Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps • Hacker News Board

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#211

Post by a2800276 » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 9:31 PM UTC

PostOnce wrote: post #166

bcrosby95 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My father-in-law helped design the pilot seat for that. Unfortunately he was unable to make the transition to computer aided design. After the defense cutbacks in the 90s, he could only find minimum wage jobs for the rest of his working life.

In case anyone else is reading and thinking of that predicament, it needn't be a showstopper. You have a couple of options: You can do it the old way, and pay someone to convert it into the new way (I know a mechanical engineer who either sketches things or does 2D on a computer, and pays someone else to 3D it) which can then be sent to the client or manufacturer or whatever. Or, if you're doing the whole product to…

Not sure if the Air Force will buy bomber seats from the back of a truck of some guy who designs them with paper and pencil.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#212

Post by thieving_magpie » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 9:32 PM UTC

msisk6 wrote: post #191

ccozan wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Omg, are they sooo huge? I just realised how big they are for the first time in my life. What a sight! [edit] 172ft = 52m wingspan!

They don't really seem that big in person. And they're amazingly hard to see from any distance since they're essentially just a thin flat airfoil. Here's a not-especially-good video I just uploaded of one flying over my farm from this summer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyXSuFj0naQ

Beautiful place to live.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#213

Post by Hogarth01 » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 9:35 PM UTC

glitchcrab wrote: post #206

Hogarth01 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Google Earth you can use the timeline feature to actually see when the imagery was captured (or at least uploaded?). The plane sitting near the hangers was from a capture in May 2016. Google Earth currently shows several newer captures, including one from September 2021. The current one from September 2021 is actually far more interesting in my opinion. In it, you can see a B2 sitting in a field about a quarter up…

I'm very intrigued as to what is going on here - it almost looks as if it veered off the runway. Anyone got any suggestions?

The op of this thread replied to my comment with a military.com article, and in that article there is a link to an article on thedrive, https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42392/damaged-b-2-spir...

"According to sources, the B-2 experienced a hydraulic failure in flight and had its port main landing gear collapse during landing, sending it off the runway with its wing dug into the ground. We cannot confirm that this was the case at this time, but the satellite image above does concur with the gear collapse/wing down aspect of the incident. While it is possible the aircraft was rolled off the runway after the fact, this is unlikely, especially considering its wing-down disposition. The damage to the aircraft also remains unknown. "

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#214

Post by tinyhouse » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

Can someone explain? I don't see anything, just a location in MO.

Update: oh cool! I see it after moving to Satellite and zooming in.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#215

Post by willis936 » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

diggernet wrote: post #205

t0bia_s wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shadow of this object is also distorted: https://goo.gl/maps/VWwtt1PbLJVkbiBS9

Thank you. I was wondering where that was. Now, can someone calculate the plane's altitude?

The shadow is about 2500 feet away. Judging from nearby houses the sun is probably about 15 degrees SouthEast of noon.

  2500 ft * sin( 15 ) = 650 ft

Someone should double-check my geometry though.

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#216

Post by dzhiurgis » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

willis936 wrote: post #208

fullstop wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they actually use satellites for their "satellite" view? I always assumed that it was done by aircraft.

Flying a plane around the planet sounds a lot more expensive financially and thermodynamically than just beaming down images from an object constantly falling into the views you want to see.

You are only interested in urban areas which is less than 1% of total earth surface

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#217

Post by dzhiurgis » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 9:40 PM UTC

coldpie wrote: post #161

druadh wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a way to subscribe to comments? I'd love to see the result of this idea but am not savvy enough to spin it up myself very easily

Click the timestamp for the comment, then click "favorite", then set a reminder in your calendar to check your favorited comments (link in your profile).

Can Siri work with whats in your copy/paste cache?

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#218

Post by pwarner » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 9:41 PM UTC

msisk6 wrote: post #186

KptMarchewa wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can also be seen at Hickam AFB here: https://www.google.com/maps/@21.3310109,-157.946255,241m/dat...

They're often deployed elsewhere for missions and/or training, but the home base for all of them is Whiteman AFB. There's only 20 of them. I do wonder how many megatons of nuclear weapons are stored there, about 20 miles from my house. Maybe best not to think on that too much. :)

Yeah I panned over to the munitions bunkers (I think there is a better name I forget) and there seemed to be so few, but I guess you don't need much space for nukes...

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#219

Post by zhan_eg » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 9:42 PM UTC

KptMarchewa wrote: post #176

_the_inflator wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, nice comment. I remember being part of the staff of NATO's only MIG squadron during military service. People considered a MIG within NATO a sensation, while I was simply bored. I saw them every day in droves. ;)

Poland still operates MIG-29s, as well as extremely outdated Su-22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Air_Force#Current_inven...

Well, when talking about NATO countries, MIGs and older aircrafts - Romania and Croatia still operate MIG-21s [1] :)

And MIG-29s are present also in the Bulgarian [2] and Slovak [3] airforce too.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21#Curren...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Air_Force#Current_in...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_Air_Force#Current_inven...

Re: Stealth bomber in flight on Google Maps

#220

Post by Cd00d » Mon, Dec 20, 2021, 9:45 PM UTC

fullstop wrote: post #199

willis936 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The google maps scale shows the plane as being pretty close to that length as well. I think the satellite is high enough up that altitude scaling for aircraft is going to be minimal. I see about a 10 foot separation between colors. Velocity = distance / time 400 mph is 587 fps. 10 / 587 = 17 ms

Do they actually use satellites for their "satellite" view? I always assumed that it was done by aircraft.

Depends on the needed resolution. You can cover a lot more earth, far more cheaply with a satellite with several meter wide pixels.

When I used to work in remote sensing I remember that Bing Maps had a very distinct resolution transition from spacecraft to aircraft. Aircraft coverage maps were a small subset of the total earth land area, but most US towns had some coverage at that time (~2012).

As you zoomed in, you could tell when Bing switched capture methods because the aircraft cameras were clearly off-nadir, and you'd see off-angle perception differences.