# Colorado Nighttime Drone Swarm Mystery **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 25, 2019, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-nighttime-drone-swarm-mystery/845385 "2019-12-25T02:40:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-nighttime-drone-swarm-mystery/845385/1 "2019-12-25T02:40:29Z")
[Night drone flights remain a mystery to Colorado authorities](https://apnews.com/1bb099d3e59294a6931671a4941b89f2)! > [@](#): > > The purpose of recent nighttime drone flights over northeast Colorado has remained a mystery to authorities who are trying to learn the identities of the operators. > > The drones have flown over Phillips and Yuma counties for the last week, the Denver Post reported Monday. > > The Phillips County Sheriff’s Office cannot explain where the drones are coming from or who is flying them. > > The Federal Aviation Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Army Forces Command said they do not have information about the aircraft. > > The group of at least 17 drones have estimated wing spans of 6 feet (1.8 meters) and fly between 7 and 10 p.m., Phillips County Sheriff Thomas Elliott said. > > The drones remain about 200 to 300 feet (61 to 91 meters) in the air and fly steadily in square patterns of about 25 miles (40 kilometers), Elliott said. > > “They’ve been doing a grid search, a grid pattern,” Elliott said. “They fly one square and then they fly another square.” Sounds to me like some private person or enterprise is doing real world testing of a new drone swarm AI, prolly one specifically created in tandem with the drones. Four drones that size working together could carry quite a load, I bet. No idea what 17 (or more) of them could do… but now I’m thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-nighttime-drone-swarm-mystery/845385/2 "2019-12-25T03:16:56Z")
South Park was the first with drone swarms. > **[The Magic Bush](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Bush)** > > "The Magic Bush" is the fifth episode in the eighteenth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 252nd overall episode, it was written and directed by series co-creator and co-star Trey Parker. The episode premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on October 29, 2014. The episode lampoons the use of drone airplanes, leaked nude celebrity photos, and the shooting of Michael Brown and the following Ferguson unrest. > Cartman goes to Butters' home and finds out that ... ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-nighttime-drone-swarm-mystery/845385/3 "2019-12-25T04:23:27Z")
I feel like if that happened in Florida, Florida Man would have hit them with a shotgun and ‘appropriated’ them before they were in the air for more than a few minutes. In fact, same thing goes for the midwest or really anywhere that has a big hunting community and people have shotguns practically at an arms length at any given time. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-nighttime-drone-swarm-mystery/845385/4 "2019-12-25T05:11:18Z")
The timber companies are using them in my neck of the woods. One scuttled in a tree here. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-nighttime-drone-swarm-mystery/845385/5 "2019-12-25T06:12:03Z")
I wonder what those drones look like. The word “drone”, in the context of privately owned little aircraft, has usually been used to mean quadcopters or similar. But the description of 6-foot wing spans sounds like they are fixed-wing aircraft, like smallish airplanes. What are these? Do they hover? Are they extraterrestrial? Are they looking for someone to abduct? ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2019, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-nighttime-drone-swarm-mystery/845385/6 "2019-12-25T07:31:08Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I wonder what those drones look like. The word “drone”, in the context of privately owned little aircraft, has usually been used to mean quadcopters or similar. But the description of 6-foot wing spans sounds like they are fixed-wing aircraft, like smallish airplanes. What are these? Do they hover? > > Are they extraterrestrial? Are they looking for someone to abduct? No. Merely probe. It’s a catch-and-release.