[goldylight]

Whats Aurora?

[John H K]

Aurora is a semi-mythological US "Black" project that is supposedly a hypersonic replacement for the SR-71.

http://www.fas.org/irp/mystery/aurora.htm

There's quite a bit of evidence that it exists or existed though it's not clear the program is still going, if there ever was one.

It's as mythological as the Stealth Fighter was before the Stealth was revealed to the public; the US has demonstrated a fairly good ability to hide such a black project, or at least the details (the Stealth rumors had the wrong designation..F-19...and a completely wrong "design guess"....artist's concepts had a curved aircraft, not the actual boxy F-117."

[RoughDobermann]

Whats Aurora?

1. A town in Colorado.
2. The shortened version of Aurora Borealis
3. The popular name for the SR-71's hypothetical replacement

[blam]

Aurora?

[1stFreedom]

Aurora was the name of some program accidentially left in a congressional budget report/request. It was located on the lines below SR-71 and U2 lines.

Supposedly it's a hypersonic aircraft. It may be reponsible for chain contrails seen over various locations.
I don't believe it exists as a production aircraft. I believe it's simply a test aircraft.

The SR-71 was retired because of the cost of each mission as well as the fact that the russian SAM and aircraft were increasingly getting better. The SU-27, with it's onboard Infrared tracking system, can spot and trace the SR-71. While the Su-27 cannot keep up with a SR-71, various air to air missiles may be able to catch up to one. It may be a very hard chase and the SR-71 has an excellent chance of outrunning missiles, but at this point why take the chance?

I think the SR-71 was retired UNDEFEATED with the knowledge that missile technology had finnally caught up with this king of the sky. I believe it was thought that sattelites could fill the void -- and to a large degree they have.

As for why they are using a U2, it's cheap, can easily adapt to special instruments, and doesn't require astronaughts to fly it (SR-71 pilots wear astronaught suits. Not sure of their training).

I love the SR-71, and I hope I'm wrong about Aurora.

[wharfrat]

Mach-6+ sereaming Hell across the sky!

[wharfrat]

Check that, Mach-6+ Screaming HELL, sorry...bifocal Alert!