Aurora in Gloucestershire?

I have noticed quite recently an increase of activity in the skies over Gloucestershire and last week, quite by accident, I was looking towards the city when I noticed several exhausts/contrails which appeared to be doughnut shaped and [to the naked eye] several feet distant to each other.

Coupled with information I received about the biggest former RAF/USAF base in our county and the suggestion that all is not what it should appear to be in the B2 hangars, does this mean that the much fabled Mach 9 Aurora reconnaissance aircraft is operating from said airfield?

When one considers the runways at said airfield were recently extended and resurfaced at a cost of several million £s or $s, could it [Aurora] be operating against our old sparring partner Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi?

It will be pretty easy to tell.

On sunny days they will smudge your skies.

All you will ever see is it's spiral exhaust.

reply to post by fritz


which base are you refering to?

reply to post by fritz


Are you near RAF Faiford? en.wikipedia.org...

RAF Fairford (IATA: FFD, ICAO: EGVA) is a Royal Air Force station in Gloucestershire, England. It is a standby airfield, not in everyday use. Its most prominent use in recent years has been as an airfield for United States Air Force B-52s during the 2003 Iraq War, Operation Allied Force in 1999, and the first Gulf War in 1991. It is "the USAF's main bomber airfield in the European theatre".[1]

I know it has a long runway and is still an operational airfield.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


fairfords runway is about 3000m i think and can be used as an emergency landing place for the shuttle so it could almost certainly handle the aurora if thats what the op has seen

reply to post by fritz


Not sure about the Aurora operating there but it could of been some other known aircraft. I found a website with pictures of doughnut on a rope contrails from England. These contrails were made by a Harrier GR7 and a Jaguar GR3. Here is the link to the pictures and discriptions, this could be a reasonable explanation for what you have seen. If you look closely, where the pictures were taken is not that far away from where you are.

If there is a vehicle capable of mach 6 or above in the area wouldn't you think that there would be reports of people also hearing it? I would imagine it would be pretty loud.

reply to post by I B Dazzlin


Why would it be noisy? As I understand it the Aurora is supposed to be the ultimate in stealthy aircraft. Admittedly take off and landing are somewhat noisy affairs but once airborne and flying at its operating ceiling, I seriously doubt that anyone or anything could hear it, including the Hubble Telescope.

Incidentally, mil aircraft travel about 1 km in 4 seconds and if the Aurora travels as fast as Mach 9 [that's 6192 miles per hour to me and you] it would be long gone before the sound [if any] reached you.

(Sorry, I forgot to mention Harry GR 7/9 and Jags)

Neither of those a/c can produce ring doughnut exhaust trails. The exhaust flow I saw was circular, with holes and from my perspective at ground level, several thousand feet below, the doughnuts were not joined together.

reply to post by fritz


Not sure about the noise level as I can only speculate on the propulsion system but I believe they all make a fair amount of noise, from what I have seen in some videos. However it is theorized that the Aurora would use conventional propulsion while sub-sonic, which would make a good amount of noise. You are correct about it being so fast that it would be gone by the time you heard the noise and I would imagine that it has a very high flight altitude which would make it even harder to sight it.

As far as it being the stealthiest aircraft around, it could be but it probley doesn't matter as much because it goes so damn fast. The SR-71 Blackbird didn't have any weapons because it could fly high enough and fast enough to evade the enemy. I would like to think that they greatly improved the stealth technology of this craft but it could just be modified from the B-2.

The contrail in the pictures in the link in my last post were both doughnut on a rope contrails, which were connected. You say that what you say were not connected so it looked more like the pictures in this link? www.extrospection.com...
If so then I am stumped as to what made them.

I do believe that if there is an Aurora that it probley wouldn't be based out of England. They would be based in the U.S. and would be air refueled to make it to their destination if needed. The U.S. normally don't like to share their new toys until they have been far surpassed. Not to mention you said something about B-2 hangers in England and I wasn't aware that any other country but the U.S. had the B-2 bomber.

reply to post by I B Dazzlin


Right on both counts, my friend.

Those are the ring doughnuts I saw which are believed to be the exhaust signature of the Aurora. Ram Air engine technology etc.

B2 in the UK? Most definately but not based here full time.

As for the Aurora not being in the UK, think RAF Macrihanish up on the Mull of Kintyre. Closed in late 70s or early 80s, runway extended and put in to mothballs [allegedly] and a det of SEaLs or Delta to guard the place.

I think in this case one plus one equals three and for very good reason. As I said, why was the very big RAF/USAF base runway in Gloucestershire closed, extended , resurfaced 2 years ago.

OKay you might get away with saying the shuttle could land there in an emergency, but they said that about Macrihanish. Just how many emergency airfields do they need for the shuttle?

reply to post by fritz


Yeah between Fairford and Machrihanish being repaved in the last few years and being so long makes it appear something is up. Both have been staging points for NATO forces and held US forces until recently. They are making it appear that they are scalling these bases down and trying to sell Machrihanish but both bases are stand by bases that can be reactivated in 24-48 hours. I don't know if they would be using the Aurora out of Machrihanish because part of the base is used for the local airport and that would allow unauthorized eyes to see it. With the long runways being repaved it could be that they were keeping the Aurora in mind for present or future use. It could also be for future UAV uses, as hypersonic UAVs are in development.