131 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
131 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: RUMORS OF US SUPERPLANE APPEAR UNFOUNDED FILE: UFO3097
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I will abbreviate some things to save my fingers- these will be in
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square brackets. All typos are mine, w/apologies to Mr. Browne.
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>From _The New York Times_, Tuesday, January 19, 1993
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*****Article Begins*****
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Rumors of US Superplane Appear Unfounded
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Russia seems to be further ahead on ultrafast engine.
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By Malcolm W. Browne
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Rumors and reported sightings of a secret American superplane have
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been proliferating lately almost as abundantly as yarns about [UFO's]. But
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despite the acknowledged yearning of many American aviation experts and
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buffs for an ultrafast spy plane, it appears that development of even the
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engine needed for such a plane is moving faster in Russia than in this
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country. The possible existence of a American [intel]-gathering plane
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capable of flying at [Mach 8] has been suggested in recent articles in the
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British periodical _Jane's Defense Weekly_ [JDW], the American magazine
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Aviation Week & Space Technology [AWST] and other respected technical
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publications.
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These reports are based partly on sightings of large and unusually
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shaped airplanes, peculiar looking condensation trails left by high-flying
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aircraft and strange rumbling sounds near Edwards [AFB], Calif., and other
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places around the world.
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_Secret Project of the 1980's_
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Some experts believe the purported sightings of a hypersonic
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(ultra-high speed) [recon] plane are credible in light of some mysterious
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[DOD] budget items in the 1980's called 'Aurora' or perhaps 'Senior
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Citizen'.
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The theory is that Aurora was intended to produce a new spy plane to
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succeed the Lockheed SR-71 'Blackbird', which was retired in 1990. During
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the [1/4]-century the SR-71 served America's [intel] agencies, it routinely
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flew at speeds up to 2600 [mph] above 100,000 feet, and none of the
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countries it scouted ever succeeded in shooting it down, despite hundreds
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of attempts.
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The Air Force, which operated the SR-71, the U-2 spy plane (which
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gained notoriety in 1960 when one was shot down over [Russia]) and [recon]
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satellites on behalf of the [CIA], emphatically denies the existence of a
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super spy plane. Donald B. Rice, Secretary of the Air Force, said last
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month that reports of such an aircraft are 'fantasy'.
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An [AF] spokesman said : 'We have looked into all such sightings, as
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we have for UFO reports, and we cannot explain them. No [AF] [a/c] were
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operating at the times and places of the alleged sightings.'
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William Sweetman, author of the report published in [Dec] by [JDW],
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still believes in the existence of some kind of secret, high-speed spy
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plane.
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'Many of these sightings were from highly qualified and credible
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observers', he said, 'and even if the [AF] is not directly involved, the
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plane might be operated by some other organization, such as the National
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Reconnaissance Office [NRO]'. That office has coordinated [intel] from
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satellites and [a/c] for decades, but its very existence was denied by the
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Government until recently.
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Another writer on secret [intel]-gathering [a/c] and satellites,
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William E. Burrows, author of _Deep Black_, also believes Aurora (or its
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equivalent under another name) may exist. 'If you put all the evidence
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together', he said, 'you have to conclude that some kind of high-speed
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plane is flying. But it might not be a dedicated [recon] plane. It might
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also operate as a bomber or in some other high-speed mission.'
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But a lengthy review of the evidence by the Federation of American
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Scientists [FAS] in [Sept] concluded that although the Government has often
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falsely denied the existence of [intel]-gathering projects, and therefore
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deserves to be doubted, it looks in this case as if Aurora may be nothing
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more than wishful thinking.
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Dr. John E. Pike, who analyzed the Aurora case for the federation's
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newsletter, wrote that 'an understanding of the mystery [a/c] phenomena is
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impossible outside the context of the UFO phenomena.
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'Belief in the existence of marvelously capable and highly secret
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[a/c] resonates with some of the deeper anxieties of contemporary American
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society', he wrote. 'Aviation has long been one of the distinguishing
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attributes of American greatness.'
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But he added: 'The declining fortunes of the American aerospace
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industry have created growing uncertainties about the future. It would be
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comforting to believe that the decline of America and American aerospace
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was more apparent than real'.
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Such sentiments were echoed in a speech Dec. 9 by Daniel S. Goldin,
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the Administrator of [NASA], who declared, 'America's historic lead in
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aeronautics is in a nose dive'.
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_Franco-Russian Test_
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Russia and its French aerospace partners, meanwhile, have announced
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the successful test-firing of a 'scramjet' [s/j] engine, which operates at
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speeds starting at [mach 5] and is capable of lifting an airplane toward
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orbit outside the atmosphere.
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The Franco-Russian test, as reported by [AWST], was carried out Nov.
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17 in Kazahkhstan. [Reps] of the French aerospace company Onera, a partner
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in the project, said the [s/j] successfully operated for 15 seconds at
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[mach 5.5] in a test using a modified Russian [SAM]. The French said
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progress with the [s/j] meant that development of a test [a/c] using the
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jet could begin in 1995.
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A [s/j] differs from an ordinary jet engine in that it can only
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operate at a very high speed. Air entering a [s/j] at high supersonic
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speed compresses itself in the engine's reaction chamber, where hydrogen
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fuel is injected, mixed with air and ignited, producing a rocket-like
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thrust. An [a/c] using such an engine would require a conventional power
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plant to take off and reach supersonic speed before firing its [s/j].
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Operating at [mach 8], such an [a/c] could serve as a [recon] spy plane, a
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penetration bomber, or even or even an ultra-high speed commercial
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airliner. It could also fly to the top of the earth;s atmosphere and then
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fire rockets lofting it in the final stage into orbital flight.
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_Place for Space Plane_
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Two American companies, Rockwell International's Rocketdyne [RD] and
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United Technology's Pratt & Whitney [P&W] are trying to develop [s/j's], or
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some other possible powerplants, for the projected National Air and Space
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Plane, a NASA project. But neither project officials nor [a/c] industry
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experts profess to know anything about the mystery high-speed spy plane.
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Vincent Rausch, director of the project, said that the development of
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power plants for a hypersonic air and space plane was still one of the
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major stumbling blocks, and that development of a flying prototype was
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nowhere in sight.
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'We don't know anything about it here,' Paul Sewell, a spokesman for
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[RD], said of a mystery spy plane, 'but it would sure be great if there was
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something like that flying'.
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*****Article Ends*****
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*********************************************************************
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