Black object seen hovering over Michigan Nov 8 2024 [Kite]

[MonkeeSage]

Friday, November 8th, Byron Center, Michigan, "hundreds of people" saw a black object in the sky appearing to hover in place for 15 minutes or more. Based on the video segment after the article below, the "hundreds" is just coming from the news station counting the "I saw it too" comments on a facebook post, but it appears at least several people definitely saw it and took pictures and video.

Article:

WAS IT A KITE? Hundreds see mysterious dark object floating above West Michigan

Social media lit up over the weekend with reports of people seeing a large black unidentified object floating in the sky above Byron Center and Wyoming

By: Michael Martin
Posted 4:23 PM, Nov 12, 2024 and last updated 4:41 PM, Nov 12, 2024

BYRON CENTER, Mich. — A bizarre sighting in West Michigan has left hundreds of people scratching their heads. Last Friday, a dark mysterious object was spotted floating in the air, sparking widespread curiosity and speculation.

The sightings were concentrated along Gezon Parkway in the Byron Center-Wyoming area.

Descriptions of the object varied, with some likening it to a "big black floating bag" or a "rectangle-shaped" entity that didn't resemble any known drone or kite.

Social media erupted with theories, ranging from a drone to a glitch in the matrix and even an alien invasion.

Melissa Balinski recounted, "It was weird. The size was big, and it just hung there."

Aron Adamczyk, who spotted the object at The Pines Golf Course in Wyoming, shared, "We watched it for 15 minutes and couldn't figure it out."

Balinski believes she solved the mystery, concluding it was likely a giant kite.

However, others remain skeptical, questioning who would create such an unusual kite, and speculating it might have been an intentional prank.

The Kent County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that they did not receive any reports regarding the mysterious aerial object.

Aron Adamczyk/ Scripps

Source: https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/kent/was-it-a-kite-hundreds-see-mysterious-dark-object-floating-above-west-michigan

Original video from news station here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV8FHx7A6uQ but they have disabled embedding so I am linking to a mirror:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwJ7ozGaQ1Y


In the news clip above Ms. Balinski says she saw a man walking through the field below the object holding what looked like kite strings.

I wasn't able to find the original facebook post referred to in the article and news segment above, but I found the facebook story for the news article. Two people in the comments there provided pictures of the object and it is very clearly a kite of some variety (paging @JMartJr). Ms. Balinski comments on the second one confirming it is what she saw.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1138491797864230&id=100051102617829&_rdr

 

[jarlrmai]

In the news clip above Ms. Balinski says she saw a man walking through the field below the object holding what looked like kite strings.

So I'm not sure what else is needed for this one?

 

[Ann K]

@JMartJr
In the last picture above it looks like a sort of air mattress, a flexible shell inflated to give it some rigidity. Is that a thing in the kite world? A balloon-kite? Or on this case, a balloon-kite-UFO, now just a balloon-kite-FO?

 

[jarlrmai]

@JMartJr
In the last picture above it looks like a sort of air mattress, a flexible shell inflated to give it some rigidity. Is that a thing in the kite world? A balloon-kite? Or on this case, a balloon-kite-UFO, now just a balloon-kite-FO?

Kytoons are a thing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kytoon

A kytoon or kite balloon is a tethered aircraft which obtains some of its lift dynamically as a heavier-than-air kite and the rest aerostatically as a lighter-than-air balloon.[1]​ The word is a portmanteau of kite and balloon.

Whether or not this is a Kytoon I don't know.

 

[FatPhil]

Kytoons are a thing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kytoon

A kytoon or kite balloon is a tethered aircraft which obtains some of its lift dynamically as a heavier-than-air kite and the rest aerostatically as a lighter-than-air balloon.[1]​ The word is a portmanteau of kite and balloon.

Whether or not this is a Kytoon I don't know.

I wonder if there's any need for the lighter-than-air aspect; having inflated struts providing rigidity in place of an intrinsically rigid frame could possibly be an alternative scenario. An interesting design problem (already solved by untethered bouncy castles in storms).

