{"id":455597,"date":"2026-09-06T18:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455597\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T18:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:50:12","slug":"mysterious-black-jet-that-emerged-at-long-beach-airport-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455597\/","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious Black Jet That Emerged At Long Beach Airport Identified"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tThe TWZ Newsletter<\/p>\n

Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.<\/p>\n

A handful of aviation photographers got a suprise eyeful of a very sleek and large aircraft silhouette on Thursday night at Long Beach Airport. One of them was Ricky Schol,<\/a> who saw the mysterious airframe emerge from a hangar, prompting a double take. It was the first time in his 16 years of aviation photography at the historic airport he\u2019d ever seen anything like it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was driving home past my local airport Thursday evening here in Southern California when I saw a bright light coming from a hangar I haven\u2019t seen open in a long time, so I doubled back to check it out,\u201d Schol told us. \u201cI was blown away when I pulled over and saw the future in front of my eyes. I had no clue what I was looking at. I jumped out of my vehicle and started taking pictures immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first glance I thought it was an F-117 Nighthawk<\/a> when driving by,\u201d said Schol, a plumber by trade. \u201cThat\u2019s why I doubled back to see. And to my surprise I saw something I\u2019ve never seen before, having no cockpit. It left me with a very curious feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"(Ricky Schol) <\/p>\n

Schol said he did some asking around and learned more details. He would soon learn that the mysterious aircraft design was the RAVN X, an aircraft meant to launch payloads into space<\/a>, made by Aevum Aerospace of Huntsville, Alabama<\/a>. Schol was kind enough to share some of the photos he took of the aircraft, which he said he saw from about 100 feet in the distance. You can find his work on Instagram at @aggressoraviation_<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As you can see from the images below, the aircraft bears the FAA N Number N567RX, which has been reserved by Aevum to an address at the airport, but it appears to be a mockup \u2014 one we have likely seen before.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Ricky Schol) <\/p>\n

\"\"(Ricky Schol) <\/p>\n

A mockup of the drone was introduced online with great fanfare in 2021 and described at the time by company CEO Jay Skylus as the \u201cmothership\u201d for a two-stage rocket able to carry a payload of just over 1,000 pounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From our story when the RAVN X was unveiled<\/a>: \u201cThe twin-engine Ravn X drone \u2014 described by the company as the first stage of the system \u2014 reportedly<\/a> weighs 55,000 pounds, is 80 feet long, and has a wingspan of 60 feet \u2014 roughly the size of an A-5 Vigilante.<\/a> The sleek drone\u2026 has seemingly been tailored for speed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the mockup roll-out, the company described what we noted back then was a \u201cvery ambitious, if not almost bizarre timeline\u201d for getting Ravn X into the air. The plan was to start with \u201cvehicle-level testing\u201d to obtain the required airworthiness certification and launch licensing for operations, a process that should take 18 months, Skylus claimed. From there, Aevum planned to secure airworthiness certification for the first-stage drone from the Federal Aviation Administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following that, the next step was to commence orbital launch tests from Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, by late 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Aevum<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tAevum Ravn X Autonomous Launch Vehicle Rollout\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether AEVUM achieved any of its goals. There are no details on the company website and the most recent information about RAVN X is from Gunter\u2019s Space Page<\/a>, a website that tracks launches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn December 2020 Aevum rolled out a mock-up of the Ravn-X carrier plane (although claimed to be a real prototype), but no further activities have been noticed so far,\u201d noted Gunter\u2019s Space Page. \u201cIt is doubtful, that any real hardware has been produced so far. By August 2024, all activities seem to have stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

We reached out to Skylus and Aevum for more details.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Aevum screencap) www.twz.com<\/p>\n

Given that RAVN X has all but disappeared from public notice, Schol and a few other photographers at the airport caught a rare glimpse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there from the time they pulled it out to the time they pulled it in,\u201d he told us. \u201cThey lined it up on the runway. It moved a little bit, but not much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schol said he didn\u2019t hear the engines or see any exhaust.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know exactly what they were testing or trying to accomplish that night,\u201d he proffered.<\/p>\n

Mockups can be modified for limited ground tests and other important work, which could be the case here. Regardless, RAVN X does appear to be still alive as a program.<\/p>\n

If we find out any details, we will pass them along.<\/p>\n

Contact the author: howard@twz.com<\/p>\n

Howard is a Senior Staff Writer for TWZ. He writes frequently about conflict, focusing heavily on the Middle East and Ukraine, and interviews with military and intelligence officials and industry leaders from around the globe. He lives near Tampa, Florida, home of U.S. Central Command, U.S. Special Operations Command.<\/p>\n

Tyler\u2019s passion is the study of military technology, strategy, as well as foreign policy, and he has fostered a dominant voice on those topics in the defense and national security space. Tyler was the creator of the hugely popular defense site Foxtrot Alpha before developing TWZ, which he continues to lead as the Editor-In-Chief to this day. <\/p>\n

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