Gimbal: Visualisation · Signals from the Periphery

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Scenario

Angles only

Clip time

T+0.0 s

Assumed range

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Screen tilt

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GIMBAL · THE ROTATION FILE
filmed Jan 2015 · Roosevelt CSG · ATFLIR
released 2017 (NYT · TTSA) · confirmed 2020 (DoD)
the margins: ALT 25,000 · CAS 240 · AZ 54L→7R
the question: what rotates: it, or the camera?
no range on screen · identity: open

Feature

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Evidence

fact ⇄ what kind of claim · live

ALT 25,000 · CAS 240 · BLK · AZ 54L→7R

the symbology printed on the released frames

REPORTED

The clip is a genuine Navy record

DoD confirmed and re-released it · 27 Apr 2020

MEASURED

A tracking pod must roll near the nose

gimbal geometry: the pole every pass crosses

MODELLED

The rotation steps land on the tracking bumps

West 2021: glare fixed to the pod, scene kept level

MODELLED

One ray family: range ⇄ behaviour

a tracking camera records directions, not positions

MODELLED

"A whole fleet of them" on the SA page

crew audio + Graves 2023 · no radar data public

REPORTED

What it was: distant jet's glare, or unknown

no public identification exists · the file is open

READING

View

Scenario · how do you read it?

REPORTED · the recorded angles, with no range assumed

▶ Replay loops the 34 s clip in real time · the physics readouts never depend on playback

The replay

Clip time0.0 s

the 34 released seconds. The jet banks left, the nose swings toward the line of sight, and the last ten seconds are where everything happens.

Assumed range…

the one dial the video cannot supply: no RNG ever appears on screen. Slide it and the same recorded angles become a different object doing different things.

De-rotation stiction…

how many degrees of error the pod tolerates before its roll axis catches up in one jump. Zero is a smooth rotation; the real pod moved in steps.

Wind at altitude120 kt

"the wind's 120 knots to the west," says the cockpit. Airspeed of any implied track rides on this dial; the day's radiosonde was never published.

Overlays

Recorded line of sight

The pole cone

Labels

Readout · exact from the angles + your dials

Az off the nose

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Bank now

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Screen tilt now

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Leveling roll (ideal)

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Off the pole

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Implied ground speed

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Implied airspeed

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Status

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What is reported vs measured vs modelled

Reported: every number printed on the frames: ALT 25,010, 0.58 M, the azimuth counting 54 L down to 7 L, the bank arcs, and the crew audio with its fleet and its 120-knot wind. Measured: the clip's provenance: DoD confirmed and re-released it in 2020. Modelled: the pod geometry, the leveling roll, the stepped rotation, and the range→track family: exact arithmetic on stated inputs. Reading: what the shape was. This instrument takes no side.

Where this drawing takes liberties

The scene is calibrated, not replayed: the jet arc and line of sight are reconstructed so the reported symbology (ALT, CAS, the azimuth sweep, the bank history) comes out right; the true headings and the day's sky are not public. The jet is drawn far larger than life, the pod head larger still, or you would see neither. The Screen view is a legibility reconstruction, not frame-accurate ATFLIR symbology. The readouts are never stylized: angles, rolls, ranges and speeds follow the formulas exactly.

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drag = orbit · scroll = zoom · watch the nose swing toward the line of sight, then watch the pod pay for it