 

[deirdre]

@JMartJr
In the last picture above it looks like a sort of air mattress, a flexible shell inflated to give it some rigidity. Is that a thing in the kite world? A balloon-kite? Or on this case, a balloon-kite-UFO, now just a balloon-kite-FO?

kite surfing kites can look puffy/inflated. wyoming isnt too far to lake Michigan.

 

[JMartJr]

It is a Pilot Kite, a parafoil designed by Peter Lynn from NZ. It is normally used at the top of a stack including one or more more-decorative but less-stable show kites.
https://plk.nz/pilot-parafoil-lifter/

They come in a range of sizes and colors. It is slightly unusual to fly it by itself, unless somebody got a new one and is test flying it or is tuning it (from time to time the bridles need tweaking to keep it at peak performance.) Plans for the Kite were made available so some folks make their own, and a couple of Chinese factories are also making them.

So while they are VERY common at festivals, and less common just out and about where somebody is flying alone, they are definitely around.

Edit: it is a parafoil, not a paranoid. Stupid autospelling...

 

[deirdre]

a parafoil

yea, from the FB comments in OP.

 

[JMartJr]

yea, from the FB comments in OP.

The key difference is, Peter Lynn Kites would never make one with a tie-dyed pattern! They are SERIOUS kite folks.


Just to illustrate what a pilot is for, here is a stack of show kites (whales and a ray) with a purple pilot at the top to keep everything stable and prevent wandering. This allows you to put more shows kites closer together for a more impressive show in the space available:

(Not sure what the orange bit of fabric is stuck in the pilot's bridles, disregard that! )

 

[Mendel]

(Not sure what the orange bit of fabric is stuck in the pilot's bridles, disregard that! )

FAA regulations?

 

[jarlrmai]

It is a Pilot Kite, a parafoil designed by Peter Lynn from NZ. It is normally used at the top of a stack including one or more more-decorative but less-stable show kites.
https://plk.nz/pilot-parafoil-lifter/
View attachment 73438

They come in a range of sizes and colors. It is slightly unusual to fly it by itself, unless somebody got a new one and is test flying it or is tuning it (from time to time the bridles need tweaking to keep it at peak performance.) Plans for the Kite were made available so some folks make their own, and a couple of Chinese factories are also making them.

So while they are VERY common at festivals, and less common just out and about where somebody is flying alone, they are definitely around.

Edit: it is a parafoil, not a paranoid. Stupid autospelling...

The resident kitepert's day to shine!

 

[deirdre]

would never make one with a tie-dyed pattern!

yea its a pretty lame looking kite.

 

[outlier]

I think it's intended to look like that

 

[John J.]

We need Mrs Balinski here!
Sees something unusual, gives a brief but interesting account, then explains she saw something that probably explains it.

Was wondering if we need some sort of signal to alert @JMartJr when possible Kite-Related Aerial Phenomena are reported, maybe a spotlight like Gotham Police have for Batman, but realised that would probably cause more UAP reports.

Seeing the images in the OP I thought it might be a black plastic 'bin bag', and then seeing the leafless autumn trees reminded me of the phrase "Witches' knickers":

"Witches' knickers": meaning and origin
Pascal Tréguer, etymology, United Kingdom & Ireland...
Of Irish-English origin, the colloquial phrase witches' knickers denotes discarded plastic bags or shreds of plastic bags that have become snagged in trees, hedges, etc.

The image is of a witch's undergarment that got caught in a tree or a hedge when she was flying.

The earliest occurrences of the phrase witches' knickers that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From The Irish Times (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Saturday 23rd December 2000:

Degradable witches' knickers
Katharine Blake
"... plastic carrier bags, which end up in landfill or blowing about in trees and hedges (now known colloquially as "witches knickers"). "

From Word Histories website, https://wordhistories.net/2022/01/24/witches-knickers/, the Oxford English Dictionary website also recognises the phrase, https://www.oed.com/dictionary/witches-knickers_n?tl=true

 

[JMartJr]

I think it's intended to look like that

It's sort of intended to not look like much at all, leaving the focus on the shows kites beneath it -- some of the originals were even "sky blue," to disappear in flight! The manta ray kites are very stable and also are used as top-of-line lifters in place of, or in addition to, a pilot while being part of a show. Some newer Chinese designs that have similar lift and high flight angle as a pilot while being a bit more decorative than the pilots are now showing up. Like this "tadpole."

 

[MonkeeSage]

Thanks for the ID @JMartJr that was why I posted it here, hoping you could identify the kite!

 

[jarlrmai]

Above and beyond, I often forget what this place is capable of.

 

[Mendel]

Above and beyond, I often forget what this place is capable of.

That's the strength of diversity!

When we get some unidentified footage, we have folks trying to identify it as a kite, a butterfly, an aircraft, a satellite, a celestial object, bokeh, a balloon, a flare, a drone, etc. — and we have folks knowing how to identify most of these things, because they exist!
No wonder we're doing better than a group that is mostly concerned with identifying it as a UFO with no idea how.

And it means to me that Metabunk is a fun and educational community to be part of!

 

[psikiwi]

The resident kitepert's day to shine!

Was wondering if we need some sort of signal to alert @JMartJr when possible Kite-Related Aerial Phenomena are reported,

You mean he's better than an expert in Known Identifiable Tethered Equipment Systems? And that's why we love him.

 

[JMartJr]

As

possible Kite-Related Aerial Phenomena

Known Identifiable Tethered Equipment Systems

As a founding member of the Wings Across Carolina Kiting and Okra Society, I am a firm believer in "Always pick your acronym first, then find words to fit it."

 

[John J.]

...I am a firm believer in "Always pick your acronym first, then find words to fit it."

Absolutely- "backronyms".

Backronyms

A backronym is defined in the OED in two parts, referring to two different forms. The first part of the definition reads "An acronym formed from a phrase whose initial letters spell out a particular word or words, chosen to enhance memorability."

An acronym starts with a phrase whose initial letters are then turned into a word. In contrast a backronym of this type is derived by engineering a phrase to fit a word. Typically the word so formed reflects the meaning of the term that it is supposed to represent. For example, the seasonality of recurrent bouts of affective disorder had been long known when in 1984 Rosenthal et al introduced the term SAD for "Seasonal Affective Disorder."

"When I use a word . . . Medical slang: acronyms and backronyms", opinion piece by J.K. Aronson, 2023, BMJ vol. 382
https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj.p1632

Fairly common in medical research proposals, from the appropriate and smart to the somewhat forced (IMO, e.g. Sam Parnia et al.s' "AWARE-AWAreness during REsuscitation-a prospective study", 2014 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25301715/).

 

[Dave51c]

Fairly common in medical research proposals, from the appropriate and smart to the somewhat forced (IMO, e.g. Sam Parnia et al.s' "AWARE-AWAreness during REsuscitation-a prospective study", 2014 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25301715/).

So true, some creative backronyms out there. They can be very effective in communication and academic marketing where It is like a brand name. Nearly everyone used the backronym internally (usually denoted as "Study Short Title" in databases).

A couple of examples from work;
THE OWL: The Heath Economics Of WireLess transmission in neonatal intensive care.
ORION: Outcomes Research in Inherited Optic Neuropathies.

 

[Dave51c]

Forgot my favourite;

ALIENS: ALien Intelligence Extraction in Newly deceased Species.

Of course I made that up - my organisation does not carry out biomedical research on aliens. Or does it?

 

[Ann K]

As a founding member of the Wings Across Carolina Kiting and Okra Society, I am a firm believer in "Always pick your acronym first, then find words to fit it."

Does that make us the Debunkers Against Military Nuisances and Ill-defined Technologies?