markrkingston1
Ephemeral Spectre
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2007
- Messages
- 410
- Location
- London, England
Yup, another childhood sighting. Unlike my previous report, this one actually is a UFO[1] (in as much as it was a flying object and I could not identify it).
Background, location, and when:-
At some time in the 1970s (late 1970s or very early 1980s) I was out with my parents, visiting Hampstead Heath in north west London. I would have been aged maybe between 7 and 11.
We very often visited this park. On this occasion, we were there on a sunny day with some minor cloud cover. Unfortunately I cannot remember the exact time of year or the exact year. I can however, remember the exact location (not that it matters for this sighting): In the Golders Hill Park section of the Heath, close to the large old gates that exit onto the gravel road that runs across West Heath.
Details:-
I randomly looked up at the sky and saw what I can only call a flying triangle at what seemed to be high altitude.
My impression was that it seemed to be flying at fairly high altitude, probably greater than 10,000 feet but possibly as high as 20-30,000 feet. However, I fully understand that these kinds of estimates are very subjective since I did not know the real size of the object. I can only say that the shading of the object seemed similar to the pale, 'washed out' shading of an airliner seen with the naked eye at 20-30,000 feet, so I felt that what I was looking at had to be at reasonably high altitude (even if it was perhaps smaller than a commercial airliner and therefore at lower altitude than 20-30,000 feet).
Colour seemed to be 'washed out', pale grey overall.
As I recall, the object did not seem to be moving or was moving very slowly, slower than a normal airliner at 20-30,000 feet would be. There was no contrail.
The shape was of an isosceles triangle, with a shorter 'base' and two slightly longer sides. It wasn't far off being equilateral but there was definite elongation to make it isosceles.
Both my parents saw it when I pointed it out and I remember that we stood and stared and discussed it for a while. I can't remember whether it was eventually covered by clouds or otherwise moved out of sight but we eventually finished looking at it and carried on with our walk. There would have been time to take a photo of it but we had no camera.
At the time I remember suggesting that it could be a hang glider as the shape matched that of a hang glider. Back then, hang gliders usually seemed to use delta-shaped (i.e. isosceles triangle shape) wings[2]. Thus this object would have matched a hang glider at an altitude of perhaps about 10,000 feet, I think. However, hang gliding at very high altitude (for a hang glider) over north west London would be very, very unusual (especially in the 1970s, I think). We did not come to any better conclusion about what it could have been.
I should add that it could perhaps have been a kite, but it would have been at unusually high altitude for a kite and it would have been a large kite. We certainly couldn't see any string. I don't recall that the day was windy.
That's it. The whole thing is frustratingly prosaic and then anomalous at the same time. I really have no idea what we saw.
Footnotes:-
1: "UFO" has many connotations and implicit meanings to many people; many people often assume it means aliens. Perhaps, like the UK's MOD, we should standardise on "UAP" for unidentified aerial phenomena so as to avoid implicit assumptions.
2: From what from I see nowadays, modern hang gliders usually use a different shape of wing (more reminiscent of the B-2's wing), not delta/isosceles shape any more.
Background, location, and when:-
At some time in the 1970s (late 1970s or very early 1980s) I was out with my parents, visiting Hampstead Heath in north west London. I would have been aged maybe between 7 and 11.
We very often visited this park. On this occasion, we were there on a sunny day with some minor cloud cover. Unfortunately I cannot remember the exact time of year or the exact year. I can however, remember the exact location (not that it matters for this sighting): In the Golders Hill Park section of the Heath, close to the large old gates that exit onto the gravel road that runs across West Heath.
Details:-
I randomly looked up at the sky and saw what I can only call a flying triangle at what seemed to be high altitude.
My impression was that it seemed to be flying at fairly high altitude, probably greater than 10,000 feet but possibly as high as 20-30,000 feet. However, I fully understand that these kinds of estimates are very subjective since I did not know the real size of the object. I can only say that the shading of the object seemed similar to the pale, 'washed out' shading of an airliner seen with the naked eye at 20-30,000 feet, so I felt that what I was looking at had to be at reasonably high altitude (even if it was perhaps smaller than a commercial airliner and therefore at lower altitude than 20-30,000 feet).
Colour seemed to be 'washed out', pale grey overall.
As I recall, the object did not seem to be moving or was moving very slowly, slower than a normal airliner at 20-30,000 feet would be. There was no contrail.
The shape was of an isosceles triangle, with a shorter 'base' and two slightly longer sides. It wasn't far off being equilateral but there was definite elongation to make it isosceles.
Both my parents saw it when I pointed it out and I remember that we stood and stared and discussed it for a while. I can't remember whether it was eventually covered by clouds or otherwise moved out of sight but we eventually finished looking at it and carried on with our walk. There would have been time to take a photo of it but we had no camera.
At the time I remember suggesting that it could be a hang glider as the shape matched that of a hang glider. Back then, hang gliders usually seemed to use delta-shaped (i.e. isosceles triangle shape) wings[2]. Thus this object would have matched a hang glider at an altitude of perhaps about 10,000 feet, I think. However, hang gliding at very high altitude (for a hang glider) over north west London would be very, very unusual (especially in the 1970s, I think). We did not come to any better conclusion about what it could have been.
I should add that it could perhaps have been a kite, but it would have been at unusually high altitude for a kite and it would have been a large kite. We certainly couldn't see any string. I don't recall that the day was windy.
That's it. The whole thing is frustratingly prosaic and then anomalous at the same time. I really have no idea what we saw.
Footnotes:-
1: "UFO" has many connotations and implicit meanings to many people; many people often assume it means aliens. Perhaps, like the UK's MOD, we should standardise on "UAP" for unidentified aerial phenomena so as to avoid implicit assumptions.
2: From what from I see nowadays, modern hang gliders usually use a different shape of wing (more reminiscent of the B-2's wing), not delta/isosceles shape any more.
Last edited:
)
