Aurora Aircraft Research Project, page 2

I found a good hit on the Aurora. It turns out that the Aurora might be the first trans-atmosphereic spy plane. The most intresting thing about the site is that it draws some facinating (and Undenyable) parallels between the Aurora and the X-33 project. Here are a few examples:
* The X-33 can go up to speeds of Mach 13 and the Aurora's top speed is somewhere between Mach 8 and 20.

* Both can go into the atmosphere and land like a conventional aircraft.

* The combined-cycle engine of the Aurora has rocket characteristics and the X-33 has a rocket engine.

While I am not saying the X-33 is the Aurora, I'm thinking that there may be an overlap in the technology. It might even be that the X-33 was part of a white world cover for the Aurora.

The above facts came from the fallowing webpage: Aurora

Tim
ATS Director of Counter-Ignorance

some say the aurora was a follow up project of the xb70 and dreamland resort says grumman built it and it was the b-2 and some say that it carried phoenix missles infinite would like someone to take over for him for the time being , any takers? also you guys should check out the thread in research called contest by zion mainframe i has info on aurora nd pdwes and scramjets. another sit called air-attack.com has good info on scrams and aurora under its abovetopsecret section and it has info on area 51 well i also went to NASA wallops island i tried to sneak in through the beach and got in enough to this gated nieghborhood area and found a gate to get to the main base and then a cop car pulled up behind the gate, so i ran but not before takin some crappy useless photos, but i saw a big hangar with these big white feul tanks beside them , i didnt see anything but they are hiding something. they have these 2 big towers with radar golf ball things and some windows which is probably where thay saw me from.well sunday night i decided to go back i got there right before dark and walked on the public beach heading torwards the beach of the base and right before it became dark i saw a gray aircraft flying at very high speed with no sound or contrails and i looked down for a few seconds and looked back up and it was gone. well i was waiting for security to change shifts before i entered the base but i later saw a long odd shaped black aircraft take off again very high speed and when i saw it , it was pretty high it looked like the aurora but i doubt it because there was no sound from it and the contrails were pretty normal this also eventually dissapeared . when security changed i went back to the hangar and it was open but it was empty. i left and came home and got back on ats and started to chat.
oh and your link doesnt work ghost. okay we will soon be getting a new member of the project, he is my newb ihmotep he will take over for infinite. hey delta what exactly is the hubu. in case you have not noticed i have been editing this post for the past few days and regarding Shugos post about the va. beach sighting, could be the aurora ,we have 2 rumored bases here, wallops island test center, NASA langley afb, and another base that i doubt it came from called oceana nas, northrup grummans hq is here in virginia beach and on dreamland resort it says aurora was a codename for the b-2, also i have seen f-117s at night here and b-2s so he could have seen one of those.also someone siad it being near langle afb and northrup grumman it could be a canceled a-12 i doubt it. nevermind Delta i know what habu is. it is what the japanese called the sr71.
Response to shugos 5/12 7:30 post , well you and me already disscussed it being fake or not. the xb70 valkyrie( check out my thread brilliant buzzard and hammerhead shaped aircraft for more pics) is stated by some people to look exactly like the xb70 and probably be the same thing and the buzzard was said to have used the codename aurora. so if these accusations are correct then the xb70 is aurora, but i believe xb70 was a bomber, it was. so then were not lookin at a spyplane unless disinformation was the case. also the xb70 crashing into an f-4 and losing one canard and crashing, it probably wouldnt be in use today, disinformation again maybe? but the most aurora sightings dont describe the xb-70 so maybe we are researching a different aircraft. the old testors sr-75 penetrators looked like the xb and the buzzard . and most people see an xr7 thunderdart as an aurora the penatrator carried that the buzzard was an aircraft carrier in the sky like the penatrator.so maybe your theory is right but i posted this on the first page. also the buzzard supposedly carried aurora. so let me put it like this, xb=buzzard=sr75 penatrator, pumkinseed = xr-7 thunderdart=aurora, then our theories would make sense.
i know area 51zone is ats rival but they got some good info about shugos claim on area 51 underground and a fake base, what really supports this claim is area 19, shugo says it is area 51s nucleur test site but others say it is the real area 51,now the underground part,well the site says hangar 18 could be an elavator to transport the black manta and aurora underground where all the real stuff is, most say it is a hangar for the aurora, and it could just be a regular hangar, the site also has a REAL pic of hangar 18(it could be a hangar at another base) that has those big feul storage tanks for hydrogen or liquid methane feul right beside it. this is something that puzzles me the only credible sighting was the 86 north sea sighting gibson claimed to have seen it refeuling from a kc-135 well the sr-71 had enough trouble refeuling so how would a plane as fast as the aurora refeul from a subsonic kc-135 without stalling? those pdwes must be pretty damn stable.

