DARK 5 PRESENTS
Project Aurora is a legendarily
secret US government "BLACK" aircraft program
rumored to be in operation since the 1980s.
While the Aurora has never been confirmed,
From what little is known, Aurora is believed to have advanced from a need to replace the March 3+ capable SR-71 Blackbird...
From what little is knownm, Aurora is believed to have
advanced from a need to replace the March 3+ capable SR-71 Blackbird...
...and the project is likely the applicaton of top secret Mach 5+
technologies that emerged out
of Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works division.
...which discovered Aurora inadvertently noted in a 1985 US budget
document allocating $455M for "black air craft production."
DOCUMENTATION
According to the Aviation Week report, the Aurora line item was expected to receive $80M in 1986 and increase to $2.2B in 1987.
That Aurora appeared next to funding for the TR-1, a derivative of the U-2 spy plane, only enhanced speculation of an SR-71 replacement.
US Air Force officials quickly dismissed the rumors in follow up Aviation Week interviews, claiming it instead referenced the B-2 bomber.
The mystery, however, only deepened when it disappeared completely from the budget, and possibly into opaque CIA funding, the next year
Although it vanished from the US public records, a declassified 2000 British Ministry of Defence report may contain mention of the program...
...listing a priority "exotic technology" being tested by the US Air Force for a "highly supersonic vehicle" reaching Mach "4 to 6."
Mission Technicals
If it does exist, the technical capabilities of Aurora are shrouded in secrecy with only hints offered in formerly top secret research files...
...with a 1990 Aviation Week report indicating Skunk Works was studying a liquid methane fueled aircraft to penetrate enemy air space.
The aircraft was to be powered by four turbo ramjets, cruising at Mach 5 speeds with an operating ceiling of 100,000 feet (30km).
Plans called for a titanium airframe with outer edges constructed of Inconel, a heat-resistant steel that would approach 1,000 degrees fahrenheit (528 degrees celsius).
Supporting the rumor is a 1992 claim in British newspapers of a secret fleet of liquid methane tanker planes at an RAF airfield in Scotland.
The Machrihanish Airbase was also linked to a stealth aircraft fueled from methane tanks at the mysterious S-4 facility near Area 51.
Sightings
Machrihanish is not the only British link to Project Aurora, as one of the first sightings occurred on an oil platform in the North Sea.
The incident occurred in August 1989, before the Aviation Week report, and was recreated here based on a sketch my witness Chris Gibson
Gibson claimed to see an unidentified isosceles triangle-shaped delta aircraft refueling from a Stratotanker and escorted by F-111 fighters.
A 1994 crash at England's RAF Boscombe Down was also linked to Aurora after US forces swarmed the base to cover-up sensitive debris.
Back in America, Aurora may have left behind its signature in an outbreak of mysterious sonic booms that were recorded in the early 1990s.
Analysis of the data by a NASA expert in 2010 indicated "something at 90,000 feet (27.4km),"traveling at "Mach 4 to Mach 5.2".
US Air Force rumors suggest the Aurora was conducting test flights from the US to the UK across the North Pole in the dead of night.
Status
Based on budget analysis and sightings, some analyst believe Aurora became operational in 1995, six years after its first flight.
Public reports trailed off in 1996, suggesting an Aurora variant is now either in top secret service or was an experimental prototype.
Clues, however, do linger that Aurora is still in use or the technology it spawned is still in testing on other stealth aircraft platforms.
In 1992, witness Steven Douglass recounted a "pulsating roar" and photographed a "donuts on a rope" contrail indicative of a pulse engine.
It is theorized a methane-injected Pulse Detonation Wave Engine for hypersonic flight would leave behind such a trail.
Reports of pulse-powered craft have continued well into recent years and include this image captured by Douglass over Texas in 2014...
...and an examination of US budgets by aviation expert Bill Sweetman found a $9B "blackhole"that would be a "perfect fit"for Project Aurora.
The End