What happened to the Aurora?

[DogTailRed2]

Watching an episode of the X Files and was reminded of the aircraft called the Aurora.
Aurora (aircraft) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(aircraft))
Seems to have gone quite. Did it ever exist?

[Jhieminga]

We can tell you, but we'd have to kill you.

[charliegolf]

We can tell you, but we'd have to kill you.

Would you tell my wife?:O

CG

[ORAC]

Who do you think is watching you…..

[Ninthace]

Kill you and eat you, just to be certain.

[pr00ne]

NO.

It never existed.

[Ninthace]

Your never heard it here. . .

[DogTailRed2]

As myths and legends go it's certainly one that `could` be true, if only in part.
We have the 117, B2 and reportedly a new B2 on the cards. So it could have been an intermediate design even if it never got off the concept board.

[ORAC]

https://youtu.be/vp_WfB2yKD4

[nevillestyke]

According to Wikipedia, it was videoed by a (extreme) plane-spotter:
" I had an insulated face mask and two sleeping bags, so I didn't present a heat signature. I videotaped the aircraft through a telescope with a five-hundred-millimeter f4 lens coupled via a C-ring to a high-eight digital video camera with five hundred and twenty scan lines of resolution, which is better than TV."
However, Hi8 is an analogue tape system, so 'high-eight digital video cameras' definitely do not exist; I don't know about the aircraft's existence.

[hoodie]

... and reportedly a new B2 on the cards. .

Reportedly? The LRS-B had an RFP issued in 2014 and the resulting B-21 Raider was publicly rolled out over a year ago.

[Dunhovrin]

However, Hi8 is an analogue tape system, so 'high-eight digital video cameras' definitely do not exist; I don't know about the aircraft's existence.

Sony’s High-8 camcorders had the moniker Digital Video Recorder. I still scart my DVR TRV-36 to the back of a video recorder and then using digital out from camcorder to laptop to when copying across old videos. BBC’s Test Pilot was the last one…

[nevillestyke]

Sony’s High-8 camcorders had the moniker Digital Video Recorder. I still scart my DVR TRV-36 to the back of a video recorder and then using digital out from camcorder to laptop to when copying across old videos. BBC’s Test Pilot was the last one…
The only 8mm camcorders which Sony produced with the digital name were Digital8 camcorders, which recorded with the same digital codec as MiniDV digital camcorders. If you have an 8mm camcorder with a DV digital output (IEEE 1394, known as firewire or iLink), then it is a Digital8 camcorder, which will not record in Hi8 analogue format, but may well play back analogue tapes. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital8#Analog_recordings

[VX275]

As far as the Aurora crash at Boscombe goes, any denial was seen by the jurno who came up with the story as conformation it occurred. He never could accept that the C5 was carrying helicopters for a trial in the US. The unmarked executive jet was Sting/Tom Cruise/Duke of Westminster (whoever) using Boscombe as it was close to where they wanted to go. The 'twin tails' were the structure for the Rolling Deck that was being transfered to Boscombe from RAE Bedford. The aircraft wreckage under a tarpaulin was one of the cockpits that now reside in the Boscombe Down Collection museum at Old Sarum. Finally, the road closure for a trailing TRD is possible but IIRC it was actually a trailing hose on a Tristar tanker which delayed one of my trials sorties because half my Herc crew were on the Tristar.
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

[dead_pan]

I've told this story before on PPRuNe, but I distinctly remember reading a news story in Flight International in the mid 80s about the 'Soviet Military Power' publication the US DIA used to produce. It reported that at an event when the latest publication was launched, someone noticed a reference to Aurora in it, at which point all copies were hurriedly gathered up and taken away. A new updated one was released a few weeks later without any reference.

Of course, this could all have been a ruse to convince us that it did indeed exist.

[Less Hair]

Aurora scale model (https://fantastic-plastic.com/aurora-hypersonic-spy-plane---retired.html)

[chopper2004]

If i am correct, decade back Lockheed Martin said they were going to build

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-sr-72-son-of-blackbird-from-its-conception-to-its-possible-cancellation/

Then couple of years down the line they denied it etc

and then

https://theaviationist.com/2023/11/04/skunk-works-usaf-isr-platform/

Confused dot com.

Merry xmas

cheers

[wondering]

I remember JANES had an Aurora entry in the early 90s.

[golder]

Bill Sweetman spoke fondly about it.

[Fortyodd2]

It was a weather balloon..........................

[chopper2004]

Bill Sweetman spoke fondly about it.

Yep i had a copy of his book

https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/781703871.jpg

3 decades ago, believe the author was employed for 7 years with Northrop Grumman after Avweek.

cheers

[chevvron]

Aurora scale model (https://fantastic-plastic.com/aurora-hypersonic-spy-plane---retired.html)
There was also a plastic kit of the 'Aurora' which was produced by the plastic kit maker called Aurora who weren't particularly renowned for making kits which were entirely accurate.
I saw a stack of them newly delivered in 'Beatties' just off Kingsway but I didn't buy one and I can't remember the year possibly late '80s when I visited the CAA quite often..

[Jhieminga]

Oh allright, I will spill the beans..... Aurora exists.


There, it's out in the open.


Cycled past it just this afternoon.




https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/667x1000/aurora_1248ba8515ae6b9b91c1575fbb7a72f25f25ef37.jpg
Vijzelstraat, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

[Tango and Cash]

Too many people figured the Aurora name out, so they changed it to Darkstar and gave it an appearance in a Tom Cruise movie. Hiding it in plain sight if you will!

I'll get my coat and head out now.

[BEagle]

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/478x624/aurora_file_0bd3c164d910895557b198eeb2a6cdfaa431f43e.jpg

[Ninthace]

Slow down, If we are going to kill you and eat you, I am going to have to cook more fava beans and I am all out of Chianti.

[widgeon]

Surprised no one has mentioned the CP140 Aurora, Canada's soon to be replaced maritime surveillance aircraft.
https://www.seaforces.org/marint/Canadian-Navy/AVIATION/Aurora_DAT/CP-140-Aurora-014.jpg

[IFMU]

In the late '90s we were flying the Sikorsky Cypher UAV at the Nevada Test Site. Saw lots of B2s and F16s, but did not see the Aurora. We could only hear it!

[chopper2004]

In the late '90s we were flying the Sikorsky Cypher UAV at the Nevada Test Site. Saw lots of B2s and F16s, but did not see the Aurora. We could only hear it!

The cypher would add to the flying saucer ufo sightings lol, as i recall, mind you around same time one of the final year projects for us aerospace eng students on the board included designing an anti drug spraying (circular) drone.

cheers

[hunterboy]

Funnily enough, a few of us saw something similar over the Baghdad FIR several weeks ago. The shuttle shaped object was certainly shifting at a very high altitude with no lights displayed.