well i just checked out lockheeds website and they are developing what they call the kc-x a box wing aircraft that can refeul multiple aircraft and it says it meets all refeuling requirements so maybe it is fast enough for the aurora to refeul from even though i think i should not believe that.

[Edited on 9-5-2004 by machinegunjordan]

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[Edited on 15-5-2004 by machinegunjordan]

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Here are some more news articles I found online on some other sites:

Seperate Articles

POPULAR SCIENCE - MARCH 1993 OUT OF THE BLACK - SECRET MACH 6 SPY PLANE

Does the U.S. Air Force - or perhaps one of America's intelligences agencies - have a new secret spy plane in action? A growing body of evidence suggest that the answer is yes. A startling disclouse came recently when Chris Gibson, a British oil engineer and highly trained aircraft-spotter produced a sketch that captured the shape and size of an unusual aircraft he saw during daylight hours in August 1989, flying over his drilling rig in the North Sea. The expert eye-witness's drawing is the keystone that, with other evidence, provides an understanding of a secret hypersonic reconnaisance aircraft that is widely rumoured to exist, but routinely denied by U.S. officials. Its nickname is Aurora.

Gibson - a former member of the disbanded Royal Observer Corps, a group of volunteer aircraft-spotters - was able to estimate the strange airplane's length and width by comparing it with the known dimensions of the K-135 refueling tanker and two F-111 bombers flying alongside. But it wasnt until last year, when he came across a magazine design, that Gibson suddenly made sense of the sharp triangualr silhouette he saw.

Analysts believe that Aurora is an operational spy plane that replaces the retired Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Like its predecessor, Aurora costs several million dollars per flight, and is sent out only in missions where the plane's sensors can gather vital information unobtainable by satelite reconnaissance or other means.

More on this Article

Is this the Aurora - by Paul B. Thompson - Nebula Editor

One of the most shadowy of the U.S. Air Force's secret projects is the craft known only by the code name "Aurora." Rumor has it the ultra high speed plane (said by some to be capable of Mach 6) is the next generation of high altitude reconnaissance aircraft, replacing aging U-2 and SR-71 planes. Some aviation buffs speculate that Aurora is nothing less than a space plane, able to achieve orbit via horizontal takeoff like a normal jet. Called the "sky splitter," it reputedly uses an advanced PWDE (Pulse Detonation Wave Engine) system for propulsion, which produces the telltale "beads on a string" or "rings on a rope" contrail. Noisy low altitude night time sightings have been claimed by people who haunt the fringes of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Other unsubstantiated whispers claim Aurora uses extraterrestrial technology.

Our faithful correspondent in the southwest, Alfredo Garcia (who previously brought his excellent panoramic photos of Area 51 to ParaScope), has done it again. Recently, while photographing an unusual solar phenomenon from his back yard, Garcia caught what may be the first daylight pictures of a PWDE powered, high altitude aircraft.

More on this Article

Main Links

Stealth Watchers
www.wired.com...

Other Aurora Articles
www.holman.net...

The Black Budget
www.wired.com...

It's the world's wildest high-tech toy catalog, the Pentagon's annual Dear Santa letter. It includes secret weapons programs with baffiing code names such as Elegant Lady, Tractor Rose, Forest Green, Senior Citizen, Island Sun and Black Light, White Cloud and Classic Wizard. These are the "black budget" programs that pay for spy satellites, invent stealth cruise missiles, tinker with Ladar - laser radar - and experiment on aircraft that change color and helicopters that evade tracking systems. Covering expenditures for intelligence and weapons research, the Pentagon's black budget is the most titillating portion of the massive classification program that has swelled almost unabated since World War II.

Area 51 Program History
www.nwc.navy.mil...

OK... I throw out some info to people and they don't use it... *sigh* So I will.

