What is it? Game 106

Posted by Alex in What Is It on July 23, 2009 at 7:10 am


This week’s collaboration with the always awesome What Is It? Blog brings us this strange object – can you guess what it is for? Place your guess in the comment section – no prize this week, so you’re playing for the fun of it.

For more clues, check out the What is it? Blog – Good luck!

Update 7/26/09 – That was too easy! The answer: A dart aerial gunnery target, this dart tow-target was fired upon by F-84F pilots of the 162nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, Ohio Air National Guard, Springfield, Ohio, during 1968 summer training exercises in Michigan. It was towed behind another airplane on 1,500 to 2,000 feet of cable and was equipped with a radar reflector to permit the use of radar gunsights. It was returned to earth by parachute upon completion of a gunnery mission. The damage was caused by .50-cal. bullets.

Congratulations to Jared who got it right first!


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COMMENT

38 comments to "What is it? Game 106"

  1. CLynch
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:13 am

    A very large sand anchor?

  2. Jared
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:15 am

    Looks from the holes to be some kind of target, probably towed behind a plane for other fighters to shoot at.

  3. Briannana
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:17 am

    Well, it is very clearly the tip of a giant's lawn dart, or the barbed arrowhead of God.

  4. Jared
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:19 am

    God does shoot some mighty large arrows. :p

  5. ike93292
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:29 am

    sure looks like the head of a rocket to me.

  6. peargynt
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:32 am

    some kind of large wood drill?

  7. SWFLguy
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:37 am

    It has "178th" on it-- a fighter wing--target !

  8. Neal
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:42 am

    I think #7 nailed it.

  9. GavinC
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:51 am

    Target practice drone, or an anchor for a large ship.

  10. Thales
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:51 am

    Yeah, this one is easy for military aviation geeks

    It is a towed arial target for air to air gunnery practice. Specifically, it is at the Wright Patterson AF museum in Dayton Ohio. The holes in it are from 50cal bullets.

    IIRC, this specific target was used by a reserve/national guard unit near Toledo before it was retired.

  11. gurnorg
    July 23rd, 2009 at 7:56 am

    I was wondering where my Extra large LAWN DART went.

  12. Miss Cellania
    July 23rd, 2009 at 8:16 am

    It's an instrument of torture, set on little tiny wheels to confuse us.

  13. jaxmickey
    July 23rd, 2009 at 8:17 am

    this is an arial target that is towed behind an aircraft. Jared and Thales "hit" it!

  14. Scotty A
    July 23rd, 2009 at 8:22 am

    Hey, one of those was in The Starfighters! MST3K has taught me something useful!

  15. Melphistopheles
    July 23rd, 2009 at 8:30 am

    #14 beat me to the punch!

    Everything I ever needed to know, I learned from MST3K.
    Although in "The Starfighters" it was never adequately explained why they called the sea rescue device a "Poopy Suit". Hmmmm......

  16. Kate
    July 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 am

    After the 187th try, rocket scientist decided that making a paper airplane out of steel is just not going to work.

  17. Gauldar
    July 23rd, 2009 at 9:16 am

    Yoda's X-Wing.

  18. Jose Galaviz
    July 23rd, 2009 at 9:44 am

    a third world country aerial warcraft?

  19. gurnorg
    July 23rd, 2009 at 9:55 am

    Damn Thales,

    That IS an accurate answer.

  20. K!P
    July 23rd, 2009 at 10:46 am

    prob an arial target, or something to test radar on

  21. George
    July 23rd, 2009 at 11:21 am

    Practice bomb!!!!

  22. Mouserz
    July 23rd, 2009 at 11:32 am

    ITS A TRAP! or a decoy.

  23. Jay in STL
    July 23rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    Biggest.....lawn dart......EVER!

  24. Mambo
    July 23rd, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    Conan's OTHER club.

  25. johnleemedia
    July 23rd, 2009 at 1:14 pm

    it is used in minesweeping, at the far end of a cable, dragged through the water by a minesweeper, the cable snags the mines

  26. glen
    July 23rd, 2009 at 2:21 pm

    Anchor.

  27. JamesM
    July 23rd, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    Until I read #10, I imagined this was a test payload. Like everyone keeps saying, a giant lawn dart... to be used for dropping mock bombs and seeing where they land for accuracy.

  28. Thales
    July 23rd, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=404

    More info is available on the AFMuseum page. I was wrong though. The 187th is based out of Alabama. The target in Dayton is from the 162nd.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/187th_Fighter_Wing

  29. Adragontattoo
    July 23rd, 2009 at 3:41 pm

    Its a Jart.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawn_darts

    Its one of the ones that were banned in the 80's for being a bit too violent.

  30. slim22
    July 23rd, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    Believe it or not, it's a super jumbo arrowhead used to decommission Decepticons.

  31. Staxeon
    July 23rd, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    Project Super Dreidel reaches phase 178, a full-scale mockup.

  32. vonskippy
    July 23rd, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    Obviously it's a trolley, used for moving stuff (like that thing sitting on it in the photo).

  33. jose madriz
    July 23rd, 2009 at 6:59 pm

    wind mill tail

  34. Christophe
    July 23rd, 2009 at 8:48 pm

    178th is for the 178th Fighter Wing training force in Ohio.

  35. JS
    July 24th, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    It is a stopper to be placed in rocket engines, to protect the innards from the elements.

  36. Matt
    July 24th, 2009 at 12:33 pm

    It's a post card from france. (See Coneheads on SNL)

  37. Charlie (Colorado)
    July 24th, 2009 at 2:59 pm

    Towed radar or sonar target.

  38. Gambit
    July 25th, 2009 at 1:07 am

    well if that is a starfighter, then the ark of the covenant is probably hidden over in the shadows. area 51, anybody?


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