77 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
77 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: MORE ON SECRET PLANE - LONDON FILE: UFO3111
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SECRET PLANE SAID TO FLY 5,280 MILES PER HOUR by Associated Press
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LONDON - The U.S. Air Force is operating a new generation of
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secret spy planes capable of reaching eight times the speed of
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sound, Jane's Defense Weekly said Friday.
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In a report, prepared for next week's issue, the military affairs
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magazine said the triangular shaped planes have been in service
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since 1989.
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"We've been working on this report for aboutthree years," Jane's
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editor, Paul Beaver, said in a telephone interview. "The evidence
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has grown overwhelming - all we need now is a photograph to prove
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that it exists."
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Beaver quoted the report as saying that the $1 billion plane,
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dubbed Aurora, could reach cruising speeds as great as Mach- 8 - or
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5,280 mph and more than 2 1/2 times the official world record.
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The defense establishment continues to deny the existence of
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Aurora, be said.
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There was no immediate comment from Pentagon officials in
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Washington.
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The Pentagon announced in 1990 that it was retiring its super-
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sonic spy plane, the SR-7l Blackbird, and would rely for its future
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high-altitude surveillance on orbiting satellites.
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But Jane's technical editor, Bill Sweetman, who compiled the
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article, reported that the so-called "hypersonic" Aurora operates
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mainly at night and incorporates the latest radar-evading "stealth"
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technology.
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Sweetman, an expert in high-technology aircraft, maintained
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the Pentagon story about satellite spying was a smokescreen.
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Beaver said Sweetman reported extensively on the U.S. Air Force's
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stealth fighter and bomber programs before they were made public
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and has written a book on the development of stealth technology.
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A Mach-8 plane would be able to reach any point on the globe
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in less than three hours.
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Such a plane, fueled by liquid methane, would be of potentially
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greater use than high-resolution images from orbiting satellites
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that can take 24 hours to arrive over the subject, the report said.
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Beaver said Sweetman based his conclusions on pieced-together
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data, including strange sounds reported above air bases in Nevada
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and California, multibillion dollar spending on classified research
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projects and the sighting over the North Sea of a wedge-shaped
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aircraft under fighter-bomber escort.
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Chris Hudson, 30, a trained aircraft observer, told Jane's that
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while working as an oil-drilling engineer in the North Sea in 1989
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he saw a bizarre wedge-shaped plane flying between two conventional
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F-111 fighter-bombers and a Hercules tanker.
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Sweetman believes this was the first sighting of Aurora.
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Beaver said the sighting can be linked to mysterious sounds heard
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by aerospace professionals near military airfields in California
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and Nevada that are characterized as a "low-frequency, high-ampli-
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tude pulsing."
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Sweetman said in his article that he believes the U.S. aero-
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space giant Lockheed, which produced the F-117 stealth fighter, is the most
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likely manufacturer of Aurora.
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"Lockheed's financial figures have indicated a continuing, large
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flow of income for 'classified' and 'special mission' aircraft," he
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wrote.
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The Lockheed Advanced Development Co. developed the previous
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generations of U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes. Both designs
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flew high-altitude spy missions undetected for years - in the U-2's
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case until Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Russia and
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captured in 1960.
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Though the report places Aurora's first flights in 1989, Beaver
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said he considered it unlikely that the plane was used during the
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Gulf War.
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