wht is this?

Sitting inside Lindly's Appliance Store, Kammi Root is used to seeing large machinery towed down US 77. But what she saw Monday afternoon is something she won't soon forget.

“There was this funny sphere that went through on this big trailer and my first thought was, 'That looks like a UFO,’” said Root.

A huge 32 foot craft, wrapped in tarp, was as mysterious as the transport company who called Sheriff Don Read for help.

“They told us that it was an aircraft and that they had explored other ways to transport it but this was the best way for them to do it and they asked us not to say a whole lot about it,” said Read.

After all, the massive load's shape would certainly draw enough attention on its own.

“People were calling in saying, 'Oh they think they found a flying saucer. It looks like a flying saucer to us and we don't know for sure what it is,’” said Donetta Godsey with the Winfield Daily Courier.

For nearly an hour, officers helped maneuver the craft through Cowley County.

”The biggest thing that we had to deal with was down at the roundabout we had to remove a bunch of signs and markers because the load was so long it couldn't make the corner,” said Read.

Meanwhile, onlookers struggled to wipe the shock from their faces and the questions from their minds.

”What was that funny thing that was on that trailer that looked like something from somewhere else?” said Root.

So what in the world was it? Undersheriff Bill Mueller says it was an experimental aircraft from Northrop Grumman, possibly a new unmanned drone. It still has a ways to go. Its final destination is Maryland.

COWLEY COUNTY, Kansas -- Residents in Cowley County are still talking about a mystery craft, seen being towed down US 77 Monday.