Aurora Aircraft

Aurora is a mid-1980s American reconnaissance aircraft. The U.S. government has consistently denied such an aircraft was ever built. Aviation and space reference site Aerospaceweb.org concluded, "The evidence supporting the Aurora is circumstantial or pure conjecture, there is little reason to contradict the government's position."

The Aurora codename first appeared in a 1985 Pentagon budget document, which listed an allocation of $455 million for "black aircraft production." This sparked speculation that Aurora was a code name for a new, highly advanced aircraft. Aurora is rumored to be capable of hypersonic speeds (Mach 5 and above), significantly faster than the SR-71 Blackbird, which retired in 1998. It may incorporate advanced propulsion systems such as pulse detonation engines or scramjets, which would allow it to achieve such high speeds.

Like other to secret projects it is the steal capability of the Aurora that may result in such a high level of secrecy. Like other secretive aircraft, Aurora is thought to incorporate cutting-edge stealth technology to avoid detection by radar and other surveillance methods. Such aircraft are historically denied by the government until a crash or other concrete evidence becomes available to the public.

There have been numerous reports of triangular-shaped aircraft seen at high altitudes or flying at incredible speeds, often in areas known for military testing, such as Nevada's Area 51. In 1989, an aircraft spotter at RAF Machrihanish in Scotland claimed to have seen a triangular-shaped aircraft refueling from a KC-135 tanker. This relates to theories around the existence of the TR-3B Black Manta, a possible successor to the Aurora project.