Covering sliQ's part in this, it's possible the F-19 Designation went to the Aurora... since looking back there never was a 100% plausable reason for skipping the F-19 designation, other than the MiG-19 and, how are you gonna pull that one off? MiG-19 and F-19 do not sound alike at all... so therefore, that is an open option to an armed version of the Aurora... possibly one with the thought to be armed Phoenix Missiles. What follows below is some information on the F-19 Designation... also in the link provided a list of other missing designations.


The F-19 designation was never assigned. The official explanation by DOD was "to avoid confusion with MiG-19", which was generally regarded as very implausible (because so far no numbers had been skipped to avoid clashes with foreign designators). Therefore, it was much speculated whether F-19 was really skipped, and if so, for what real reason. One viable theory was that F-19 was originally allocated to (or at least reserved for) the F-117A Nighthawk, but eventually not used (see also article about Non-Standard DOD Aircraft Designations). The other main line of reasoning was that Northrop specifically requested the F-20 designator for its then new Tigershark (originally designated F-5G) to make it look as "the first of a new fighter generation" (i.e., the "20" series).

The truth is in fact a combination of the second idea and the official line. The designation "F-19A" was indeed officially skipped at Northrop's request. They wanted to redesignate the F-5G as F-20A, because they preferred an even number. The Soviet competitors in the export fighter market of the early 1980s all used odd numbers, and Northrop wanted to stand out from these. So the official "confusion with MiG-19"-story is in fact more or less close to the truth, although the phrase is a bit misleading. Nobody would "confuse" an "F-19A" with a MiG-19, especially because the latter was obsolete anyway at that time. To say it again, Northrop didn't want to avoid "confusion" with MiG-19 in particular, but to use an even number to stand out from all the Soviet odd ones. The F-20A designator was approved despite official recommendation by the USAF Standards Branch (at that time responsible for nomenclature assignments) to follow the regulations and use "F-19A".

The facts are documented by several letters exchanged between various USAF/DOD offices during the process of requesting and assigning the F-20A designator to Northrop. On 28 October 1982, HQ Aeronautical Systems Divison, USAF (apparently handling the F-5G program for the Air Force) wrote a letter to the USAF Standards Branch to request a new model number for the F-5G on behalf of Northrop Corporation.

As a side note, the name Tigershark for the F-20A was eventually approved on 30 March 1983. It had originally been requested on 4 September 1981 for the F-5G, but was then rejected "due to a proliferation of popular names for the F-5 aircraft series and the speculative nature of the F-5G venture" [USAF quote].

Next Number
The next available design number in the F-series is F-24. However, after the allocation of the out-of-sequence F-35 designation to the JSF, it's possible that a future manned fighter (if there will be one) would be designated F-36.

More Missing Designations

This is a Theory:

Background:
How many of you remember Reagan's National Aerospace Plane of the early '80's? As a breif reminder, the National Aerospace Plane was an idea for a spacecraft that would take off like a conventional airliner and then fly into space at Mach 25. The Program was the NASA X-30. It was cancled before anything was ever built. According to NASA, the design study phase of the program yelded large amounts of research Data that was put into storage after the Program was terminated.

Here's a link on the X-30:
www.fas.org..." target="_blank" class="postlink">X-30 NASP

Theory:
While the NASP was Never built, the research data fro the early phases of the program may have been used as a starting point for Aroura. Some of the technologies that were researched and partially developed under the NASP include: Scramjets, Titaniumaluminide( an ultra high tempatrue alloy of Titanium and Aluminium). High tempertrue composit materials. All of these technologies could be in use on the Aroura.

Tim
ATS Director of Counter-Ignorance

Originally posted by Shugo
OK... I throw out some info to people and they don't use it... *sigh* So I will.

Covering sliQ's part in this, it's possible the F-19 Designation went to the Aurora... since looking back there never was a 100% plausable reason for skipping the F-19 designation, other than the MiG-19 and, how are you gonna pull that one off? MiG-19 and F-19 do not sound alike at all... so therefore, that is an open option to an armed version of the Aurora... possibly one with the thought to be armed Phoenix Missiles. What follows below is some information on the F-19 Designation... also in the link provided a list of other missing designations.


