WAS AMERICAS AURORA HYPERSONIC AIRCRAFT REAL? WE GET TO THE BOTTOM OF IT AIRPOWER (HTTPS://WWW.SANDBOXX.US/NEWS-CAT/AIRPOWER/) BY SANDBOXX SHARE THIS ARTICLE (https://www.sandboxx.us/news) BACK TO SANDBOXX (https://app.sandboxx.us) Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Opt-out preferences (https://www.sandboxx.us/opt-out-preferences/)Privacy (https://www.sandboxx.us/privacy/) Rumors of a classified hypersonic aircraft known as Aurora have permeated aviation circles since the 1980s, but evidence of this triangular jet remains as sparse as ever. Could it be possible that the United States not only managed to develop and operate a fleet of Mach 5+ aircraft in the 1980s but has continued to keep them a secret to this day? The truth may actually be a bit more complicated than you might think. Still commonly referred to as Black Programs, the Pentagon has a long history of funding the classified development of advanced technologies. Today, the most secretive efforts fall under Special Access Programs or SAPs, which limit the distribution of information even among those with the highest level of security clearances. Even some acknowledged SAPs are never fully revealed, even years after completion, and some SAPs are never acknowledged at all. After pouring over historic media reporting, declassified documents, eyewitness accounts, and more forum posts than you could photograph from the U-2, it seems extremely unlikely that the United States ever had an operational fleet of secret hypersonic aircraft... but that doesnt mean something like it (https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/5-secretive-new-warplanes-the-us-is- developing-for-the-next-big-fight/) never darkened the massive hangar doors at Area 51. Editors Note: Huge thanks to our friend Rodrigo Avella for the use of his incredible Aurora artwork for this story. You can find more of his work here (https://rodrigoavella.com/), or follow him on Instagram here (https://www.instagram.com/rodrigo.avella). (https://www.sandboxx.us/news) BACK TO SANDBOXX (https://app.sandboxx.us) Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Opt-out preferences (https://www.sandboxx.us/opt-out-preferences/)Privacy (https://www.sandboxx.us/privacy/) Area 51 in the dry Groom Lake bed. (Google Maps) Its important to remember that theres a wide margin between technology thats sufficiently mature and reliable to mass-produce and put into combat operations, and cutting-edge tech that may be within reach, but just isnt sustainable from an economic, resource, or even political standpoint. Put simply, the iPhone in your pocket is not the most advanced smartphone technology in the world today, even if its the latest phone to hit the market. Its simply the technology that could be mass-produced for a target price point and consumer. The actual latest and greatest communications tech would undoubtedly cost exponentially more, may potentially be unreliable, and might even blow your mind. Aircraft programs can progress in a similar fashion: You may be able to build an incredible aircraft for $2 billion... but that doesnt necessarily mean you can kick start a production line for them the following week. Technology demonstrators, prototypes, and small-batch production of exotic aircraft are not only believed to be commonplace in restricted facilities like Lockheed Martins Palmdale plant or the fan-favorite Area 51... its a verifiable fact (https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/bird-of-prey-boeings-lost-stealth-fighter-once-prowled-over-area- Sometimes efforts dont produce the intended outcome. Sometimes they prove too expensive or maintenance-heavy to be palatable. And sometimes... Americas secrets literally get buried in the desert, never to be spoken of again. (https://www.sandboxx.us/news) BACK TO SANDBOXX (https://app.sandboxx.us) Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Opt-out preferences (https://www.sandboxx.us/opt-out-preferences/)Privacy (https://www.sandboxx.us/privacy/) AURORA WAS BORN OUT OF A STRATEGIC NEED FOR AIRBORNE RECONNAISSANCE (Lockheed Martin) Lockheeds SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet-powered aircraft in history, famously outran more than 4,000 missiles during its service life as a reconnaissance platform. Its ability to reach and maintain speeds in excess of Mach 3 for hours at a time made it all but impossible to stop using even the most advanced surface-to-air missile systems or highest-flying intercept fighters. So, when the Air Force opted to retire the immensely successful (and equally expensive) SR-71 in the late 1980s, most people simply assumed it was because the U.S. already had an even faster and higher flying replacement in the works. That assumption wasnt without merit. Within the secretive halls of the Pentagon and Congress, there was ample discussion about a replacement for the Blackbird. Now, decades later, irrefutable facts have been twisted around hypothetical narratives so intrinsically that attempting to investigate the truth behind Aurora will inevitably lead you down a winding corridor of references to countless other real or imagined classified programs, including some that may continue to this very day. Lockheed Martin SR-72 artists rendering (https://www.sandboxx.us/news) BACK TO SANDBOXX (https://app.sandboxx.us) Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Opt-out preferences (https://www.sandboxx.us/opt-out-preferences/)Privacy (https://www.sandboxx.us/privacy/) Aurora, after all, has always been rumored to be a triangular hypersonic aircraft reminiscent of reports of Lockheed Martins own SR-72 program (https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/is-there-a-real- secret-aircraft-behind-lockheed-and-top-guns-darkstar/) that