weirdness in Norfolk...
...and no, I'm not tlaking about the seven-fingered local yokels.

Once, when I was a kid, I was out with my Dad whilst on holiday in Norfolk (hey, when you're 9 years old Hemsby is great! Actually, no, it's still shite, but never mind) - doing the usual Arcade and Bag of Chips excursion in the evening. Now, my Dad is a plane nut - he's flown models for years (in fact he was the first person ever to loop a model helicopter and is still invited to some Helicopter Pilots' dinner every year on that basis) and, being an engineer, he's pretty clued up on what is able to fly. In fact, he had something to do with the old Blue Streak rocket way back when.

So, there we were, munching chips and enjoying a warm summer evening, when we spot a set of lights in a triangle in the sky. Nothing unusual, as there are numerous Air Bases in the vicinity. Craning our necks to see if it's an A-10 Warthog, or an f-15, we realise that it's stopped moving. Ok, so it's a Harrier...

Then we realise that it's making no sound at all. It then begins to zig-zag rapidly and violently, like when you shake a torch to torment your cat (you know you've done it...or at least will now). Suddenly a pair of A-10s fly from the coast towards it and this thing just zooms upwards until it's out of sight. No noise, no deviation and no vapour trail we can see in the moonlight.

It moved too fast and too precisely to be a Harrier jump-jet, it didn't leave the characteristic "balls on a chain" vapour trail of the Aurora Project scramjet and it was bigger than an A-10, despite them flying under it. I don't know if it was Aliens out joy-riding, or a new Stealth plane, but I promise that it wasn't anything I've seen the like of - it went from 0 to about 500mph in under a second and climbed out of sight on a clear evening in under three seconds.

It's a UFO in the truest sense - I don't say it was a flying saucer, but I've yet to identify what I saw.
(Chad, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 14:07, 4 replies)

Cool.
Still, as you say, it was Norfolk...
( sir_spicious2000 Crap I've watched: www.filmplop.blogspot.com/, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 14:15, closed)

They sent out 2 A10s?
Why would the USAF send out tankbusting ground attack planes on an air intercept mission?
( Slippery Jim Seeking a psychotic lady for fun & sex & crime., Thu 3 Jul 2008, 15:43, closed)

the a-10s
In fairness, the A-10s could have just been practising low-level runs over the sea and been returning to base when they passed - they used to do that quite regularly (very cool sight, too - jet at full tilt about 20 foot off the ground with a plume of water being kicked up by the jet wash).

Then again, if it was some sort of Soviet X-plane, or even something from Groom Lake on a test flight (like Aurora), they'd be pretty likely to respond in force and maybe they were just the closest aircraft to the scene.

The A-10s didn't seem to be trying to intercept it, though, it was more like they passed too close and scared it off...
(Chad, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 16:21, closed)

thats so unbelievable...
"the first person ever to loop a model helicopter"
(wrigglesworth, Fri 4 Jul 2008, 13:42, closed)