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Aerostats over Maryland?


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Coming back from work in TX yesterday, I passed through Reagan National. Last flight of a long day was from Reagan back to Boston. Approx 5-10 minutes after takeoff, looking out of the left side of the aircraft, I could have sworn I saw two aerostats floating in the sky. They were approx 1 mile apart, my best estimate is that they were at 10-15,000'. I'm guessing at that point of the flight, we were still over Maryland.

Was I seeing things?

BTW, I love flying out of DCA, especially when launching to the north. Pretty interesting that you can't fly within 10 miles of the capitol but you can buzz over the pentagon at 1,000'. Great view of Arlington Cemetery as well.

I ended up on USAir, coincidentally yesterday was their last day in existence. Merger with AA is finalized today. I asked one of the FA's what she thought about it, said she was with USAir for > 20 years and pretty much just said "no comment". I'm not a big fan of USAir (or AA for that matter) but I still felt kind of sad for them.

Adios USAir!

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Coming back from work in TX yesterday, I passed through Reagan National. Last flight of a long day was from Reagan back to Boston. Approx 5-10 minutes after takeoff, looking out of the left side of the aircraft, I could have sworn I saw two aerostats floating in the sky. They were approx 1 mile apart, my best estimate is that they were at 10-15,000'. I'm guessing at that point of the flight, we were still over Maryland.

Was I seeing things?

BTW, I love flying out of DCA, especially when launching to the north. Pretty interesting that you can't fly within 10 miles of the capitol but you can buzz over the pentagon at 1,000'. Great view of Arlington Cemetery as well.

I ended up on USAir, coincidentally yesterday was their last day in existence. Merger with AA is finalized today. I asked one of the FA's what she thought about it, said she was with USAir for > 20 years and pretty much just said "no comment". I'm not a big fan of USAir (or AA for that matter) but I still felt kind of sad for them.

Adios USAir!

You weren't seeing things. There are two of them out over the Middle river area. Although the second is a fairly new, it's only been up for a couple of months. I'm over 20 miles away from where they are and on a clear day can see them perfectly.

Edited by rustywelder
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Yup...the Gum'nent keepin' and eye on things.

Why do you think Baltimore is so safe? Love those things.

If you would have to kill me if you answered, don't bother. But otherwise - what's the purpose of those aerostats? Some sort of test rig or a functional airborne surveillance system?

Bi-static radar?

Inquiring minds want to know....

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Been told they are going to be in the area for a couple years, they lower and raise them periodically. Funny thing is there were about 5 or 6 red to pink color glowing lights in trail just last Tuesday not far from these things in the middle river area flying over Essex around 830 pm...still haven't heard anything regarding what they may have been, definately didn't appear to move like conventional aircraft. Strange things indeed up in this area.

Edited by B-ONE27
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