the firm heavily touted prior to the onset of the modern hypersonic arms race. Although satellites were already proving incredibly useful for intelligence gathering at the time, there remained a need for airborne reconnaissance following the retirement of the SR-7,1 just as there remains a need for it today. In fact, the SR-71 was un-retired for a time in the 1990s to meet the nations reconnaissance needs. In the minds of many, the Air Force simply wouldnt let the SR-71 go without a worthy successor already warming up on the sideline. And they could have been right to some extent. Related: 5 secretive new warplanes the US is developing for the next big fight (https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/5-secretive-new-warplanes-the-us-is-developing-for-the- next-big-fight/) EVIDENCE OF THE AURORA AS A TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATOR Rendering of Aurora flying at high altitude over Area 51. There is some evidence to suggest that an extremely fast aircraft was undergoing testing during the timeframe often associated with Aurora. On two separate occasions in April of 1992 (the 5th and 22nd, respectively), a journalist named Steve Douglass was monitoring military aircraft channels in Southern California when he picked up some very unusual radio chatter. According to Douglass, an aircraft with the callsign Gaspipe was coordinating with air traffic controllers out of the nearby Edwards Air Force Base, and based on what he heard, the jet must have been flying at extreme altitude and speed. Youre at sixty-seven thousand [feet], eighty-one miles out, the controller told the pilots, before continuing a moment later. Seventy miles out, thirty-six thousand. Above glide Coming in from 67,000 feet eliminated practically all of Americas fixed-wing assets save for the SR-71 and U-2, both of which were confirmed not to be flying on the days Douglass recorded the radio transmissions. Longtime Aviation Week and Space Technology Editor William B. Scott analyzed Douglass recordings for the Smithsonian Magazine (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/the-truth-is-out-there-2193529/) in 2010 and felt confident that they were indeed real, suggesting the Air Force was either lying about the Space Shuttle secretly landing at Edwards in 1992 or Gaspipe had to be some kind of high- speed classified aircraft. (https://www.sandboxx.us/news) BACK TO SANDBOXX (https://app.sandboxx.us) Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Opt-out preferences (https://www.sandboxx.us/opt-out-preferences/)Privacy (https://www.sandboxx.us/privacy/) The Space Shuttle wasnt particularly covert but did undertake some secret missions. (NASA photo) In August of 1992, Bill Sweetman and others from the well-regarded Janes Defense Weekly (https://www.janes.com/), a defense magazine, revealed that seismologists from the United States Geological Survey had been recording tremors near the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California that were in keeping with a sonic boom from a high-altitude supersonic aircraft. Notably, these events always took place on Thursday mornings at about 7 a.m. Douglass recorded radio chatter, however, came on a Sunday and a Wednesday. All I can say is that its something thats traveling through the atmosphere at several times the speed of sound in a generally northeasterly direction, Jim Mori, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey at Caltech, told the LA Times (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-04-17-me- 607-story.html) in 1992. Sweetman contended that the nature of the reported sonic booms wasnt in keeping with any known aircraft in American hangars. Its too fast for any aircraft that we know about, he said. (https://www.sandboxx.us/news) BACK TO SANDBOXX (https://app.sandboxx.us) Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Opt-out preferences (https://www.sandboxx.us/opt-out-preferences/)Privacy (https://www.sandboxx.us/privacy/) Artist render of Aurora (Wikimedia Commons) Sweetman believed the sonic booms might have been coming from a classified aircraft being tested out of Groom Lake, more commonly known as Area 51, though the Air Force denied it at Just a month prior to the Janes report, however, another reputable aviation outlet, Aviation Week and Space Technology, also reported on sightings of an unusual aircraft with diamond- shaped lighting seen flying in formation with two F-117 Nighthawks and a KC-135 refueling tanker near Beale Air Force Base in northern California. According to the eyewitness reports in Aviation Week, the unusual aircraft quickly turned off its exterior lighting after joining the formation, and its engine gave off (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-04-17-me- 607-story.html) a distinct sound reminiscent of air rushing through a big tube. Beale Air Force Base is quite a bit north of San Gabriel Valley (near Los Angeles) but is still only about 320 miles from Groom Lake, which would take about five minutes to cover at Mach 5. Other reports tied to Aurora include photographs of unusual contrails dubbed doughnuts on a rope. Because of the peculiar look of these vapor trails, its been postulated that Aurora may you an advanced pulse detonation engine, but that concept doesnt hold up to scrutiny. In 2008, the Air Force Research Laboratory built and flew the first (known) PDE aircraft, achieving just 120 miles per hour with an engine comprised of four different PDE pipes each firing (https://innssi.com/pulsed-detonation-engine/) 20 times per second. That aircraft, ironically enough, was called Borealis. (https://www.sandboxx.us/news) BACK TO SANDBOXX (https://app.sandboxx.us) Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Opt-out preferences (https://www.sandboxx.us/opt-out-preferences/)Privacy (https://www.sandboxx.us/privacy/) The PDE-powered Long-EZ Borealis flying in 2008. (Air Force photo) In order to achieve hypersonic speeds, a similar PDE would have to fire literally thousands of times per second, making the distance between doughnuts of any sort far too small to see from the ground. (We discussed PDE technology more thoroughly in this previous feature (https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/darpas-new-missile-hints-at-truly-game-changing-technology/).) Instead, if Aurora or something similar did exist, a liquid-methane combined cycle ramjet or scramjet, as was posited by Sweetman in the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1992/12/13/mystery-plane/0ab6ba1e-907b- 4838-8516-0c38241f04a3/) in 1992, would be much more viable. The reports suggest the possibility that Aurora may have been a program aimed at fielding a hypersonic technology demonstrator that could later serve as the basis for an operational aircraft. However, the earliest reported sightings tied to Aurora began some three years earlier... and on a completely different continent. Related: DARPAs new missile hints at truly game-changing technology (https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/darpas-new-missile-hints-at-truly-game-changing- technology/) (https://www.sandboxx.us/news) BACK TO SANDBOXX (https://app.sandboxx.us) Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Opt-out preferences (https://www.sandboxx.us/opt-out-preferences/)Privacy (https://www.sandboxx.us/privacy/) EVIDENCE OF AURORA AS AN OPERATIONAL Manipulated image meant to represent Chris Gibsons sighting. (Twitter) The 1992 reports of what seemed like a high-speed aircraft in testing in the vicinity of the now infamous Area 51 could lead one to the reasonable conclusion that Uncle Sam had something exotic flying out of Groom Lake. But a string of sightings in the U.K. beginning in 1989 offered a very different narrative. If these reports are to be believed, American sightings in 1992 werent of a new aircraft in testing at all. They were flights of an operational aircraft hidden from the publics eye. The most famous of these British sightings came in August of 1989 when a Scottish oil- exploration engineer named Chris Gibson reported seeing an isosceles triangle-shaped aircraft flying in formation with two F-111s and refueling from a KC-135 from his vantage point on an oil rig in the North Sea. Gibson wasnt just any aviation buff, he was a trained airfield observer adept at identifying aircraft from a distance. It was obvious to me that this aircraft was something dodgy. I watched the formation for a minute or two and went back inside with Graeme, Gibson later told the Discovery Channel. At the time I was writing the aircraft recognition manual and had a Danish Luftmelderkorpset Flykendingsbog in my briefcase. This is probably the best aircraft recognition book ever produced. I looked through it, but nothing matched. I then sketched what I had seen and sent this to Peter Edwards, who was a Group Officer in the ROC [Royal Observer Corps] and was also on the recognition team. (https://www.sandboxx.us/news) BACK TO SANDBOXX (https://app.sandboxx.us) Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Opt-out preferences (https://www.sandboxx.us/opt-out-preferences/)Privacy (https://www.sandboxx.us/privacy/) (https://www.globalsecurity.org/jhtml/jframe.html#https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/images/a Artist rendering of Aurora (Global Security (https://www.globalsecurity.org/jhtml/jframe.html#https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/images/aurora.jpg )) Some eight years later, in 1997, the U.K.-based aviation magazine Airforces Monthly published a report claiming that an American Aurora aircraft, also referred to in the article as the Astra (Advanced Stealth Reconnaissance Aircraft or AV-6) actually crashed while taking off from Runway 23 at Boscombe Down Airfield in Amesbury, England on September 26, 1994. Airforces Monthly editor David Oliver claimed the story had taken two years to investigate, citing unnamed sources within the Royal Air Force among other, similarly anonymous, witnesses. According to the report, operators from Britains elite Special Air Service (SAS) were soon on the scene and the aircraft was covered by a tarp. On September 28, two days later, the story alleges that an American C-5 cargo aircraft arrived at Boscombe Down to haul the wreckage, which had been stored covered in a hangar, back to the States. When asked about the incident, both the British Ministry of Defence and the U.S. Defense Department rejected it as fiction. FOLLOWING THE MONEY (AND DISPELLING THE RUMORS) Aurora image courtesy of Rodrigo Avella (https://rodrigoavella.com/) follow him on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/rodrigo.avella/). Discussion of the Aurora program for good reason invariably comes down to money. Although the United States military has the largest budget in the world by a wide margin, it also has the furthest-reaching obligations. The U.S. military assumed a significant role in the defense of Europe following the end of World War II. It also provides a stabilizing presence in shipping lanes the world over, and must continuously innovate to maintain a deterrent edge against potential opponents. As a result, even with the massive pool of money in the Pentagons coffers to pull from, theres never quite enough to go around. (https://www.sandboxx.us/news) BACK TO SANDBOXX (https://app.sandboxx.us) Manage Consent To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Opt-out preferences (https://