Talk:Aurora (aircraft)

General discussion

I want to add some reference to what many say Aurora really was ( the codename for the B-2 fly-off), I figure a separate section of the article would be more appropriate?

PPGMD

The 'fireball' video looks quite like sunlight reflecting off a contrail at sunset. 67.187.48.82 20:23, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

Or swamp gas from Venus reflecting off a weather balloon. Joffeloff 12:31, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Pure speculation

The article is self-admittedly pure speculation, and is in desperate need of references and weeding out of weasel words. Sentences such as There is a recent report that it may use a pulse detonation wave engine. are just laughable without a link to the report. I can only spot one solid fact in this article: namely, that an item marked "Aurora" appeared on a Pentagon budget. Could some knowledgeable aircraft buff mark all the other claims with links to who is doing the claiming? jmstylr 12:30, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I took out some of the wilder claims and toned down some of the language. Basically this is an urban myth story. John

It also bears stating that the speeds attained by this alleged aircraft are approximate to those of the X-15. At a certain point the altitude required to attain a certain speed with reasonable efficiency and heat control becomes so high that the craft becomes a spacecraft. The whole idea of this Aurora nonsense is flawed.

Blackstar

The article needs to be removed and/or revised based upon the revelations provided by Avaition Week. [1] The plane sighted in 1989 is probably the Blackstar "carrier" plane. Matt V

We have an article about Blackstar based on the Aviation Week story. While SR-3 and Aurora sound, in some respects similar, we've no way of knowing that they are the same, or whether both or either actually exists. A lot said about Aurora doesn't match SR-3 (the former reportedly being an airbreathing hypersonic recon plane with exotic engines, the latter a fairly conventional supersonic aircraft used only (seemingly) to lift a spaceplane. Merging the two based on the incredibly scant evidence would be like merging yeti with bigfoot. I've put in a mention of Aurora into Blackstar, mentioning that they might really be the same; I think this artcle should have a (similarly equivocal) mention of Blackstar. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:24, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

North Sea "seismic" activity

"3) Something in the air was triggering seismic sensors in the south-west United States."

What has this to do with something happening in the North Sea (halfway around the world)? If the mystery plane was causing shock waves that registered on seismographs, then I'm thinking it would shake the hell out of the eastern UK and Norway, or at least reach the local papers, before the faintest remnants reached seismic sensors in the US. I'm cutting this. Hasty Fool 17:36, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

UK MoD report

I'm an interested agnostic on Aurora but I've added in a section on the newly released UK MoD report because unusually in this rumour-filled area it is an official report which deals with sightings of "Black" projects. I am asking the MoD to consider releasing the blanked out sections. I've also tweaked the line saying "no conclusive evidence supporting the existence of a hypersonic plane has ever reached the public domain" in case it came as a bit of a surprise to old X-15 pilots. Newsnightmeirion

Very interesting news article. Also, I've linked some of the words & expressions in your text. Some of them, such as "transatmospheric", remains to be defined or have their articles created on Wikipedia. --Henrickson 09:54, 15 June 2006 (UTC)