Triangulation would have been possible if all the data was accurate, however the video illustrations exaggerate both the size and speed of the unknown aircraft.
There is no data. We are once again working off guesses.
The crew apparently looked through their records and saw fit to note the altitude they were flying at, and yet not one of them has given the same location and direction as the others.
And I use the word "aircraft" here because it had aircraft like qualities,
How many aircraft in the 1950s hovered motionless in the sky? (apart from blimps)
How many aircraft in the 1950s (or even now for that matter) get smaller and disappear?
Its appearance was that of a flying wing and it made no instantaneous high speed maneuvers nor did it exhibit any other performance characteristics that we can be certain were beyond the technology of the day.
Except hovering and getting smaller and disappearing.
Therefore apart from the impression it made on the witnesses, I wouldn't say that it couldn't be explained by aircraft technology of that time.
The YB-35 and YB-49 both had wingspans of 172 feet and the top speed of the YB-49 was almost 500 MPH, plenty enough to outrun a WV-2.
Which would be relevant if the object was moving, but apparently it wasn't.
The apparent hovering may have been a result of the aircraft coming directly toward the observers on the ground.
Someone hasn't being paying attention.
The two sets of observers were at roughly 90° angles to the object (not exactly 90° but enough so that the object couldn't have been heading directly away from both sets of observers), Johnson claiming to be looking due West and the plane about 45 miles south of his position heading approximately North North West towards the object (after they had changed course to take a closer look).
I see that illuson out my window here daily. When the airborne observers headed toward the unknown aircraft, it then headed away from them and departed the area.
No they didn't, the majority of them simply said it got smaller and then disappeared.
Gound observers say it took about 90 seconds to disappear from view.
Mentioning gaining altitude. Note that when a lenticular cloud gets caught in a updraft it will rise into colder air and different air pressure making it dissolve quickly.
Supposing it went into a full power evasive maneuver, as appears to be the case,
Why would you even
suppose that, there is nothing in the story to suggest such a thing.
and considering that it was already quite distant, a thin black aircraft another 11 or 12 miles out could easily seem to disappear from view.
Lets look at the eye witness statements and glean what we can from them (as inaccurate as they may be, it's really all we have to go on).
The flight crew say many contradictory things about their own position and the position of the object. One says somewhere over Santa Barbra Island, but that would put the plane due West of it and the other crew members seem to be pointing towards North North West (between Catalina and Palos though one has the plane as far up the coast as Santa Monica). The only island in the correct direction (and due West from Johnson's ranch) is Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz at it's nearest point is 49 miles form Johnson's ranch and
at least 48 miles from the estimated position of the plane.
A "full power evasive maneuver" (pretending that it was simultaneously flying directly away from both observation positions), would see the mythical flying wing traveling at 500mph for 90 seconds (about 13 miles).
So the object would be over 60 miles away from both groups of observers.
Can you tell me if you could see an object that was 172' wide at 48 miles, let alone watch it disappear even further away than that (bearing in mind the flight crew on the observing plane were using their eyes and not binoculars?
The flying wings were also some of the first attempts at RADAR stealth, so not being detected by them may not be so unusual.
Small clouds have
always had that technology.
Probable Conclusion: A flying wing type aircraft similar to the YB-49.
Or not.