The F-19 designation was never assigned. The official explanation by DOD was "to avoid confusion with MiG-19", which was generally regarded as very implausible (because so far no numbers had been skipped to avoid clashes with foreign designators). Therefore, it was much speculated whether F-19 was really skipped, and if so, for what real reason. One viable theory was that F-19 was originally allocated to (or at least reserved for) the F-117A Nighthawk, but eventually not used (see also article about Non-Standard DOD Aircraft Designations). The other main line of reasoning was that Northrop specifically requested the F-20 designator for its then new Tigershark (originally designated F-5G) to make it look as "the first of a new fighter generation" (i.e., the "20" series).

The truth is in fact a combination of the second idea and the official line. The designation "F-19A" was indeed officially skipped at Northrop's request. They wanted to redesignate the F-5G as F-20A, because they preferred an even number. The Soviet competitors in the export fighter market of the early 1980s all used odd numbers, and Northrop wanted to stand out from these. So the official "confusion with MiG-19"-story is in fact more or less close to the truth, although the phrase is a bit misleading. Nobody would "confuse" an "F-19A" with a MiG-19, especially because the latter was obsolete anyway at that time. To say it again, Northrop didn't want to avoid "confusion" with MiG-19 in particular, but to use an even number to stand out from all the Soviet odd ones. The F-20A designator was approved despite official recommendation by the USAF Standards Branch (at that time responsible for nomenclature assignments) to follow the regulations and use "F-19A".

The facts are documented by several letters exchanged between various USAF/DOD offices during the process of requesting and assigning the F-20A designator to Northrop. On 28 October 1982, HQ Aeronautical Systems Divison, USAF (apparently handling the F-5G program for the Air Force) wrote a letter to the USAF Standards Branch to request a new model number for the F-5G on behalf of Northrop Corporation.

As a side note, the name Tigershark for the F-20A was eventually approved on 30 March 1983. It had originally been requested on 4 September 1981 for the F-5G, but was then rejected "due to a proliferation of popular names for the F-5 aircraft series and the speculative nature of the F-5G venture" [USAF quote].

Next Number
The next available design number in the F-series is F-24. However, after the allocation of the out-of-sequence F-35 designation to the JSF, it's possible that a future manned fighter (if there will be one) would be designated F-36.

More Missing Designations

Intresting thought, I was under the Impression that the Aurora would be designated SR-? or TR-? (the question Marks stand for an unknown number), because it's a Spy Plane. But guessing the secrecy of the project, who knows! I've heard roumors of an SR-75, but I don't know if it's connected to Aurora. Maybe we can look into it.

Tim
ATS Director of Counter-Ignorance

First off:
Ghost... that's exactly what I thought. But, if they were to make a fighter version of the aircraft (see XR-7 Thunderdart) then that's a possible designation. I was just suggesting that theory.

EDWARDS AFB, CALIFORNIA
5.) APRIL 29, 2004

On Thursday, April 29th 20004, I was driving across the Mojave Desert near Edwards AFB on my way home from Arizona. My girlfriend and I heard a sonic boom. We didn't think much of it, since we know stuff is tested there all the time.

Not more than five minutes later, my girlfriend is excitedly pointing to the sky saying "Whoa, what's that?"

When I looked up, I saw a plane like nothing I've ever seen. It was pretty low...about 2500 ft AGL and it was flying directly over the highway. It lookes like it was on approach for landing. It had the silhouette of the Space Shuttle, with short, curved Delta wings. The nose section had a profile similar to the SR-71. The bottom was flat...I saw no air inlets and no jets. It was a dull-gray color.

I can't imagine something so secret flying in broad daylight, but I know of no plane that looks like this.

A picture of what may have been seen is shown below:


Also, it seems this person is a fellow ATS Member, and his report can be found as follows on the board:

The thread is:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

We get the best conicidences on ATS

[Edited on 12-5-2004 by Shugo]

Well, since right now things are bent out of shape, no one is doing exactly what they're supposed to here is some info on the XR-7 Thunderdart:

Pictures anyone?:


wave.prohosting.com...

Some info:

www.simviation.com...

