The Chinese do. I've read articles about their work on it, and it's pretty d@mn amazing. I figure if they have it, we have improved it beyond what they have done.
There are pulse detonation rocket engines, but no proof that they are in any plane, just the assumption, as is the contrail pictured - rocket or plane?
Yes. Both. Either. That's one of the advantages. Just store some lox on board, and you've got a spacecraft.
I figure the Aurora can climb to orbit.
Most of this is pure speculation couched in other terms.
Some speculation is better informed than others.
The Chinese claim is very shaky since there is no actual proof that they have succeeded with a quantum computer (more likely is more CCP disinformation) and even that claim was somewhat retracted in a later article.
You re assuming to much here - wishful thinking does not a pulse engine make especially since the very nature of a plane and a rocket would call for very different designs. You cannot assume that one experimental thing creates two distinctly different and real things. They may exist or not, or exist and have been abandoned.
The Aurora may or may not exist; there is no information since the later 90s, and has likely been long superseded. All that is just speculation - if new tech goes anywhere chemical power is out - too heavy too small payload. Nuclear power could be in, but leading bleeding edge goes to Zero Point Propulsion as described by Mark McCandlish.