From: daveh@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: RE Aurora
Date: 23 Aug 92 22:12:40 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620


From daveh@vax.oxford.ac.uk

In article <BtAJnr.EF6@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>, UDRJ004@OAK.CC.KCL.AC.UK (GLEN SEGELL) writes:
> 
> From GLEN SEGELL <UDRJ004@OAK.CC.KCL.AC.UK>
> 
> As far as I can remember Aurora flies at around Mach 4.5 from Pole to Pole
> where there is, amongs other locations, a special airfield in Northern
> Scotland guarded by US Speical Forces Marines.
> 

[This article appeared in the London "Sunday Telegraph" dated 26th July 1992
-reproduced without permission]

SECRET US SPY PLANE IS KINTYRE'S DARK VISITOR

A mysterious, fast-moving shape in the sky has been scaring sheep in the Mull of
Kintyre and rattling windows in Los Angeles. From both sides of the globe have
come reports of sudden "pulsating roars" and strange smoke rings in the sky.

Defence analysts are convinced that they are caused by the US Air Forces' top
secret Project Aurora - a spy plane as big as Concorde that can fly three times
as fast.

The USAF is using the remote RAF airbase at Machrihanish, Strathclyde, as a
staging point, it was claimed last week. The mysterious aircraft has been
stealthily dropping in at night before streaking back to America across the
North Pole at more than 6 times the speed of sound.

Flying at the edge of space, powered by a "pulser" engine, the aircraft is being
tested in missions that circle the globe.

Guy Norris of 'Flight' magazine, who is based in Los Angeles, said last night
that Aurora was being flown from a base in the Nevada desert to an atoll in the
Pacific, then on the Scotland to refuel before returning to the US at night.

Specially modified tanker aircraft flying from Britain are being used to top up
Aurora's tanks with liquid methane fuel in mid-air.

The aircraft carries high-powered cameras and infra-red radar which can see down
through cloud cover. Its flightpath covers targets in Iraq. An F-111
fighter-bomber is scrambled as the black-painted aircraft lands, flying in close
formation to confuse prying civilian radars, according to reports from US
airmen.

Paul Wiggins, editor of 'Scottish Airnews', describes Machrihanish as "the
remotest military airfield in Britain - with a very long runway". It is guarded
by a detachment of US SEALS, the equivalent of Britain's Special Boat Squadron.
"It would be ideal for operating a secret high-performance aircraft", he says.

People living nearby reported strange ear-splitting noises and mysterious smoke
rings in the sky earlier this year. As rumours grew of secret developments at
the base, Archie Hamilton, the Defence Minister, told Parliament last month that
the existence of, and any operations by Aurora were a "matter for the American
authorities". A USAF spokesman yesterday refused to confirm or deny its
existence.

But last week independent evidence came from Washington that the Pentagon is
spending billions from its "black budget" on a clandestine successor to the
SR-71 spy plane, retired 2 years ago.

Kemper Securities, the financial analysts, said up to $8 billion has already
been spent of the project at Lockheed's "Skunk Works" in California where the
F-117 stealth fighter was developed.

"Something has been booming Los Angeles regularly for the last six months," said
Bill Sweetman, a US-based aerospace writer. "The frequency of the sonic booms
indicates that whatever is causing them is now an operational aircraft."


-- 

David Hastings                      | "Imposition of order=escalation of chaos"
VAX Systems Programmer              |                     
Oxford University Computing Services| "Just when you think you've won the 
daveh@vax.oxford.ac.uk              |        rat race, along come faster rats"
               
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