[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?

[KC_for_Freedom]

That made a lot of sense at the time, and there were rumors of high velocity planes being tested in Nevada (where stealth technology was kept under wraps for several years). But it has been so long and I suspect a capability like this would be deployed and exposed before this time. Sadly, I suspect Clinton likely did un-fund the program if it existed. Likely now unmanned air vehicles (like Predator) will replace the SR-71. I would like to think we had something like Aurora but I am not so sure.

[John Jamieson]

That's what I believe. I was told (by real insiders) back in the 90's that the Japan Clipper was cancelled "Because it had already been done" and that we had a similar space booster plane that looked much like the B70 (both crashed, we were told).

You don't retire your best stuff like the Blackbird; or reveal the F17 and B2, unless the secrets are piling up deep.