Mysterious Black Jet That Emerged At Long Beach Airport Identified

By Howard Altman , Tyler Rogoway

Published Sep 6, 2026 2:06 PM EDT

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, 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’d ever seen anything like it.

“I 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’t seen open in a long time, so I doubled back to check it out,” Schol told us. “I 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.”

“At first glance I thought it was an F-117 Nighthawk when driving by,” said Schol, a plumber by trade. “That’s why I doubled back to see. And to my surprise I saw something I’ve never seen before, having no cockpit. It left me with a very curious feeling.”

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 , made by Aevum Aerospace of Huntsville, Alabama . 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_ .

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 — one we have likely seen before.

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 “mothership” for a two-stage rocket able to carry a payload of just over 1,000 pounds.

From our story when the RAVN X was unveiled : “The twin-engine Ravn X drone — described by the company as the first stage of the system — reportedly weighs 55,000 pounds, is 80 feet long, and has a wingspan of 60 feet — roughly the size of an A-5 Vigilante. The sleek drone… has seemingly been tailored for speed.”

During the mockup roll-out, the company described what we noted back then was a “ very ambitious, if not almost bizarre timeline” for getting Ravn X into the air. The plan was to start with “vehicle-level testing” 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.

Following that, the next step was to commence orbital launch tests from Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, by late 2021.

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’s Space Page , a website that tracks launches.

“In 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,” noted Gunter’s Space Page . “It is doubtful, that any real hardware has been produced so far. By August 2024, all activities seem to have stopped.”

We reached out to Skylus and Aevum for more details.

(Aevum screencap) www.twz.com

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

“I was there from the time they pulled it out to the time they pulled it in,” he told us. “They lined it up on the runway. It moved a little bit, but not much.”

Schol said he didn’t hear the engines or see any exhaust.

“I don’t know exactly what they were testing or trying to accomplish that night,” he proffered.

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.

If we find out any details, we will pass them along.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

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作者：霍华德·奥特曼、泰勒·罗戈威

发布于美国东部时间2026年9月6日下午2:06

周四晚间，几位航空摄影师在长滩机场意外地看到了一架外形流畅、体型庞大的飞机。其中一位是里奇·斯科尔，他看到这架神秘的飞机从机库中驶出，不禁回头多看了几眼。在他16年的航空摄影生涯中，这是他第一次在这座历史悠久的机场见到如此景象。

“周四晚上，我开车经过南加州当地的机场回家，突然看到一个很久没开过的机库里透出明亮的光，于是我掉头回去看看，”斯科尔告诉我们。“我把车停到路边，眼前的一切让我震惊不已。我完全不知道自己看到了什么。我立刻跳下车，开始拍照。”

“我开车路过时，第一眼看到它，以为是一架F-117夜鹰战斗机，”身为水管工的斯科尔说道。“所以我就掉头回去看了看。令我惊讶的是，我看到了一架我从未见过的飞机，它没有座舱。这让我感到非常好奇。”

Schol说他四处打听，了解到了更多细节。他很快得知，这架神秘的飞机是RAVN X，一种用于将有效载荷送入太空的飞机，由位于阿拉巴马州亨茨维尔的Aevum Aerospace公司制造。Schol慷慨地分享了他拍摄的一些飞机照片，他说他是在大约100英尺（约30米）的距离外看到的。你可以在Instagram上找到他的作品，账号是@aggressoraviation_。

从下面的图片中可以看到，这架飞机的 FAA N 编号为 N567RX，Aevum 公司已将其预留给机场的某个地址，但它看起来像是一个模型——我们以前可能见过。

2021 年，该公司在网上隆重推出了一款无人机模型，当时公司首席执行官 Jay Skylus 将其描述为能够携带 1000 多磅有效载荷的两级火箭的“母舰”。

根据我们之前报道的 RAVN X 发布会：“这款双引擎 RAVN X 无人机——该公司称之为该系统的第一阶段——据报道重达 55,000 磅，长 80 英尺，翼展 60 英尺——大小与 A-5 Vigilante 攻击机大致相同。这款外形流畅的无人机……似乎是专为速度而设计的。”

在模型展示期间，该公司描述了一个我们当时就认为“非常雄心勃勃，甚至近乎匪夷所思”的Ravn X升空时间表。Skylus声称，该计划首先进行“车辆级测试”，以获得必要的适航认证和运营许可，这一过程预计需要18个月。之后，Aevum计划从美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）获得第一阶段无人机的适航认证。

此后，下一步计划于 2021 年底前从佛罗里达州杰克逊维尔的塞西尔航天港开始进行轨道发射测试。

目前尚不清楚AEVUM是否实现了任何目标。该公司网站上没有相关信息，关于RAVN X的最新信息来自Gunter's Space Page，这是一个追踪火箭发射的网站。

“2020年12月，Aevum公司推出了一架Ravn-X载机的模型（尽管声称是真正的原型机），但迄今为止，尚未发现任何进一步的活动，”Gunter's Space Page网站指出。“目前为止，是否生产出任何真正的硬件令人怀疑。到2024年8月，所有活动似乎都已停止。”

我们已联系 Skylus 和 Aevum 以获取更多详情。

（Aevum 截图）www.twz.com

鉴于 RAVN X 几乎已经从公众视野中消失，Schol 和机场的其他几位摄影师难得一见地瞥见了它。

“我从他们把飞机拉出来一直待到他们把它拉回来，”他告诉我们。“他们把它对准跑道。飞机稍微动了一下，但不多。”

斯科尔说他没听到引擎声，也没看到任何尾气。

“我不太清楚他们那天晚上究竟在测试什么，或者想要达成什么目标，”他说道。

模型可以进行修改，用于有限的地面测试和其他重要工作，这可能就是本例的情况。无论如何，RAVN X 项目似乎仍在进行中。

如果我们了解到任何细节，我们会及时告知。

联系作者：howard@twz.com

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