To wonder what the hell this aircraft was?

[TheHouseOnTheLane]

Firstly...I live in South Australia so it's night time here. Where I live is a very, very tiny hamlet. It's rural...the sea is about 20 mins drive away and the land here is mostly farm and just bush...scrubby hills with no houses on them.

There are other houses here where I live and shops but it's out of the way. We never see planes...it's not on a flight path. We see the odd helicopter on the way to check a shark sighting but that's all.

I was sitting in my patio area which backs onto the garden....behind the garden is a vast open area with a few trees.

I saw a bright orange light in the sky and thought "oh...a plane...that's novel."

It flew behind the trees...they're BIG tress and I lost sight of it for a few seconds.

I could hear this very loud drone noise...a big engine....then it appeared again as it traveled past the trees...and it was COVERED in lights. Red, white and orange. It was enormous! And low.

As it was dark it was hard to make the actual shape out but to me it looked like the Maltese Falcon! Like a big disc....I called DH who came and gaped open mouthed.

It was so big and so weird looking that we were lost for words.

When we discussed what we'd seen we had different impressions...he saw it as kind of triangular "like some stealth bomber thing with mainly orange lights but fire and haze coming out the back"

Whilst I saw a big, Maltese Falcon looking thing with about 15 lights all over it....red, orange and white.

What was it? Is there some Military thing that looks like this?

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

Boeing are making some weird shaped military aircraft things. Maybe they're testing them near you?

[Palomb]

I've seen a ufo and i'd love to see another one! Lucky you :)

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

Stuff like these unmanned aircraft.

[UnGoogleable]

Ooh how exciting OP

Can you Google 'UFO reports' for your area, past and present? Other people may have seen it and be talking about it - check Twitter as well.

If it was a Stealth Bomber, surely it wouldn't be covered in lights?

I firmly believe the military have lots of technology we have no idea about, and a remote part of S Australia may just be the sort of place to test them! Any military bases near you, or on islands offshore from you?

[Justaboy]

There's usually a rational explanation for most all sightings. This might have been a type of Airship they are used and are still around they didn't die off with the Zeppelins or the Hindenburg and they are big but they are quite slow moving. They are usually quite silent in operation but use large"ish" fans for propulsion. If close enough they might be noisy and the lights?, dunno about that one but it might have been used for some sort of promotion work.

Have a google of Airship most people haven't even seen one I saw one a year or so ago very impressive it was to at night and lit up?. Well that's a possible

Bit here in the Daily Hail if you can get that from Oz.

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2570118/Worlds-longest-aircraft-revealed-300ft-long-airship-unveiled-UK-hailed-game-changer.html

[UnGoogleable]

Aww i love the Flying Bum Just !!

[SapphireSeptember]

Ooh, spooky! I don't think a stealth bomber would have lots of lights, though maybe it would if it was coming in to land? Otherwise I think UFO.

[TwoSmellyDogs]

I've seen a ufo and i'd love to see another one!

Really? I know someone who claims this too and I'm a sucker for those ghastly Aliens programmes on those documentary channels
I think there are too many documented sightings for them ALL to be bullshine (or untethered helium filled foil Santas ). I'd really love to see something myself and then know for sure.

[UnGoogleable]

My DM saw one about 20 years ago - driving along a dark valley one evening, she saw lights parallel with her down in the valley (where there is no road) which kept pace with her before speeding off.

Freaked her right out. She's not one to make stuff up.

I still think it's all military secret stuff though, rather than Aliens. Although I do love to read those alien abduction stories - which, strangely, often take place in Australia....

[twofingerstoGideon]

International Space Station ??

[Solo]

I definitely saw one too when I was a teen.

[Justaboy]

twofingerstoGideon No its not that its too high and too fast flying its doing IIRC some 17,000 MPH it'd more likely burn up if it was as lo as described.

Sometimes have a chat on the 2 metre band when theri overhead which at the speed there're going isnt that long!

[Cerseirys]

Doesn't the US have some sort of military base in Woomera, south Australia? Not sure how near that is to you OP.

[Follyfoot]

some night footage of an Osprey.

[wigglybeezer]

it could be one of the new airships, they keep featuring in DS2's popular science mag. They are flatter and more streamlined than the old "blimp" shaped ones and some are made of aluminium. They are huge and very space age looking. They fly lower and more slowly than planes. lots of different designs are being tested ATM

[Follyfoot]

Or maybe this?

[Justaboy]

Follyfoot Blimey!, some of these contraptions would scare off the poor bloody Aliens!.

[Follyfoot]

They're incredible arent they

[lljkk]

The airplanes that can take off like helicopters? We get them locally, very weird, loud & big!

[Palomb]

The ufo I saw wasn't a machine and I doubt if aliens were involved in anyway. Basicially it was like a bubble. We were in the hills over Manchester walking with another couple and we paused and leaned over a gate to take in the view and I saw a shape that looked like small stationery, wobbling transparent bubble in the sky above the vally - it was like I was looking at it though rising heat and it was quite a long way away, but moving around. I tried pointing it out to my friends but they couldn't see it and as I'm the kind of person who rationalises everything I just kind of thought Oh Well and cracked on with the walk.

It was only when I came away and thought about what I had seen realised i couldn't rationalise it. It wasn't a ballon, it wasn't a matchine, it wasn't a projection.

Who knows! I wish I had been more assertive. Dh doesn't even remember me trying to point it out.

[mimishimmi]

We saw one once. Never seen anything like it again. DH and I were lying on a grassy hill looking up at the stars. There was one tiny star moving slowly across the sky from north to south. We thought it was a satellite as it was definitely way too high to be a plane. It stopped directly above us which we thought was odd because as far as we knew, satellites don't stop orbiting. Whilst we were still debating this, the 'star' shot off back the way it came at an incredible speed (it didn't even build up to that speed) and didn't burn out.

To this day the weirdest thing I've seen and I'm a 'believer'.

[MummaV]

I'm really intrigued as to what it was.

We have had massive military transporter planes flying over very low recently, they are massive, incredibly noisy and have a lot of lights but are pretty much normal plane shape (just significantly bigger).

[TheHouseOnTheLane]

I've been googling like mad and can't find any local groups on FB to ask if anyone else saw it!

There's a military testing base about 250 miles away...(which isn't far in Aussie terms!) that's still S.A.

www.defence.gov.au/woomera/about.htm

It's currently leased to foreign military and used for ADF trials! Thing is, what I saw was weird in that it had the appearance of some stealth thing but was lit up so brightly. It wasn't an airship or a weather balloon. It had some droney engine which though I thought was loud, DH said was quiet for something that size.

[TheHouseOnTheLane]

Folly definitely not an Osprey....the noise was very different and there were more lights...and no "chopper" type action....it was bigger too.

Funny thing is that I felt very sort of positive and happy having seen it...not scared or anything but excited.