Aircraft experts Need help identifying military aircraft circling the Mall during the inauguration.

[arcadian]

It was just flying circles over the Mall. Some kind of surveillance aircraft. I didn't think anything of til I realized it was flying in restricted airspace. It looked just like a U-2 but had props instead of jets. Long, long wingspan. Flying slow circles. Any help? Got pics but can't load them up now.

[lonestarnot]

1. What the hell!

[Barack_America]

3. Clearly for security.

Taking pictures of the crowd, most likely.

[lonestarnot]

11. Bullshit! Restricted is restricted, means no fly!

[arcadian]

14. It was a military aircraft dedicated to the security effort.

n/t

[lonestarnot]

19. Well thanks for that!

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. RPV/UPV n/t

[arcadian]

6. It was manned.

[grannie4peace]

4. a drone?

[arcadian]

9. No, like I said, it looked like a U2

It was definitely manned.

[2Design]

5. probably someone who did not know it was restricted or was that

the helicopter of the pResident leaving

[xultar]

7. I'm sure it was some new bush boondoggle military aircraft.

[arcadian]

12. It looked old school.

Can't find any reference to it though. Military gray in color.

[LakeSamish706]

8. I thought we had military aircraft flying the Washington DC airspace to avoid this! n/t

[arcadian]

10. It was our military. For security.

[LakeSamish706]

13. Whew... Ok at least it was ours.... I guess I miss read your OP. n/t

[damntexdem]

28. But who is ours? Remember, Dubya was still prez at the start of the affair.

[bertman]

15. Rest assured it was supposed to be there or it would not have been. Those SS types

don't play around with unauthorized aircraft even approaching the capitol on a day like today. Now on Sept 11, 2001, not so much.

[cherokeeprogressive]

16. I believe it was a P-3 Orion. I heard the other day that it was part of the security.

The civilian equivalent was the Lockheed Electra.

[xultar]

18. That fits the bill.

[arcadian]

20. Nope. It only had two props.

And I know what a P-3 Orion looks like. I grew up near two Naval Air Stations. :P

[cherokeeprogressive]

27. Possibly an E-2 Hawkeye? Or, as we lovingly referred to them on the flightdeck: Hummer. Possible?

Did it have a dish?

[Diclotican]

23. cherokeeprogressive

cherokeeprogressive

In fact, the P3 Orion and the Locheed Electra are twho of the same design.. When the P3 Orion was shoosen as the martime long durance aircraft for sea they have to find a aircraft who was there allready. Becouse the political bitchering was that they had to shoose a aircraft who was allready in production - to save some money that is.. And after a long, hard look of the diferent design, the Locheed Electra was shoosen as the platform for the new weaponsplatform.. Of course the P3 Orion was something totaly diferent from the Electra, when the equipment, and the structure itself was shoosen, but if you put an Electra beside a P3 Orion you would se the familiy both in size and in apperance... And if I am not out in the woods, the P3 Orion have some year behind them...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language.

[cherokeeprogressive]

25. It is a very old design. You are correct.

There have been issues concerning metal fatigue with this airframe due to it's age. If I'm not mistaken, in the 80's at least two of the civilian models crashed due to metal fatigue.

[Diclotican]

32. cherokeeprogressive

cherokeeprogressive

Absolutely, the desing is verry old now.. more than 50 year and counting. And it is little funny that the design is still going verry well, if treated correct that is;).. But I belive the military models are been keept better than the sivilian counterparts.. And maybe dosen't have so many cycles on them also.. In Norway the P3s are still airborne and been used regulary even that they are been old now, and have been rebuild to meet new standards.. But it looks like the P3s have to fly for a long time yet - it is no new type of aircraft on the horizon, ot for the Royal Norwigian Airforce that is.. Maybe the F35 we have shoosen to have can do the work? Even that I doubt the F35 would be THAT good to martime patrol in the air.. We have some large part of ocean to cower in the North of Norway.. From mainland Norway to Svalbard, and the eare between.. But also to keep an aye of what the russian are up to. After all, the P3s in Norway, have more or less photographed everything that have leaved habour in Russia for more than 50 year now..