The name "Aurora" came about from a 1986 Pentagon Budget document and was slotted to recieve a large sum of money. The project is suspected to contain two aircraft: a large SST that is the first stage of a two-stage aircraft/satellite launcher possibly developed following the Challenger explosion in 1986, and a smaller triangular HST that has been even more reported and speculated about. It is said to be the most remarkable flying machine ever built and is seen as the epitome of a century of aerospace development! I originally did this project for FS5 when I noticed an article in Popular Science in 1993 and later on bought the XR-7 Thunderdart plastic model kit (based on Aurora) by Testers Corp. Testors also made the SR-75 Penetrator model kit which is what my version is somewhat based upon. Since the true designations and confirmed existence are unknown, I used the same numbers as the kits since they make some sense, however those silly names will NOT be used. Since this is the largest project I have ever done, and all previous sims couldn't allow for the planes to be done properly it has taken several years of spare time to get to this point, therefore I have broken it down into several parts. The two main sections will deal with each aircraft: SR-75 and the XR-7.

I'm looking at some of these sites I'm seeing Mach 50, Mach 30, Mach 20, Mach 8... ect., ect.

Mach 50... ah, I doubt it.
Mach 30... not likely.
Mach 20... better, in the ball park.
Mach 08... Bet your money on it.

An additional spot found on ATS:

VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA
6.) 2000 - 2004 (No exact date given)

A few years ago, I was outside and it was the nighttime. I noticed this plane flying overhead of me. It was flying low yet you couldn't really hear it. It was in the exact shape of a triangle and it had all these lights on the bottom. The first thing that popped up in my head was a Night Hawk. The plane was black, thats for sure. It was flying low, and I mean LOW, not some faint thing, it was a very sharp triangle and the lights on the bottom were in a triangular pattern like in rows yet were going with the shape of the plane, which was a triangle, the lights weredots but were cleary visable and weren't tiny, like I said it was VERY VERY quiet and since it was dark too and the plane was black it would have been hard to detect if it didn't have all those lights. It also wasn't moving super fast. A very strange plane.

A link to the thread: www.abovetopsecret.com...

MachineGunJordan, that Area 51 picture is 1 of two things... it's either a fake, or it's just an above ground base. I doubt anyone has real true pictures of Area 51. A base so secret, no one would be allowed to view satilite photographs of a place such as that. However, on person did take a picture of the above base near Hangar 18.

There is a confirmed sighting that took place, and this picture is proof of such. This was taken from a peak near the base, near Hangar 18. The aircraft is rumored to be Aurora... and is the only factual Aurora Picture to date. The picture has been proven to not be fake. The craft is, however... white, with similar shape as the XB-70 Valkyrie, and has under-sided afterburners... described as a giant X-43.

A picture of all aircraft described below, followed by the picture that was taken at this base:

North American XB-70 Valkyrie


Dryden X-43A Hyper-X


Aurora XST


Tikaboo Peak Picture:
Story Link: www.dreamlandresort.com...


[Edited on 13-5-2004 by Shugo]

www.holman.net...

the above link is the source of the fallowing quoted info:

XR-7 Thunderdart:

Powered by two afterburning turbojets and two Pulse Detonation Wave Engines (PDWEs), The XR-7 Thunder Dart is capable of speeds far exceeding Mach 7! It is assumed this hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft is carried aloft and launched at 90,000 feet by the SR-75 Penetrator.

The PDWEs, though small and light, are capable of producing more than 55,000 pounds of thrust each. XR-7 turbojets are used for loiter, air-to-air refueling, and normal takeoffs and landings for flights to operating bases. PDWEs require special fuels, ZIP fuels, and ingnition inside the engine takes place through the use of frequency-timed laser light in a system called photon ignition.

Most of the fuel aboard the XR-7 is ZIP fuel, while a relatively small amount of JP-4, used in the turbojets, is carried. ZIP fuel also is circulated through the skin of the Thunder Dart to cool the structure before injection into the engines. Both aircraft - the SR-75 and the XR-7 - are equipped with standard arrays of photographic and reconnaisance gear in addition to the top secret remote sensing equpment used to "see" nuclear storage sites of the world's ever-increasing nuclear powers.

The XR-7 seems to be a very highly specilized aircraft. It says it is used to monotor Nuclear sites.

SR-75 Penetrator:
I can't find a good quoteable section to fill this part. the the evidence seems to suggest that the SR-75 in a more generalized spy plane with a mission simular to that of the SR-71 that it seems to be replacing.

Tim
ATS Director of Counter-Ignorance

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