'Mystery aircraft' over Texas draws speculation of real spy plane

The A-12 reconnaissance aircraft was built by Lockheed and tested in 1962. Photo: CIA.gov The A-12 reconnaissance aircraft was built by Lockheed and tested in 1962. Photo: CIA.gov Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close 'Mystery aircraft' over Texas draws speculation of real spy plane 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

If the unidentified aircraft photographed over Amarillo turns out to be a new U.S. spy plane, it wouldn't be the first time.

Aviation Week & Space Technology journalist Bill Sweetman has posted photos taken March 10 by two veteran sky watchers, Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett.

In his blog post of March 28, Sweetman writes that he and two Aviation Week editors agree that the photos depict "something real." In other words, these pictures aren't easily explained away by reports of known military flights or the work of someone who got carried away with Photoshop.

So what can aviation experts say about the object in the photos?

"The photos tell us more about what the mysterious stranger isn't than what it is," Sweetman writes.

The size is hard to determine, Sweetman says, but its relationship to the contrails suggests it's bigger than the Northrup Grumman X-47B, which has a 62-foot wing span, according to Wikipedia.

Whatever it might be, the aircraft was accompanied by two others, and Douglass picked up some radio traffic suggesting the plane had a pilot, Sweetman's blog post states.

Although it's logical to expect that classified U.S. aircraft programs exist, due to the number that have been revealed in "all sorts of ways," it's uncommon for them to be exposed by civilian photos, Sweetman writes.

In 1956, when the Lockheed U-2 plane was making some of its first spy flights over the Soviet Union from an air base in England, British magazines started receiving "eyewitness accounts and grainy photos" from the public, he writes.

But the only other spy plane photographed before it was declassified was the RQ-170 Sentinel seen at Kandahar in 2007-09, Sweetman's blog states.