those sightings actually saw an SR-71. Most SR-71's were decommissioned in 1991, but
recently three airplanes, still reconnaissance-capable, were returned to active service. One serves with the Air Force and the other two are on loan from the Air Force to NASA and housed at Edwards AFB, CA.
NASA uses the two housed at Edwards for high-altitude, high-speed experimentation. One such study uses the SR-71 as a platform for aircraft
design aimed specifically at sonic boom reduction. The successful design will be used on future hypersonic air and spacecraft.
But if they did not see an SR-71, what could they have seen that each could only describe as a UFO? While there are currently only three SR-71
"Blackbirds" in active service that we know of, these sightings and my own experience do not in any way rule out the existence and use of reconnaissance craft considered to be descendants of the SR-71.
In fact, such craft may already be built and in use.
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
FUTURE WEAPONS PROPOSALS
AIR FORCE 2025 STUDY
Hypersonic Attack Aircraft: A high-speed strike vehicle capable of projecting lethal force anywhere in the world in less than four hours. Operating at Mach 12 and a cruise altitude of
100,000 ft, this vehicle is a reusable two-stage system comprised of an unmanned boost vehicle and a manned hypersonic strike aircraft. The gas turbine-engined boost vehicle requires
a conventional runway and accelerates the strike vehicle to Mach 3.5 and 65,000 ft. The strike vehicle then separates and uses a ramjet/scramjet engine to reach its cruise condition. The total
system range is 10,000 nautical miles (NM); the hypersonic strike vehicle has an unrefueled range of 5,000 NM. It is capable of launching precision-guided munitions, including
hypersonic air-to-ground missiles, at a standoff distance of 1,450 NM.
Reconnaissance UAV: An uninhabited reconnaissance aerial vehicle (URAV) that can be employed either as an independent system or in conjunction with other airborne, ground-based, and
spaceborne systems. The URAV is fitted with a variety of multispectral sensors, such as infrared, optical, radar, and laser, and collects images, signals intelligence (SIGINT),
electronic intelligence (ELINT), and other information. It loiters subsonically at very high altitudes over the region of interest for extended periods of time without refueling. The
URAV also can be used as part of a bistatic configuration, in which it illuminates the region of interest while different sensors receive and process the information.
Was It Really a "Hoax"?
 Odd things are happening in our solar
system. A recent solar flare was so violent that a whole new Y-Class category was created to describe the most powerful solar flare in recorded history.
Last year, Comet S4 LINEAR suddenly disintegrated, and just recently Comet A2 LINEAR brightened in dramatic, sudden and unexpected manner. Unexpected things are
happening lately and they tend to be extreme in nature.
It is a known statistical fact that major impact events such as the 1908 Tunguska impact that leveled 250,000 hectares of land are more likely to
happen during a solar maximum, every 50-100 years. Given that the current solar maximum of our sun peaked on February 15, 2001 and that
we're seeing record levels of solar violence during this solar maximum, we need to be concerned about the possibility of another Tunguska class event.
While the need to "maintain calm" is an obvious hot button issue for the government, calling a credible sighting a "hoax" and then using sophisticated sensing equipment seems to be an obvious way to shove a
real event under the carpet.
The SR-71 and its replacements can appear to the untrained eye to be UFO's as indicated in the two "UFO" sightings. If advanced reconnaissance craft were conducting mapping missions over Northern
Ireland, did they find evidence of the mysterious crash? Such craft aren't normally used to investigate "hoaxes."
The need to keep such investigations so secret that honest citizens are patronized and then left questioning their own abilities is unfair.
Logically, that leaves the idea of a cover-up to
avoid a panic while governments investigate what may
be imminent threats from space.
|
