Secret Spy Plane (Aurora etc...).

If the replacement for the SR71 exists or other exotic aircraft (which in my opinion do exist) then in what year do people feel that the government would go public with their existence, especially with respect for the SR71 replacement.

I think the story behind the F-117 was someone took a photo of it with a plane in tail. I'm not sure of other cases, such as the SR71's declassification?

They'll probably only anounce it if:

1. One crashs and the media gets a hold on it. That's how the U-2 got outed. If the Russians hadn't plastered it all over the papers, it would possibly still be classified Top Secret.
2. One or more pilots get killed because they run into mountains in the middle of the night. Thats what happened with the F-117: the generals decided they were killing too many pilots and needed to practice in daylight instead.
3. The current Prez at the time wants to impress someone. That's how the SR-71 came to light, as well as the Corona spy satellites.
4. One or more get shot down by friendly fire. That hasn't happened with a black project yet, as far as I know, but it's a very real possibilty. Rather than briefing everybody in the military not to shoot at the "UFO' and hope the news didn't leak out, it would be easier to just announce it then stonewall on details.

Originally posted by rand
1. One crashs and the media gets a hold on it. That's how the U-2 got outed. If the Russians hadn't plastered it all over the papers, it would possibly still be classified Top Secret.

I don't really see why they would still keep the U-2 secret if it hadn't been outed by the USSR. Even though it is still used this is only because its declassification has led to it being flown from open air force bases across the world eg. Akrotiri and bases in the middle east. If it had been kept classified it wouldn't be as widely used as it is today and there is little point in keeping a recon system secret if you have declassified its superior successor IMO.

#5 Reveal it, but refer to it as a 'Technology Demonstrator', not an operational aircraft. Or...
#5A reveal it as a developed and/or manned version of of some recent test model. Like, the X-43, maybe...?

Also on the point of the U-2, the only thing Russia revealed was that it was a spy plane. In reality, the existence of the plane itself was made public before that, as a 'Weather Recon.' aircraft and as an experimental plane to test the F-104's fuel system at high altitude. I got that surprise when I bought a 1959 copy of the 'Observer's Guide to Aircraft', and the Angel was in it. Russia revealed the mission, not the plane.

originally posted by: thedopeness
If the replacement for the SR71 exists or other exotic aircraft (which in my opinion do exist) then in what year do people feel that the government would go public with their existence, especially with respect for the SR71 replacement.

I think the story behind the F-117 was someone took a photo of it with a plane in tail. I'm not sure of other cases, such as the SR71's declassification?

I know that this thread is 16 years old, but there is a new unmanned spyplane being deployed by the US Air Force to replace the SR-71, called the RQ-180. Lockheed Martin's unveiling of the SR-71 hypersonic spyplane concept in 2013 further reinforces the doubts that Aurora skeptics harbored in the 1990s after the SR-71 was brought back into service, but the RQ-180 has ended up being seen as less development-risky than the SR-71 in terms of an SR-71 successor.

Links:
aviationweek.com...
aviationweek.com...
www.19fortyfive.com...