SR-91 Aurora: Mach 5 Hypersonic Spy Plane Or Myth?

19FortyFive ^ | 1/22/2021 | Peter Suicu

[Onthebrink]

In the 1980s an idea was conceived by military planners to develop a hypersonic spy plane that could reach Mach 5+, making it truly the fastest manned aircraft ever to fly. While there have been reported sightings of the prototypes, the SR-91 Aurora, if it even existed, likely never made it much best the concept stage.

[thinden]

iirc, there were pix out there from trumps 2019 4th of july celebration that showed lights from an SR-91 (or some futuristic plane above the capitol that night??

anybody remember this or have pix??

[al baby]

The SR 91 became fully operational when the SR 71 was sent into retirement anyone from So Cal in the 90s remember all those strange sonic booms well that was Aurora

[butlerweave]

Biden will get a tons of Gold from the Chinese Communist Party for this one

[PLMerite]

Something unusual supposedly left contrails like this:

[fruser1]

The puffs are the signature of external combustion scramjets.

Combustion actually occurs just outside the exhaust port.

[algore]

External combustion aka sterling engines are cool.. (and hot)

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Also, remember those reports from a few years back of multiple pilots along the entire West Coast reporting impossibly fast aircraft sightings?

[Jim Noble]

What is this:

[Paal Gulli]

Whoever writes this crap has ZERO knowledge of aviation history. The X-15 (and its human pilot) hit Mach 6.7, and the Space Shuttles were doing about Mach 25 when they re-entered the atmosphere. The fact that one was rocket-powered and the other was a glider is absolutely irrelevant to this discussion because the author called the Aurora potentially "the fastest manned aircraft ever to fly." Which it isn't, not by a long stretch.

For that matter, Apollo 10 was also an "aircraft" (as opposed to an "airplane") and it was clocking 24,816 mph on re-entry, which comes to about Mach 32, which is somewhat irrelevant because before re-entry there was no air for sound travel through, ergo no Mach number.

So Apollo 10 is, without question, the fastest human beings have ever traveled and the fastest ever manned aircraft, the STSs (on re-entry) were the fastest airplanes ever to have flown, and the X-15 was the fastest manned airplane in powered flight ever.

[PAR35]

What is this:

I don't know, but it doesn't look like the Aurora.

[ptsal]

It is hard to have a show trial like the one faced by Gary Powers, if the vehicle is an unmanned drone.

[al baby]

I would imagine they are testing auroras replacement

[ProtectOurFreedom]

That is one dumb location for a guard shack.

[Afterguard]

I would say it is a Photoshop graphic.

[Kickass Conservative]

Of course it’s real, it’s in the new Top Gun Movie that is coming out this year.

Would Tom Cruise lie to you?

Remember those authentic looking Migs in the first Top Gun Movie that resembled the F-5? Those were some super secret Russian Migs, really.

[Kickass Conservative]

It’s from the new Top Gun Movie.

[epluribus_2]

I thought the Space Shuttle STS classic (tm) went Mach 7?

[Don W]

A scene from a movie. An imaginary item in an imaginary event.

[Kartographer]

Could it do the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs?