So secret, no-one knows what it actually looks like. This is merely an artist's rendition of the secret Aurora aircraft.

Have a look at my Steemit intro message! John - Tech Writer - In the Jungle Island of Taiwan!

BEAUTIFUL MORNING

The horizon this morning is as broad as the heavens, and just as beautiful. Spotless, not a cloud in sight. The air was calm with a just a hint of a chill.

“Perfect,” murmured retired farmer Bill Haggarty to himself from his front porch.

With his left hand, he reached down and gently tousled the scruff of his old dog, who raised his head and basked in the loving attention of the human he owned.

Bill looked down to his dog, “What do you say, Calvin?” The dog’s ears piqued meaningfully at his human’s question. “Do you think ‘Glitter-Girl’ will show again?” The dog’s tail thumped the front porch, matching his master’s enthusiasm.

It had been weeks since she’d last showed up.

“GLITTER GIRL”

A feeling… A hint of something out there…

He bolted upward and out his chair. Calvin bounded off the porch into the yard, looking back and checking often in his human’s face for clues of what he was looking for. Bill scurried down the porch steps and strode out under an ever-brightening morning sky.

He squinted as he scanned the northeastern sky, whence she always appeared. After a moment, he saw her: the smallest flash of silver.

Bill’s “Glitter Girl” had arrived.

Bill then shouted to himself, “Yes!” Barely able to contain himself now, he stood on joyful amazement.

It wouldn’t be long now. Mere seconds actually…

A REDDISH SILVER STREAK

On the horizon, the smallest shimmer of silverish light – like a flash – followed by a faintly glowing wisp of a white tail.

The tail grew at tremendous speed and streaked faster than ever towards the sky over Bill. While he could guess that it was an aircraft of some kind, the fact that he could not see it clearly in his binoculars just now meant it already flew at incredibly high altitudes. And for it to travel literally from horizon to horizon within a few seconds meant it stoked onward at incredible speed. As the jet – or whatever it was – streaked overhead, Bill raised his binoculars for another hopefully closer look…

The best he could make out was a dagger-shaped hull of blackish silver. And the frontal section seemed an oddly blended reddish color.

As always, it was gone within a few seconds, but it left a tell-tale mark every time. Spanning for hundreds – perhaps thousands – of miles, the craft’s high-altitude exhaust trail bore a singular and strange characteristic: “dough nut-on-a-rope”.

A BANG AND A WHOOSH

Calvin whined for attention. “Hush boy, we need to listen now,” Bill admonished. Calvin sat still, and Bill turned an ear heavenward to hear “Glitter Girl’s” exit message: the faint crashing sound of a distant hyper-sonic shock wave, followed by an almost imperceptible airy series of pulses that blended together into a kind of collective whoosh – not at all like your regular jet engine!

“What an odd bird!” Bill shook his head as the sound faded away.

Utterly happy with his sighting – number three for him – Bill called for Calvin as he headed up to the porch and into the doorway. Within a few minutes Bill had recorded what he just seen and emailed a worldwide aircraft watchdog group. Some hours later, he received exciting news.

Bill had seen what is believed to be world’s fastest and most secret aircraft in history. Commonly known as…

Project Aurora.

BUREAUCRACY

While the above story fictionalizes an Aurora sighting, the following excerpt summarizes what seems to be a very real US Air Force response (SEE IMAGE 4) sent to John Greenewald’s inquiry into the existence of Aurora:

“Air Force can neither confirm nor deny the existence or absence of records…to your request.this agency responds to all requests related to this topic…”

WHAT IS PROJECT AURORA?

Project Aurora is the name of a hypothetical United States Air Force reconnaissance aircraft believed by some to be capable of speeds in excess of 3,700 miles per hour (Mach 5+).

A HISTORY OF REPLACEMENT

Despite official denials from the US military and other authorities, air history lends itself to a trend in replacement by newer and ever faster aircraft.

The first stealth fighter: The British De Havilland Mosquito of WWII fame had a wooden frame that did not show up on enemy radar.

First came early-era attempts at stealth with aircraft such as the De Havilland Mosquito bomber. This was later followed by speed and further stealth, such as what we saw in the subsonic U-2 spy plane, followed later by the supersonic A-12 “Oxcart”. This was later replaced by an even faster (at Mach 3.2 or 2,300 MPH) and darkly foreboding SR-71 Blackbird stealth spy plane.

The supersonic SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.

However, following the Blackbird’s last flight in 1999, aircraft aficionados have yet to produce a publicly acclaimed replacement about Project Aurora.

REPORTS ELSEWHERE

According to the Federation of American Scientists, a 1979 report of unknown (perhaps military) origin called for a high-speed piloted replacement for Lockheed’s SR-71 Blackbird:

“… Mach 4, 200,000-ft.-altitude aircraft that could be a follow-on to the Lockheed SR-71 strategic reconnaissance vehicle in the 1990s has been defined by the Air Force Aeronautical Systems Division and Lockheed.”

First Boston Company’s aerospace analyst Wolfgang Demisch suggested at a $10 billion program resulting in the manufacture of about 30 aircraft. Later, Kemper Security analyst Lawrence Harris surmised that Lockheed was developing a:

“… hypersonic replacement for the Mach 3+ SR-71 (Blackbird) reconnaissance aircraft. Circumstantial evidence suggests that this project has been underway since 1987 and that a first flight occurred in 1989… Aurora could be operational in 1995, six years after the probable first flight.”

TOP SECRET

While the Internet may swarm with rumors and speculation, consistent reports and detailed photographs showing exact matching design profiles seem to have checked out. Web searches yield mostly artist’s renderings of what Project Aurora may look like.

Quite simply, Project Aurora remains quite secret.

PROBABLY A DESIGN NIGHTMARE

In the absence of official announcements, solid photos or drawings, one can only extrapolate on Aurora’s design and propulsion though what came before her.

Assuming Aurora’s predecessor is indeed the SR-71 (Blackbird), we can only imagine that project engineers are facing similar (if not more daunting) problems in ironing out solid fuselage and propulsion systems required to carry several tons of red-hot metal through the air at near-space altitudes.

The Blackbird had to face the likes of the following:

• Heat on the Blackbird generated from 35 tons of engine thrust and friction from high-speed travel presented challenges the aircraft industry had never witnessed to date.

• At speeds over 2,000 mph, the Blackbird literally developed tons of air pressure, which threatened to destroy its sleek wings and fuselage. This air pressure and air friction produced enormous amounts of heat. The plane got so hot that it glowed red hot – at temperatures upwards of 1200?F or more!

• Because it was difficult to build an aircraft and have it fly for sustained periods without melting into a useless metal blob, the Blackbird’s designers had to rig the plane to use its own fuel to cool the aircraft’s wings, fuselage, and tires while in flight! Fuel lines were routed in an intricate pattern along the aircraft’s leading edge surfaces where heat was at its greatest. The resultant flow of fuel under the aircraft’s skin shunted away just enough heat away to keep the plane’s skin from liquefying.

With issues such as the Blackbird’s above, Aurora may be facing similar or more extreme design challenges.

“DOUGHNUT-ON-A-ROPE”

The web yields mention of sightings of “doughnut-on-a-rope” exhaust trails which suggest a pulse-jet propulsion designs hearkening back to Nazi-era pulse-jet systems such as those used in the V-1 “Buzz Bomb”.

Tell-tale "doughnut on a rope" exhaust signature commonly attributed to a pulse jet engine.

A MARVEL OF SCIENCE

Perhaps the near future will drop the veil of secrecy surrounding Project Aurora, and we will be witness to another marvel of science in speed, heat-impervious materials, and electronic wizardry to match.

Until then, we can only collect information, and only imagine what speeds of nearly 4,000 MPH are like!

© 2016 John Melendez - All rights reserved worldwide