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english not my native language

[MrScorpio]

17. It was probably a Predator drone

I used to be in a squadron responsible for operating them

[arcadian]

21. Nope. I know what those look like too.

I thought it was a U2 until I got home and looked at my pics. Can't upload them now unfortunately.

[Statistical]

22. Can you link to the pics anywhere on the web?

Without pics it is next to impossible to know.

The description is very strange:
props but long wings. How many props per wing?

Stranger is that they govt would use anything recognizable.
Reconnaissance UAV at max altitude are essentially silent and almost invisible.
Why use an aircraft that can be spotted? There could be a (and likely were) a half dozen Global Hawk UAV over DC today and nobody could see them.

One thing is guaranteed it was govt craft.

Nothing gets even near DC without clearance and that is on a "normal day".
On Inauguration day given the increased terrorism value of an attack the response would be very rapid.

Anyways if you can get a pic or link to a pic it is an interesting "mystery".

[arcadian]

24. One prop per wing

Looked like a U2. Will try to upload pics in the future

[amerikat]

26. Grob Egret maybe?

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/row/egrett.htm

[arcadian]

29. Very close

Only it had two props. One on each wing. And the wings were a little shorter.

[Phoonzang]

30. Don't give up on uploading those pictures. I'm intrigued.

I'm an airplane buff and I can't imagine what that would be from the description.

[arcadian]

31. My best description.

Take a U2, strip the jet engines and replace them with props.

[Xithras]

33. You're a little off.

The U2 has a single inboard jet engine, not wing mounted engines. Here's a photo of a U2 for comparison:


Are you saying that the aircraft looked just like this, but with engines on the wing pods? If so, I have to wonder whether you might have just seen a U2. Are you certain it had props? The wing pods on a U-2 can contain just about any sort of sensor or observational equipment, but I don't think they can mount engines to them.

[arcadian]

34. You are correct. A U2 does have a single engine.

Don't know why I was thinking otherwise. Yes, take those pods and put props on them and that is essential the aircraft. There are windows as well, along the fuselage. The tail is a little different

[8 track mind]

35. Snoopy and his trusty Sopwith Camel! n/t

[ThomWV]

36. In these days of spying on all of us in ways we can not even begin to understand

who in hell can say what may have been in whatever it was that flew above you?

[Obamarama]

37. I know the aircraft you're talking about....

A few years ago, FORMER President Bush (God, that has a wonderful ring to it..FORMER President Bush) made an appearance here in Kalamazoo, MI. I'm an aviation buff and noticed the same type of plane flying circles around the general area of the arena where he was speaking.

One of my co-workers at the time is an Air Force veteran and he said it was some sort of communications plane, which allowed people on the ground (secret service?) to be patched into central command, or something like that. How accurate that actually is, I don't know, but it seems plausible.

[arcadian]

40. Yeah, Command & Control

I in the sky

[foxfeet]

38. It was Cheney's pet Nazgul.

[EOTE]

41. Perhaps the Witch King? NT

[RL3AO]

39. I would guess its a communication plane.

Not sure on the type though.

[DemoTex]

42. Single-engine? Perhaps a Lockheed YO-3A QuietStar?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/o-3.htm

The YO-3A airframe was a highly modified Schweizer 2-32 sailplane (glider) with an noise-attenuated engine and ultra-quiet prop. It was used originally for low-level visual reconnaissance in Viet Nam. An acquaintance of mine from flight school (he was a drafted Eastern pilot with his airline job waiting for him when he got off active duty) was killed in a YO-3A in Viet Nam in 1970. I understand that a couple of non-military government agencies still fly the YO-3A.

[jsamuel]

43. maybe it was taking aerial photography of the event