Google Earth Cruise Missile

[PcManiac]

Hey guys, check out this photo from google earth!
it is a cruise missile flying over Utah!
the coordinations are approx:
38"13'35.80 N
112"17'56.60 W

[Bender10]

Cool. I wonder if anyone knows it's missing?

[Steve Lux]

Dang, did they loose another $1,000,000 missile? Don't you just hate it when that happens?

[Nflight]

Since I have Google earth installed I put in the coordinates and found the critter zooming across the sky. There is a town located just south of this pictured situation and I can't find a name for the place anywhere!

This seems Odd

[NVM]

its just a passenger jet.look closer in the first post, you can see the rest of the wings.

[Beerknurd]

haha, it's just a plane!!

[PcManiac]

what.... lol hmmmmmmmmmm gulible?

[AMDave]

A plane with dark wings and white/light body is still interesting.
The previous incarnation of the MD-90 was the DC-9.
The military version of that is the C-9 Nightingale.
The C-9 generally comes painted with white above the mid-line of the body and grey below the line and on the wings. It also came dressed with a black nose which is one of the features clear in the picture. The other feature is the reflection from the wing stubs. Many planes maintain a white or chrome strip in that area where passengers are supposed to exit in an emergency (I am not sure of the real reason for this but it is common) although for a C-9 that might be out of place depending on the age of the photo.
That said I still doubt it was a passenger jet.
Given the overhead profile and the hint at a passenger nature I'd say more likely a VC-9C.
If that is the case, now that it is tagged lets see how long it takes to be erased ;)

[Frederic Brillouet]

I think its the space shuttle

[Jim_Clark]

A cruise missle did not surprise me, since the government uses desolate areas in Arizona and Utah to test missles, etc. I found the object in Google Earth using the coordinates. I could see a contrail behind it for about a mile. Tracing further back in that direction 2.83 miles, I found a round object that could plausibly be a launch pad, at the end of a road. I also found what appears to be a dirt road from the presumed launch pad running generally north parallel to the flight path and slightly east of it.

THEN I went back to read the rest of this thread and found the post that identifies the object as a passenger jet! Looking closely at the Google Earth view, I do see the shape of the wings in black. Had I been thinking passenger jet instead of cruise missle, I might have traced the flight path back to Bryce Canyon airport to the south. It just shows how a little bias can change your observations.