[The Shootist]

Well, let's see.

The Aurora rumor has been around since the 70's. See Jane's Defense Weekly.

According to Jerry Pournelle all the "X" projects have been cancelled. The X-37 may be restarted but it is a pilotless and powerless test bed that is only dropped from B-52s.

The Gipper wanted the US to develop a "space plane" but all the funding was cancelled during the Bush I administration to help further un-balance the budget.

The Russian press is interesting but often wrong. I would bet that they have continued this tradition.

[Thermalseeker]

The Aurora rumor has been around since the 70's. See Jane's Defense Weekly.

Yep. At one point I was an Aeronautical Engineering student at Embry-Riddle and I remember reading in Aviation Week and Space Technology, aka Aviation Speak and Space Tattletale, in late '81 or early '82 that one of the major aerospace manufacturers had solved the problem of skin friction and was testing a new aircraft capable of 25 times the speed of sound at sea level.

Not too many years later they retired the Blackbird. Sure, there are a lot of DOD satellites looking at us, but there is no replacement for recon right now. Is is possible that the Blackbird was retired when the Aurora came on line?

[SSN558]

Aurora was captured on film around ah, i'm guessing now about 1989, by an amature photographer. The pictures were published in Aviation and Space Week. The project was plagued with cost and schedule overruns then canceled in early 1990. The cancelation of this program was quickly followed by Small ICBM aka migitman, Peacekeeper, most of the star wars research, the National Aerospace Plane, and others. I was there, I worked on most of them, I had my fingers on the hardware. They were real but deemed unnecessary at the end of the cold war.