What might these three planes be?

[jd1979]

Good Afternoon,

Stumbled across this site the other day, and am enamored with what you all are doing. I've searched for any threads with similar questions, but came up dry. My hope is that you can assist...

I've attached a couple shots that I took with my cell phone from the following coordinates: 40.141214, -105.136496

I was facing north, and these planes were moving in a northwesterly direction. It appeared that they were moving quite a bit faster than "typical" commercial aircraft, but this was merely my perception with no real evidence to back it up.

Obviously the photo quality isn't the greatest, and I'm fairly certain that the identification of the type of aircraft may not be possible due to the quality. However, I'm wondering if the formation of the three crafts can possibly provide a clue. My only assumption is that the planes were military in nature because I can't figure out any other scenario in which three planes (moving very quickly) would fly in such obvious formation.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide!

 

[Mick West]

What date and time are the photos?

Military seems the most likely. I've seen groups of 2-4 planes leaving contrails like that, and they were from single engine jets, possibly moving bases.

 

[Mick West]

See also this discussion of a group of trails (longer trails, but that's just the weather) suspected to be military jets in transit.

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/can-someone-please-explain-this-video-of-multiple-trails.3226/

 

[jd1979]

Thanks for the response and "cleaning up" my post. My apologies for not including time frame. The pictures were taken on Feb. 18th at approximately 1010 hrs.

 

[M Bornong]

I'd agree it's likely military. At the end of Feb., I captured 3 stealth bomber's flying over my house.

Photos of Planes and Contrails (That you took yourself)

 

[Mick West]

Thanks for the response and "cleaning up" my post. My apologies for not including time frame. The pictures were taken on Feb. 18th at approximately 1010 hrs.

Unfortunately flight tracking records don't go back that far (without paying a lot), but if military, they would probably not show up anyway.

 

[Trailspotter]

Thanks for the response and "cleaning up" my post. My apologies for not including time frame. The pictures were taken on Feb. 18th at approximately 1010 hrs.

Unfortunately flight tracking records don't go back that far (without paying a lot), but if military, they would probably not show up anyway.

Planefinder.net goes that far for free, but there is nothing flying NW at around either 10:10 MST, or 11:10 MST, as the filename 20150218_111006.jpg suggests. There was a commercial flight in NE direction at 10:10 MST (17:10 UTC), but it probably was too far to the north of this place:

I too think these were military aircraft. I captured a similar formation here:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/ph...at-you-took-yourself.1487/page-10#post-128520

 

[Trailblazer]

Unfortunately flight tracking records don't go back that far (without paying a lot), but if military, they would probably not show up anyway.

A lot? Doesn't FlightRadar24's €1.99 a month Premium package give access? Surely a paid government shill can stretch to that!

Edit: never mind, I see that still only gives 30 days of playback.

 

[Mick West]

A lot? Doesn't FlightRadar24's €1.99 a month Premium package give access? Surely a paid government shill can stretch to that!

That's only a month. I meant Flightaware's historical data.

 

[Spectrar Ghost]

A lot? Doesn't FlightRadar24's €1.99 a month Premium package give access? Surely a paid government shill can stretch to that!

Ha! You could probably write it off as a business expense come tax time...