I've been thinking

About this Aurora and that supposed sighting in the North Sea.

Now, heres my line of thinking. Bear in mind its 2355 and Im tired.

OK, this plane is a hypersonic aircraft right? And it has very high v speeds, right? It needs a long long long runway in order to land, because of its high landing speed.

Now, bear in mind the cruising speed, or even the full speed of a KC-135 that was supposedly refueling it. It would be much lower than the safe landing speed of the Aurora.

So. Did the North Sea sighting really happen, or is the A/C not quite as fast as once thought?

Does anyone see what Im trying to say? As I said its late, and I dont make sense to myself sometimes.

Thoughts?

um, the aurora wont need a long runway, it will just use a standard runway, Just beacause it flys amazingly fast doesnt mean it has to be amazingly fast all the time, im sure it can fly at 300 miles an hour as well as 3000 miles an hour.

I have two possible theories. First what if the data on the minimum fiying speed of the Aroura is incorrect? If this is the case the plane seen over the North Sea could still be the Aroura.

My second theory is: What if the plane spotted over the North Sea on that day wasn't an Aroura? This Does NOT mean Aroura is not real, it only means there is another aircraft flying that looks similar. It would be foolish to think that the Aroura is the Only delta shaped plane out there. Maybe we think we're chasing one plane and there are really two.

Tim

I think between us, we're going to confuse and baffle the whole Aurora wathing community!

Seriously, interesting theories.

I think that it is using somekind of different powerplant which stil use somekind of fusil fuel. but because of the different powerplant it can fly verry fast but also very slow and can land on a very small space. I can not remember the name of the aircraft but a US transport aircraft has the landing record of using the smallest landing and take off strip. As for as I know it is being made by boeing so they know how to do it why not use that tech in the aurora. maybe the technology came from the aurora instead.

I think you're thinking of the C17. That can land in tiny places.

Maybe it did come the Aurora? Who knows.

But than boeing has something to do with it too because the c17 is being made by boeing

I'm of the opinion that the North Sea sighting was not the Aurora but possibly the A-12, the newest stealth fighter. There are a couple of reasons I believe this. The size of the aircraft reported is too small to be an aircraft of the Aurora's speed and purpose. The Aurora is the size of a 727. The purpose of the aircraft is to be able to fly anywhere in the world in a matter of hours, in order to do that it has to be able to carry enough fuel to make it half way across the world and part way back. You have to remember the that world isn't littered with refueling planes equiped to handle exotic planes with exotic fuels.

[Edited on 24-10-2003 by intensity]

The aurora may not even need a runway to land it could have VTOL or antigravity technology.

the key to the C-17 extremely good takeoff performance is the blown flaps, it diverts thrust form the turbofans and forces it into the trailing edge of the wing creating airflow over the wings and thus creating lift, it allows the plane to fly at very low speeds and takeoff and land in short spaces, unfortunatly this system is useless on the aurora, because of its mixed delta wing configuration and engine location, its very difficult to add flaps to a deltawing, because they would act like the elevators and constantly push the nose down, rather than aiding in lift. plus the engines exhaust are located at the rear of the trailing edge of the wing, to divert the thrust up and over the wing would require very large and very heavy ducting. which is no good on a hypersonic aircraft

the north sea sighting
the A-12 is a flying wing thats 36ft long and has wings swept back at 20 degrees, the F-111 is 74ft long, the black deltawinged plane spotted refuelling over the north sea was larger than the F-111 and was also described as having its wings swept back at 70 degrees, there is no way it could have been the A-12.

BTW the tankers that were used to refuel the SR-71's with the exotic fuel it needed are still very active and are still deployed off american soil, so why keep a whole fleet of tankers active to refuel a plane which is out of service(SR-71) or a plane that does not exist(Aurora) and why are the tankers not deployed on american soil

www.space.com...

Is this the Aurora going into mass production?