Daytime Flying Triangle Over London, Late 1970s

[eburacum]

I must admit that my best, and most prolonged, UFO sighting happened when I was eleven, way back in 1966. I've described it on here in some detail, so I won't bore you with it. I remember almost everything about it (although I really couldn't estimate the height, then or now).

 

[markrkingston1]

Gimme some time - couple of days - on this perpetually fascinating UFO tangent and I'll try to locate some profoundly relevant archive material.

This includes a first hand account from Chris Gibson, following a lengthy interview and which Chris permitted I could publish.

I'd certainly be very interested indeed to read about Chris Gibson's 'Aurora' sighting.

 

[markrkingston1]

I must admit that my best, and most prolonged, UFO sighting happened when I was eleven, way back in 1966. I've described it on here in some detail, so I won't bore you with it. I remember almost everything about it (although I really couldn't estimate the height, then or now).

Do you have a link to your sighting? I'd like to read it.

Note that I have not attempted to firmly estimate the height of the object we saw. Read carefully what I wrote in the various messages in this thread.

I was never sure at the time of the sighting how large the object was, so I could never be sure how high it was. As I explained in the original message, it looked high from its washed out appearance but I knew both then (yes, even as a child) and now that that could be misleading.

Instead I have only stated rough possible heights that would have been necessary (based upon different possible object sizes) to create the apparent angular size that we observed.

I.e. If it was a hang glider, I estimated it would have to have been at around 10,000 feet.
If it was a kite, it would have to have been large and presumably much lower. But, as I noted, we saw no strings.
If it was airliner sized, it would have to have been around 20-30,000 feet.

But which of those altitudes it really was I could not tell at the time, and certainly can't now.

 

[henry]

is it hang glider country though

 

[eburacum]

Hampstead Heath is an area of highish land in the north of London that might afford a few places to launch a hang-glider, but only the maddest aeronauts would attempt it there- no guarantee of an easy landing.

 

[eburacum]

One of the usual suspects that can cause an otherwise inexplicable sighting is a hobbyist's model aircraft. There were propeller-driven spirit-fuelled model planes, rocket- and dyna-jet planes and even rubber-band models in the early 70's. A scratchbuilt, freelance delta-wing would have been very difficult to identify, but it would also have been a tricky plane to control at slow speed.

 

[markrkingston1]

is it hang glider country though

No, definitely not. It's urban London, and not a place you'd generally expect to see hang gliders (or microlights, for that matter) flying.

Hampstead Heath is an area of highish land in the north of London that might afford a few places to launch a hang-glider, but only the maddest aeronauts would attempt it there- no guarantee of an easy landing.

Indeed. I'd guess it might be just about possible to launch off Parliament Hill in windy weather but I can't believe that a hang glider launched from there could climb to the height it would have had to be in order to be what we saw.

If it was a hang glider or similar then it would certainly have had to fly in from elsewhere.

 

[markrkingston1]

One of the usual suspects that can cause an otherwise inexplicable sighting is a hobbyist's model aircraft. There were propeller-driven spirit-fuelled model planes, rocket- and dyna-jet planes and even rubber-band models in the early 70's. A scratchbuilt, freelance delta-wing would have been very difficult to identify, but it would also have been a tricky plane to control at slow speed.

This is a very interesting thought. It is perhaps the most plausible possibility.

If it was a model aircraft then it would have been flying at perhaps a few hundred feet, maybe up to about 1000 feet (I'd guesstimate, after all this time). It is plausible that such a model plane could have been flying very slowly such that we could barely see its movement from the ground at that sort of altitude.