80 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
80 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: NEW SPY PLANE FLIES EIGHT TIMES THE SPEED OF SOUND FILE: UFO3109
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright 1992. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
|
|
NEW YORK (AP) -- For years, the United States may have been operating
|
|
secret
|
|
new spy planes that fly as fast as eight times the speed of sound, according
|
|
to
|
|
published reports.
|
|
The $1 billion jet would be superior to the record-holding SR-71 spy plane
|
|
now being used globally, according to an article prepared for Jane's Defence
|
|
Weekly, a British military-affairs journal, and cited in The Wall Street
|
|
Journal
|
|
on Friday.
|
|
But an Air Force spokesman denied Saturday that the service is working on
|
|
a
|
|
replacement for the SR-71, as the author of the Jane's article claims.
|
|
The speculation surrounding the alleged new plane is based partly on a
|
|
trained aircraft observer's reported sighting of a wedge-shaped aircraft
|
|
flying
|
|
over the North Sea, the Journal quotes Jane's as saying.
|
|
The mysterious plane reportedly was flying in formation with two
|
|
U.S.-built
|
|
F-111 bombers.
|
|
The observer was Chris Gibson, a British oil-drilling engineer and
|
|
aircraft
|
|
spotter, who told Jane's he saw the plane more than three years ago for
|
|
about 90
|
|
seconds from a North Sea oil rig, according to the Journal. He reportedly
|
|
later
|
|
saw a drawing of a design in an aircraft magazine that had a similar triangle
|
|
shape and didn't match any other known aircraft.
|
|
Bill Sweetman, the stealth technology expert who wrote the Jane's story,
|
|
says
|
|
he believes the sighting is the missing link in a chain of events that
|
|
explains
|
|
a number of U.S. military developments, according to the Journal.
|
|
Sweetman says Lockheed Corporation may have developed the faster
|
|
reconnaissance plane to replace its SR-71 Blackbird after the United States
|
|
took
|
|
the latter out of service in early 1990.
|
|
Lockheed spokesman Richard Stadler said the company won't comment on any
|
|
secret programs it may have, but in the past the company has produced U.S.
|
|
spy
|
|
planes long before it acknowledged their existence.
|
|
"The Air Force has no follow-on program for the SR-71," Air Force
|
|
spokesman
|
|
Lt. Col. Mike Gannon said Saturday night. "This story keeps coming back every
|
|
two or three months, but we do not have a program as described there."
|
|
Since the SR-71 was taken out of service, the United States has met its
|
|
reconaissance needs through other, non-aircraft, means, Gannon said.
|
|
The Jane's report says the engines are built by Rockwell International
|
|
Corp.'s Rocketdyne Division. But a company spokesman not named by the
|
|
newspaper
|
|
denied the company builds engines for reconnaissance planes.
|
|
The SR-71 holds the official speed record of 2,193 mph, compared to the
|
|
estimated 5,280 mph of the model Sweetman speculates flew over the North
|
|
Sea.
|
|
Jane's suggests that the new plane -- rumored to be called Aurora because
|
|
that name appeared in an unexplained defense budget line next to the SR-71 --
|
|
costs about $1 billion and first flew in about 1985, the Journal says.
|
|
The development of the "Aurora" may be the reason why the United States
|
|
retired its last SR-71 in 1990, explaining that it would rely instead on
|
|
satellites for reconnaissance.
|
|
The Jane's report also suggests that the high-tech spy plane may have been
|
|
responsible for a series of earthquake-like rumbles detected in southern
|
|
California and other parts of the world.
|
|
|
|
(presented without permission for research purposes only)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
*********************************************************************
|
|
* -------->>> THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo <<<------- *
|
|
********************************************************************* |