In my recent Simple Flying article on certain NASA programs and how they influenced military aircraft design, I made a reference to the real-world Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation and how it had "no connection to the apocryphal Aurora spy plane." Well, little did I suspect that that offhand remark would inspire an idea with our Editors, so now here I am writing an article about that "apocryphal Aurora spy plane."

As far as we know, the SR-91 Aurora spy plane never actually existed, although diehard fans of "The X Files" sci-fi TV series and the conspiracy theories of protagonist FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) may continue to insist otherwise. However, legends are at least partially based on fact, so now Simple Flying shall take a look at the facts behind the fiction of the Aurora.

To further muddle the picture and make matters a tad bit more confusing, there *is* a real-life military plane bearing the Auroro moniker: the Lockheed CP-140 Aurora , a maritime patrol craft used by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for activities such as antisubmarine warfare (ASW).

The origins of the Aurora story

So then, where did all begin? (Cue Neil Diamond: "Where it began, I can't begin to knowin'...")

Supposedly the Aurora was going to be a successor to another "SR-" (as in "Strategic Reconnaissance") plane that most certainly did exist (and still does, albeit in retirement), the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest air-breathing airplane ever built.

Whereas the SR-71 achieved a maximum speed of Mach 3.56 (2,731.47 mph; 4395.88 km/h; 2,373.58 kn), the SR-91 could supposedly attain a speed of Mach 5 (3,836.34 mph; 6,174 km/h; 3,333.69). Presumably, the Aurora would reach these incredible speeds by utilizing advanced propulsion systems such as pulse detonation engines (PDEs) or scramjets.

What's more, the plane could allegedly fly right near the edge of space, making it practically impossible for it to be intercepted by enemy fighter planes or surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Allegedly the program rang up a price upwards of $2 billion USD by the late 1980s.

So, that tells us the "What" behind the Aurora story, but what about the "When?" Well, the rumor intelligence (RUMINT) really took off (if you will) in March 1990, when Aviation Week and Space Technology first broke the news that the term “Aurora” was inadvertently released in the 1985 US defense budget as an allocation of $455 million for “black aircraft production” (as opposed to research & development [R&D]) in fiscal year (FY) 1987.

The RUMINT gained further ground (or further altitude, if you prefer) after observers in the great state of Nevada (the state where Nellis AFB, Creech AFB, and Area 51 all conveniently happen to be located), claimed to have seen and heard a distinctive aircraft overflying the Mojave Desert at a very high altitude and speed, usually in the early morning; these eyewitnesses described the contrail as “doughnuts on a rope” and claimed the engine noise at take-off “sounds like the sky ripping.”

Aurora "across the pond"

But it wasn't just Stateside that alleged sightings of the Aurora took place. Indeed, even before that March 1990 Aviation Week and Space Technology article was published, reports of the alleged craft surfaced in Great Britain.

The first recorded incident was in August 1989, when Chris Gibson, a 12-year veteran of the Royal Observer Corps and an expert on aircraft recognition, saw a triangular-shaped plane—unlike anything he had ever seen—flanked by two US fighters (specific type unidentified) being refueled in flight by a tanker whilst he was working on the Galveston Key oil rig. As Mr. Gibson was quoted in The Guardian:

“There was no precedent for this. I kind of sussed out that it was something I shouldn’t have seen.”

Additional sightings took place on March 31, 1993 over Devon, Cornwall, South Wales, and Shropshire, but an investigation by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed those to be a Russian rocket re-entering the atmosphere.

Fast-forward to May 2006, and, as noted in Defence Aviation, the MoD added further grist to the RUMINT mill by publishing a report that referred to US Air Force priority plans to produce a supersonic vehicle that could reach speeds of Mach 4 to 6.

Bottom line: Lack of proof

"The proof is in the pudding," as the proverb goes, but alas, none of the Aurora-flavored pudding has been served in the proverbial mess hall. As Mark Piskopos of The National Interest bluntly assessed the mystery thusly:"

"[N]o concrete evidence supports the existence of an SR-91 prototype...though it is true the SR-91 does not exist as a serial product, it is still not clear if the plane ever even existed as a design concept. The government has consistently denied that such an aircraft was ever built. To date, there is no hard evidence that an SR-91 prototype took flight...It appears that these Aurora rumors, some of which intersected with other far-fetched ideas about extraterrestrial encounters and secret military projects, were spurred less by concrete proof than by popular demand for stories confirming the SR-91’s existence."

However, the rumored existence of the Aurora may all be rendered a moot point anyway, thanks to another proposed successor to the SR-71 Blackbird, the SR-72 "SOB" ("Son of Blackbird"). Presumably, if all goes as planned, the shroud of mystery will finally be lifted off of the SOB if and when it makes its maiden test flight sometime in 2025.

Time will tell. Until then, in the immortal words of Agent Mulder, "The Truth Is Out There, Scully..."