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Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

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11–20 of 390 posts

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#11

Not so stealth eh?

Interestingly, it gives us information about the orientation of pixels on the satellite.

Sort of. IIRC they take quick back to back photos with different filters that share an image sensor, so the smearing you're seeing is the combined motion vectors of the satellite and the aircraft.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#12

I would love to know if this was found other than randomly poking around and if so how it worked specifically. "out of place shapes in the middle of fields" might find out some other neat stuff too.

Looks like their home base is nearby. So maybe not too surprising?

https://www.google.com/maps?ll=38.730306,-93.547864&z=12&t=h...

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#13

I would love to know if this was found other than randomly poking around and if so how it worked specifically. "out of place shapes in the middle of fields" might find out some other neat stuff too.

It's only ~25 miles from the one base in the US that hosts an active B2 wing. There's another on the ground there in Google Maps;

https://www.google.com/maps/place/38%C2%B043'29.7%22N+93%C2%...

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#14
Interesting how you can see the chromatic aberration on the bomber but not the ground. I guess that this implies that the optical and/or software correction that they're doing only works within a _very_ narrow focal plane, given the relative proximity of the bomber to the ground.

This is kind of surprising, because if the tolerances for avoiding chromatic aberration are that small, whatever is collecting this data would have to be constantly adjusting its optics or software based on the topography.

EDIT: it's not chromatic aberration, it's pixel misalignment caused by the object being in motion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29627917

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#16
Awesome! There was a commercial jet caught in the imagery of Downtown San Mateo for about a year, and I always loved looking at it when I was looking up an address. It's cool how much more pronounced the separate RGB is - It was pretty clear even on that commercial jet, but it's very psychedelic here.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#17
post #14

Interesting how you can see the chromatic aberration on the bomber but not the ground. I guess that this implies that the optical and/or software correction that they're doing only works within a _very_ narrow focal plane, given the relative proximity of the bomber to the ground. This is kind of surprising, because if the tolerances for avoiding chromatic aberration are that small, whatever is collecting this data wo…

[deleted]

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#18

Not so stealth eh?

I'm sure you wrote this in jest, but in case people aren't aware: The "Stealth" in "Stealth bomber" refer to hiding the plane from anti-aircraft defenses like radar, infrared, acoustics and some optical visibility, but the anti-reflective paint that is used for hiding it optically is only on the underside, not on the top.

I wonder if imaging from above could actually be a threat for these planes. I mean -- stick cameras on all the SpaceX satellites and you've got an awful lot of eyeballs in LEO, right? Might at least be able to tell a ground based radar where to focus their search...

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#19
The aircraft seems to be a Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit.

> The Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American heavy strategic bomber, featuring low observable stealth technology designed for penetrating dense anti-aircraft defenses. Designed during the Cold War, it is a flying wing design with a crew of two.[1][3] The bomber is subsonic and can deploy both conventional and thermonuclear weapons, such as up to eighty 500-pound class (230 kg) Mk 82 JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen 2,400-pound (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs. The B-2 is the only acknowledged aircraft that can carry large air-to-surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit

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