What is this delta-winged aircraft?

Question

I spotted this recently. The distance and poor camera makes it really hard to determine what it is. Any help appreciated. Thanks.

It could be some kind of top secret aircraft. Did you take this picture and if you did than where. — Ethan, Sep 08 '15 at 23:32

score 78 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 10 '15 at 10:24

78

Took a fair bit of trial and error on the very vague registration on the port wing :)

F-PDHV (D-Plane 1)

The Verhees D-Plane 1 is a Belgian homebuilt flying wing, designed by Verhees Engineering and supplied as plans for amateur construction.

Picture from below:

^{David Osborne/ Aeroprints Source}

edited Sep 10 '15 at 10:24

A E

answered Sep 08 '15 at 23:45

Thunderstrike

17

great sleuth work! – Peter Sep 09 '15 at 04:20
Wow, that's very interesting. I saw the picture and assumed it was fighter or bomber sized! – Dan Sep 09 '15 at 11:07
8

@Dan This is often the problem with photos that have no frame of reference: You can't tell if it's something really big flying very high, or something fairly small flying very low. – voretaq7 Sep 09 '15 at 17:06
4

@Dan And I thought it was a UFO! (Which is was... until MikeFoxtrot identified it...) – Michael Sep 09 '15 at 23:44
@Dan, I was assuming the other end of the scale: somebody's toy plane or drone. – Mark Sep 09 '15 at 23:57
3

and i almost thought its a top secret aircraft and the OP of question will be in a heap of trouble soon :D – RicoRicochet Sep 10 '15 at 07:43
1

@RicoRicochet If a regular civvie can snap a photo of it in plain view, it's pretty certain that it's not a top secret aircraft. ;) – J... Sep 10 '15 at 12:20
4

@J... in fact it wasn't an aircraft at all. That was just swamp gas you saw. – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Sep 10 '15 at 15:22
There's a great real-life example of mistaken assumption by a very experienced witness, due to lack of frame of reference, in the second answer here. – Bobson Sep 11 '15 at 01:22