Paul M Foster wrote:
> And the Aurora is?
No one without a specific, compartmentalized USDoD security
clearance knows for sure. But here are some of the details that
have been observed by those near foreign US air bases as published
to various military/science journals:
1. Uses one or more scramjet engines capable of at least Mach 6
Multi-sonic booms that, when recorded, match the profile of a
scramjet engine. These recordings have been ploted and when
combined with a few assumptions, show the vehicle is travelling at
least Mach 6. It could possibly reach even higher speeds at higher
altitudes (upto Mach 8, 10 or even 12 is not out of the question).
2. Can fly half-way around the world in a matter of hours
People have timed tracked launches from the UK to various bases in
the east Pacific.
3. Possibly a small, unmanned aircraft
A good assumption. The multi-sonic booms suggest the craft is not
that large, and probably unmanned, which would be the most fuel
efficient as well. The avionics package probably includes both
remote control as well as autonomous guidance (for if and when the
communication link in severed and/or for cruise to the target).
4. The actual result of the Reagan administrations X-30 project
The Reagan administration sold the US public on a "national
aerospace plane" (NASP) as a upper-atmosphere transport. It looks
like the Aurora might be a direct result of scaled protoypes, now
adopted by the US Air Force for reconnasance. God knows the timing
would be perfect with the Blackbird retiring, which is a bitch to
maintain.
-- TheBS
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org chat:thebs413 Engineer AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc. http://www.linux-wlan.org President SmithConcepts, Inc. http://www.SmithConcepts.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ Those living in the US who consider the American flag to be a sym- bol of oppression obviously fail to understand what the word means
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 19:36:55 EDT