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astrophotographer wrote: I just felt it was important to point out there are plenty of possibilities than conclude this was a craft of unknown intelligence (aka flying saucer/UFO/not one of ours) as suggested in the UFO encyclopedia.
astrophotographer wrote:As much as I appreciate the response, I don't consider this work conclusive at all. When writing the article, I felt there were issues that will never be resolved to everyone's satisifaction.
Another comment on your article.
"Brad Sparks has interpreted this to mean that the plane was flying due north at 89 degree west longitude (Gulfport is at approximately 89.08 deg longitude and Biloxi is at 88.9 deg). This argument appears to be based on the assumption that the Navigator was to navigate by the stars along a specific line of longitude. While this is an interesting theory, why use the 89th meridian? Why not 89.5 or 88.5? What is so magical about 89 degrees? In fact, how would they know the Navigator was right if he states he was on 89 degrees unless they had a landmark to reach? It seems like the nice round number is the only reason that Sparks chose this path. "
This is a significant point that needs discussion.
If you think about the process that the RB-47s were conducting, it had two basic purposes: 1, to detect and record the signal characteristics of Soviet radars (in eastern Europe, the USSR, Cuba, the middle east, wherever) and other RF emitters (such as missile telemetry signals, etc) and 2, to geo-locate the emitters.
In the pre-GPS days, this wasn't super easy or accurate. How could it be done when they didn't know the exact position of the plane to the accuracy level needed for this kind of thing? Nowadays they know the position within feet, but what about the 1950s? One of the tricks they used to simplify the job was to fly along lines of latitude and longitude, believe it or not. I discussed this at some length with another one of the RB crow operators. He confirmed what Brad says about the 89 degree meridian being used for this purpose. But basically, the bottom line is that yes, we know _exactly_ where the RB-47 "coasted in" because it was flying along that line. That's the "magic".
The problem with this case, moreso than most UFO cases, is that it's absolutely imperative to have a full understanding of all kinds of technical aspects in order to evaluate it -- but it's so hard to do that. I certainly don't full understand the processes that the ELINT people used, let alone their gear and all its technicalities. And on top of that, there's the great secrecy imposed on this whole espionage process. But it's possible to deduce some of these things at least.
astrophotographer wrote:At least these are my thoughts. Any comments?
...The new system was introduced in 1957 as "LORAN-C"...
Tim Hebert wrote:Tim, first I'm the last to know anything about aircraft navigation. Perhaps the answer is less complicated...89th was simply used for most if not all training flights where predictability was not of importance as that of a real ELINT mission. I can't see an operational ELINT mission flying the same course day out on an actual penetration mission, but...
Perhaps the 89th was more of an importance for routine ground tracking of all training RB-47 missions out of Forbes AFB? 89th was a constraint due air space restrictions imposed by the Civil Air Board (or what was then in place before FAA)?
I'm grasping...
Tim
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