A pair of articles followed in the October 1, 1990, issue. These gave more details about the sightings and included artist conceptions of possible designs. They also noted that many in government were 'extremely skeptical' of the reports. One official said he was confident that there was no such thing as a family of high-speed aircraft. The articles argued, however, that very few officials would be told of such a project.[751] The
In its December 24, 1990, issue
The aircraft was powered up to supersonic speeds by jet engines. The 'external burning mechanism' then took over. The jet engines were shut down, and the inlet and exhaust ports were closed. Misted fuel was sprayed from ports at the midsection of the fuselage and ignited. The shape of the aft fuselage and the shock wave formed at the midpoint acted as a 'nozzle.'
This external burning was used to propel it to Mach 6 to 8.
In the fuselage's underside, the article said, were ports for 121 nuclear weapons. The ports were covered with heat-tile-covered caps. The weapons were cone-shaped, like an ICBM's warhead, and sat in the ports nose down.
The airplane must slow to subsonic speeds to drop the weapons. The outer cap was discarded, the weapon was ejected, and then a second tile-covered cap moved into position. The aircraft was unmanned — it was preprogrammed, but could also be controlled via a satellite or ground station. Such Black aircraft were given as 'the reason the Iron Curtain fell.'
All these articles were written against the background of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and the buildup of Allied forces. The
As Persian Gulf tensions continue into 1991, one must question whether the U.S. commander in chief and his defense secretary are fully aware of super-black weapon systems' potential…
Hard as it may be to fathom, there is reason to wonder whether complete knowledge of the most exotic aircraft may reach 'The Top,' all for super-security.
One would like to think America's staggering black-world expenditures have yielded weaponry that could neutralize Iraq President Saddam Hussein's most valued military and political assets quickly.
Some say that capability is in hand and could be used… if the right people choose to do so. If they do not, why not?
If so, why are almost 400,000 U.S. and allied troops dug into the sand in Saudi Arabia, prepared to slug it out in a bloody ground war?
… the lives of those troops are worthy of wider consideration.[753]
Following the flurry of reports in late 1990, there was a drop-off in articles during 1991. What was being published was little more than a rehash of the earlier articles. For its part, the air force denied that Aurora existed.
Most statements were 'no comment,' but some were more direct. An air force public affairs officer stated, 'We have no aircraft matching these descriptions.'[754] A senior government official privately told the author that when the reports were published, they sparked a flap inside the U.S. government. An investigation was launched at a high level, which, despite diligent effort, could not discover such an aircraft. He officially stated that there was no such aircraft, as described in the articles.[755] Believers in Aurora were quick to point out the air force had also denied the existence of the F-19 stealth fighter.
Early 1992 saw a flood of Aurora stories. These were sparked by four 'brief rumbles' in the Los Angeles area over a ten-month period. All occurred between 6:30 and 7:30 A.M. on Thursdays. The specific dates were June 27, October 31, and November 21, 1991, and January 30, 1992. Believing they were earthquakes, radio station KFWB called Caltech's Seismo Lab for the location and magnitude of the quakes. Caltech seismologists looked at computer records from a network of sensors and determined no earthquakes had occurred.
Jim Mori, a research seismologist at Caltech, concluded that the rumble was actually a sonic boom. The seismic record of a sonic boom is different than a small earthquake, even though they have the same magnitude. As Mori explained, 'Sonic boom records look like a short pop; earthquakes have a longer decay period.' At first, Mori thought it might be from a meteor, but the regular occurrence, always between 6:30 and 7:30 A.M. and always on a Thursday, ruled this out. That left an airplane. Since there are no commercial supersonic aircraft, KFWB called local air force and navy bases. They denied any of their aircraft were flying at the time. This seemed to point toward Aurora.
In 1989, Mori had worked on a team studying seismograms recorded during space shuttle landings at Edwards Air Force Base. Based on this, some information about the mystery plane could be determined. It was possible to calculate how fast and how high the plane was flying, based on the pattern of the arrival times of the sonic boom across the seismic network.
By looking at the entire network, it was possible to determine the flight path and direction. Using the experience of twelve shuttle landings and one SR-71 flight, Mori concluded:
On three of the four days, the records showed two events, which means that there were two planes. They flew about one minute apart as they traveled across the seismic net from south to north. The planes traveled at about two to four times the speed of sound, at an altitude of 10,000 to 40,000 feet. From the frequency of the event on the seismogram, we think that the aircraft is smaller than the Shuttle. It appears that they did not land at Edwards Air Force Base, but kept going north to southern Nevada. The last time the planes flew, on January 30, they passed over the Los Angeles area about one-half hour before the Space Shuttle was due.[756]
Because the top end of the speed range was above that of conventional aircraft and because its flight path would take it toward Groom Lake, many assumed the mystery plane was Aurora. A fifth 'rumble' occurred on April 16, 1992, (again a Thursday) at about 7:00 A.M. A public affairs director for the Tournament of Roses described it as 'kind of a rumble — very short.' A restaurant manager said, 'It rattled the glass door. And there was a roar, a slight roar.' By November 1993, a total of eight such rumbles had been heard. [757]
On April 20, 1992, the
This included details on the rumbles and on the aircrafts' flight path. There was a brief film clip taken from a site near Groom Lake of a light hovering in the night sky. This light was described as being an extremely maneuverable Black airplane.[758]
As Mori noted, 'If they were really trying to keep this secret they wouldn't fly it over downtown L.A., over and over again.' The seeming public display of Aurora indicated to some that a disclosure was imminent. The believers detected a 'subtle language shift' in the air force denials. One spokesman said, 'I have nothing for you on that.' Steven Aftergood, an analyst with the Federation of American Scientists — which had long opposed new U.S. weapons programs — said about the air force statement, 'it's a non-denial denial. Coming from the air force, it amounts to a confirmation.' Aftergood continued, 'I would say the triggering of earthquake sensors is a leak from the air force. This is a form of signaling to the people who watch these things that (they've) arrived.' Just when the
