York, PA. Blimp Sightings ?

[greggk]

I don't know where to post this exactly, but certainly it had to be in the PA forums. I live in York, not far from York Suburban HS. A few times last week, while star watching at my house, I noticed an odd pair of lights moving toward me fairly slow. The direction is East to West. This "creature" has 2 bright white flashing lights in front...blinking in synchrony with one another. There is also a smaller, steady red light in the center. This thing moves to slow and much to quiet for a helicopter. Another issue is it is two slow and really to low for an airplane. Its dark, so even as it passes almost over my head I cannot see anything else.

Is this a blimp of some kind? I have an exceptionally bright light I could shine after it passes...but even I'm smarter than that. Just thought I would ask if these aircraft are being used in the York area? Thanks.

 

[u2brent]

very interesting..
I see hot air balloons in Lancaster Co a lot..

Area 53

 

[greggk]

very interesting..
I see hot air balloons in Lancaster Co a lot..

Area 53

Are you talking about hot air balloons? This is not what I'm seeing.

 

[u2brent]

Are you talking about hot air balloons? This is not what I'm seeing.

Yep, that's what I meant.
I have seen a few blimps 'or the years passing over southern lanco as well, but not recently..
the Goodyear and a Snoopy come to mind..

They sometimes pass by; Going from one event to another, being located north of Balt/Wash, west of Philly & with NYC to the northeast and Pittsburgh to the west..

 

[ecps92]

Metlife retired Snoopy

Yep, that's what I meant.
I have seen a few blimps 'or the years passing over southern lanco as well, but not recently..
the Goodyear and a Snoopy come to mind..

They sometimes pass by; Going from one event to another, being located north of Balt/Wash, west of Philly & with NYC to the northeast and Pittsburgh to the west..

 

[Twister_2]

When I lived in Forty Fort, Luzerne county for a short time, the Goodyear blimp would hang out for a weekend at a time. I guess they travel the country and give invitation only rides to Goodyear employees and their families. I saw it so much up there that I plugged some frequencies in my portable for the next time I saw them and in fact I started to hear them on 151.625MHz. There was a base unit at the airport that would communicate with the blimp about flight plans, souls on board, how much weight they need on the nose to offset their load, etc. The ground vehicles have very nice 5/8 wave VHF whips on them too. There's no mistaking the Goodyear blimp, though. If it was that you would know it.

 

[royldean]

Having witnessed the Goodyear Blimp travel directly over my house (about 35 years ago), I can tell you that it was NOT quiet at all. Slow? Yes.

 

[MtnBiker2005]

Maybe it wasn’t a blimp

Goodyear doesn’t have any in the fleet anymore, but they will still use the ‘blimp’ word.

Airship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Goodyear replaced its three U.S. non-rigid airships (blimps) with three new semi-rigid airships, each of which have a rigid internal frame. Although technically incorrect, Goodyear continues to use "blimp" in reference to these new semi-rigid dirigibles

Goodyear Blimp - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Radioman77]

Back in 1984 I was cutting grass in my yard and heard a noise and looked up and saw the Goodyear blimp pass over. It was coming from the airshow in WilkesBarre Pa. Found out later the pilots mother lived in a little town about 4 mi. away. He did a zigzag over her town.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

I saw it pass over my work this past September 11th

 

[u2brent]

Maybe it was not a commercial vessel.

Military Blimp on the loose.

A military surveillance blimp used by NORAD has broken its tether in Maryland & is northbound over eastern Pennsylvania, dragging tether cable which is causing power outages in Bloomsburg, PA. Loose military blimp drags cable, causes power outages - CNNPolitics.com

forums.radioreference.com

 

[Ridgerunr]

I picked up a Amazon Project Loon balloon passing west to east over central PA with my SDR ADS-B receiver about a month ago.
Was able to see it with binoculars (daytime). Don't know if these have navigation lights or not due to the extreme altitude they normally ride at.

 

[greggk]

I didn't know they flew so high. Any info on feet?

 

[BM82557]

I didn't know they flew so high. Any info on feet?

According to their website 60,000 - 75,000 feet

 

[samcken]

A clandestine operation by Graham Engineering to pick up and dispose of their products (rapidly being banned) out at sea? Oooh! Don't you love conspiracy theories?

 

[2IR473]

Sorry if this is a bit off topic from the OP’s question, but it was mentioned in this thread...
5 Project Loon balloons made their way across the mid-atlantic states (primarily Pennsylvania) back in early October.
I also spotted them on my ADS-B receiver, and one of them actually passed over head, and I did see it, although at over 60,000 ft, it was not easily spotted. With the naked eye, it looked like a star in the daytime sky. Through a telephoto lens, it looked like a jellyfish in the sky. Really interesting to see this occur. It was visible to me for well over an hour, as it moved slowly, at a reported 21 kts on my ADS-B receiver.

I don’t know if there are any lights on these balloons, but obviously they are equipped with electronics, so it is possible they do have navigation lighting, although I imagine it would be difficult to see at night, over 11 miles up in the sky.

 

[Steveradio]

They normally use 151.625 to give that a shot for Good Year

 

[royldean]

Sorry if this is a bit off topic from the OP’s question, but it was mentioned in this thread...
5 Project Loon balloons made their way across the mid-atlantic states (primarily Pennsylvania) back in early October.

My wife and daughter and I saw this thing on October 5th. This is what I wrote on another forum:

While grilling chicken this evening, myself, my wife, and my daughter all saw what looked to be a transparent balloon hovering to the east of our house (we live in North West Montco). Looking through my spotting scope - it really did look like a weather balloon - but it wasn't tear drop shaped, it was more egg shaped. I could see no "payload" nor tether. It was relatively motionless for about 30 minutes (after I first saw it), and then disappeared while I was eating (ie, I wasn't watching it continuously, so could have fallen, been pulled down, vanished, or shot into the cosmos for all I know). The astronomy app I use to identify stars and such was spot on with the moon, yet showed nothing where the UFO was.

Here's the picture we took:

 

[Twister_2]

My wife and daughter and I saw this thing on October 5th. This is what I wrote on another forum:



Here's the picture we took:

View attachment 77362

Wow, it must be HUGE if it looks that prominent but is 60k up in the air.

 

[royldean]

Wow, it must be HUGE if it looks that prominent but is 60k up in the air.

Well, I should emphasize that I don't know for certain that it was the google balloon, nor how high it was. But I do agree that with the naked eye, it looked like a bright star (or Venus), and with my spotting scope looked to be about the size of a pea with that "jellyfish" like appearance.

Also, I believe that picture makes it look bigger because of the oversaturation of such a light object in a relatively dark background.