In order to fully appreciate the 'aerial drone' claims' potential for truth or lies, it's important to investigate and determine whether any part of the claims might be based in anything tangible and documented. As it happens, certain basics of the 'aerial drone' claims are based in tangible reality ... although this tangible reality is not related to anything extraterrestrial. Specifically, these basic factual tie-in elements involve the long-time existence of actual human invented and constructed aerial drones, also known as UAV or unmanned aerial vehicles.

Remote controlled drone surveillance is a booming industry, including US military drones with weapons fire and other tactical capabilities. Such drones weren't developed from reverse engineered ET technology. They were inspired, in large part, from the long time hobby of flying 'radio planes', which were remote controlled miniature planes and helicopters. Years ago I uncovered a UFO hoax, where someone had built a miniature remote controlled 'UFO' looking prop, filmed it in flight, and tried to pass the film off as an authentic 'UFO'. This particular UFO hoax had some UFO researchers stumped, and other UFO researchers backing the filmed 'UFO' as genuine. The problem arose because an examination of the film showed no strings from which the hovering UFO was being manipulated, and no image rendering or image manipulation artifacts. This was before the onset of the digital age of special effects software, so that faking a 'UFO' in flight had a limited means of construction available to the hoaxer. No one had considered that a remote controlled miniature might be involved, until I exposed that the hovering 'UFO' was indeed a remote controlled miniature.

The photographs of the claimed aerial 'drones', which were presented to the public, are rife with visual and physical oddities ... as well as digital artifacts, which can be seen when the photographs are inspected by an expert in digital image manipulation. Even with the naked eye, it's obvious that the design of the .'aerial drones' lack aerodynamic elements. This meant that the hovering object, depicted in the photographs, could not sustain flight by conventional means. Nor is there any visual distortion around the 'aerial drones', which might indicate a new or alien form of flight generating energy. Some sort of localized distortion effect should be present, even if a non conventional flight system was in use.

If these objects were literally at the outdoor location, as claimed, they were not held aloft by either a balloon, a helicopter, a crane, or amateur radio controlled devices. Any helicopter rotors would have created a down wash effect on the object, thereby causing violent movement of the object and preventing it from remaining motionless - or near motionless - in mid air. The balloon, as a lofting device, would show tell tale signs of a tether [unless edited out], and would move the object subject to the wind's effect upon the balloon. A crane would have similar challenges as a balloon tether, but to lesser degree because the crane would be stationary - although the crane might encounter a slight sway depending on ground and weather conditions. Any amateur radio controlled drone would not be able to achieve a dead stop in mid air, and would be unlikely to fly because of its lack of aerodynamic design. None of the 'aerial drone' photos contain any hints of encountering natural weather patterns, nor of utilizing an esoteric power supply affecting the object, the location, or the localized space-time continuum.

The first series of 'aerial drones' are oddly shaped, and have the appearance of being primitive and awkward in design. The odd shape alone didn't bother me, per se, because actual human invented and built aerial drones come in many odd shapes and sizes. Some of the authentic aerial drones have vertical take off and hovering capabilities, others contain helicopter like rotors, some are unusual looking fixed wing aircraft, some are saucer shaped, some are triangle shaped, some are diamond shaped, some are spherical shaped, some are rocket shaped, some are stealth by design, and others have combined design and application properties.

Even though the investigated 'aerial drone' images are hoaxed, this does not mean that actual aerial drones and unusual craft aren't being witnessed in California and elsewhere. It is very possible for someone to witness a strange aerial drone aka UAV, and it not be connected to the 'aerial drone' hoax. This is why, if someone claims to have seen an unusual aerial craft, it should not be dismissed out of hand. But because of the 'aerial drone' hoax, it makes it harder for real UAV witnesses to be taken seriously. This is part of the harm that such a hoax does, which is to contaminate the field of UFO and related research.

Here are some news items about UAV flying over California in 2007. Keep in mind that this article only documents these particular UAVs over California, meaning that this is only a glimpse into the less promoted UAV activity in the skies. This press release refers to UAV helping to fight the California Zaca Fire, which had been burning since July 4, 2007

http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/2007/08/17/news/breaking/breaking01.txt

Flying drone photographs Zaca Fire
By Times Staff
8-17-2007

An unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a camera flew over the massive Zaca Fire on Thursday, providing a tool to peer through smoke and pinpoint hot spots while delivering real-time data, officials said. The UAV based at Edwards Air Force Base near Lancaster flew at 25,000 feet above the fire, before taking a similar tour of blazes in Northern California. The cooperative agreement grew out of the U.S. Forest Service assisting NASA after the Columbia space shuttle broke apart on its way to landing at Cape Canaveral, Fla., in 2003.

http://calfire.blogspot.com/2007/08/nasa-predator-drone-is-flying-missions.html

Friday, August 24, 2007
NASA Predator drone is flying missions on California fires

Drones Spot Fires

NASA calls their version of the aircraft "Ikhana," a name derived from a Native American Choctaw word that means intelligent, conscious or aware. Dryden Research completed a six-month process to obtain a Certificate of Authorization from the FAA allowing Ikhana to fly wildfire-sensing missions in the national air space of the western states. [Pred_2] A NASA Predator B drone is flying missions over Californian wild fires to test out new gear for spotting fires, the agency reports. The first flight of the series Aug. 16 captured images of California wildfires, including the Zaca Fire in Santa Barbara County.