following the loss of space shuttle
It was noted that the Groom Lake facility had recently undergone an expansion, which believers pointed to as support facilities for the Aurora.
The old housing area, built for the A-12 personnel, was demolished and replaced by 180 new units. An indoor recreation facility and a new commis-sary were also built. Four water tanks were built on the hillside behind the base for fire-fighting purposes. There was also an extensive runway upgrade program, which included the addition of a second runway. Another improvment was construction of a new fuel tank farm at the south end of the base.
This was believed to store the liquid methane that fueled Aurora.[775] About midway down the Groom Lake flight line, a large hangar was built. It had a high roof. Believers thought this was the hangar used to load Aurora's upper stage.[776]
In a separate incident, a United Airlines 747 crew reported a near miss with an unknown aircraft. It occurred at 1:45 P.M. on August 5, 1992, as the airliner was headed east out of Los Angeles International Airport. The crew reported the plane was headed directly toward them and passed five hundred to a thousand feet below them. The crew thought the plane was supersonic as the closure rate was two to three times normal. They described the plane as having a lifting-body configuration, much like the forward fuselage of an SR-71 with some type of tail, and was the size of an F-16. It was speculated the plane was a drone that had 'escaped.' The sighting took place near the Edwards test range. The FAA and Edwards radar records were examined, but no target was recorded when the crew said the near miss occurred.[777]
The flood of reports on Aurora generated a number of denials by Air Force Secretary Donald Rice. In a letter to the
Let me reiterate what I have said publicly for months. The Air Force has no such program either known as 'Aurora' or by any other name. And if such a program existed elsewhere, I'd know about it— and I don't. Furthermore, the Air Force has neither created nor released cover stories to protect any program like 'Aurora.' I can't be more unambiguous than that. When the latest spate of 'Aurora' stories appeared, I once again had my staff look into each alleged 'sighting' to see what could be fueling the fire. Some reported 'sightings' will probably never be explained simply because there isn't enough information to investigate. Other accounts, such as of sonic booms over California, the near collision with a commercial airliner and strange shapes loaded into Air Force aircraft are easily explained and we have done so numerous times on the record. I have never hedged a denial over any issue related to the so-called 'Aurora.' The Air Force has no aircraft or aircraft program remotely similar to the capabilities being attributed to the 'Aurora.' While I know this letter will not stop the speculation, I feel that I must set the record straight.[778]
On July 23, 1992, Rice told reporters, 'I can tell you that there is no airplane that exists remotely like that which has been described in some articles.' On another occasion, Rice called Aurora 'fantasy.' On October 30, 1992, Rice said, 'The system that has been described in those articles does not exist. We have no aircraft program that flies at six times the speed of sound or anything up close to that.'
Such explicit denials did not stop believers from quickly trying to cast doubt on Rice's honesty. It was suggested that 'We' meant the air force, while Aurora was operated by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which controlled spy satellites. 'And maybe,' one believer continued, 'Mach 5 or Mach 8 is 'not anything up close to' Mach 6 by Secretary Rice's reck-oning.' The believer concluded, 'This particular exchange of question and answer typifies the Air Force's practice of avoiding any direct and unambiguous denial.'[779]
The suggestion that the NRO operated Aurora was later denied by the NRO's director, Martin C. Faga:
If there ever was a follow-on to the SR-71, that aircraft could be assigned to the NRO… in the case of a hypersonic vehicle, as has been widely speculated — by which I mean a vehicle faster than an SR-71—Mach 3, 4, 5, 6, 8—we at NRO have no such vehicle [flying] or under development. I'm not aware of any such activity, and the Air Force has said the same. I don't know what the Navy, Army, NASA or anybody else is doing. I'm just saying that NRO doesn't have an 'Aurora' or anything else like it. It's a fascinating mystery. [780]
The air force also examined the 'skyquakes.' Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory was hired to analyze a seismic recording from Catalina Island. Lincoln Lab concluded it was from an F-14 on a test flight off the California coast. The believers were quick to attack the F-14 explanation; one said, 'This explanation doesn't hold water' and called it 'an attempt to discredit the 'skyquake' evidence.' They also quoted Edwards Air Force Base as saying a sonic boom from a jet at 50,000 feet only extended about twenty-five miles.[781]
Aurora also became a political issue during 1992. The October-November 1992 issue of
The secrecy surrounding Black airplanes was described as exceeding all reasonable justification, not being effective, blocking technological development, and 'promoting fraud and abuse.' [782] Aftergood had earlier said, 'It inhibits the oversight process and it puts these programs outside the sphere of democratic activity.'[783]
The editor of a private newsletter echoed these remarks, saying,
The real reasons behind the secrecy is becoming very clear to the American taxpayer. The cost of these programs must be enormous and the Pentagon is afraid that Congress might suffer an attack of sticker shock when they find out how much money the military is vacuuming out of the nation's treasury. It could also be that buried in the budgets of black programs could be evidence of monetary fraud, kickbacks and wasteful expenditures. It seems that many of these programs are designed not to evade radar but to evade accountability to Congress and the American taxpayer.[784]
Following Bill Clinton's election as president, some saw Aurora as a test of his 'pledge for a more open government — and as a means of gauging his appetite for tackling the secretive, deep-rooted and conservative intelligence community.'[785]
At the end of the year came word of the most important Aurora sighting yet. The December 12, 1992, issue of
The day was bright, with a hazy layer at high altitude. The sky above the rig was part of the Air-To-Air Refueling Area 6A. The witness reported seeing a KC-135 tanker, two F-llls, and a triangular aircraft a little larger than the F-llls flying north. The unknown aircraft appeared to be refueling from the KC-135. It was black and had a 75-degree sweep angle. The witness was also a twelve-year veteran of the Royal Observer Corps and had been a member of its international aircraft recognition team. The witness made a sketch but did not send it into
The sweep angle was nearly identical with that of McDonnell Douglas hypersonic designs studied between the late 1960s and the 1980s. The aircraft was estimated to be 90 feet long, with a 45- to 50-foot wingspan. As
