Was it the Aurora?

Having only recently found your site I would be interested to hear what you think of my "sighting's" (or maybe it should be sounding's!)

I have Just left the Uk Forces after 26 years service and during that time have been based and detached to various locations in the UK, Germany. Canada and the USA and have seen and heard a lot of srange things but as an aircraft engineer I know what an aircraft sounds and looks like as I have lived with them for years!!!!!

In 1992 I was based at RAF Valley in the UK and was returning from work one day in may when I heard a very loud pulsing roar overhead. There was a lot of cloud cover so I could not see any contrails but the aircraft was flying north to south at a very high speed.

Now for anybody with a map of the UK handy you will see that north of Valley there is nothing but the Isle of Mann and a bit of the Scottish coastline with a little known airbase called Machrahanish! Any bells ringing out there!!!!!

In 1998 I was in Germany and after coming home from a night shift at about 4am I heard that pulsing roar coming from the direction of the airbase I had just left. Did not see any visable signs of the aircraft but I know it was not one of our aircraft being ground run or flew as all flying had finished for the night!

In 2002 I was based in the UK again at an airbase in the Midlands. At about 9pm there was a loud pulsing roar again which was so loud the windows vibrated in the house. I went into the garden but by the time I got out there the noise had stopped. This time however I actaually saw an aircraft overhead. The aircraft was flying west to east at quite a slow speed with no engine sounds audible. I could not say what the altitude was so it would be hard to say how big it was but I could see the strange configuration of the wingtip/anti collision lights as there was a small red light at the nose of the aircraft, two lights on either wingtip which looked like search lights as they were pointed straight down and were moving in random directions, and two red/amber anti collision lights at the rear of the aircraft. I watched the aircraft for about a minute as it flew away to the east still making no noise.

Now being a member of the Forces and being a bit of an aircraft spotter I know my aircraft and what an aircraft engine sounds like at all levels ( idle, max dry, reheat etc) and this pulsing roar was not like any of them!!!!

The only thing I have heard which was similar was what you call a "pop surge" or engine surge but this does not last to long as if it did you would damage the engine so that theory is out the window.

I know what a Pulse Wave Detonation Engine (P.W.D.E) is and if what I have read is to be beleived that is what I think I have heard!

I hope you find this intresting and it might give you some insight into what is flying about up there!!!!

SV out!

SV,
Thanks for your post. It is always good to hear what an engineer has to say about these black projects. From what you said it sounds like you have probably read everything about the Aurora that is posted hear. The only thing that I can add is if the PWDE was in use, you should have seen donuts-on-a-rope vapor trail. I also heard some on say in a thred that the Aurora was canceled and replaced with something else. Do not rember what they said it was replaced with. Maby someone can fill that in. Congradulations if you did see the Aurora. Most of use that work in this field would have sure wanted to see it also. Thanks again.

Good to have another Engineer on here!

I have on a rare occasion seen "donuts on a rope" contrails above my hometown but never heard the pulsing sound as described...

Could you make out a shape at all? was it Triangular? was it more like a Dartmount Dart shaped object? (Y'know, classic paper aircraft).

The search lights and silent operations make me think more of the "TR-3A/B" sightings.

I guess it's pretty clear they all are in the same project of Black Hyper-Sonic surveilence aircraft...

This probably wont add any real contribution to the post, but I'll throw it in anyway. A good friend of mine joined the US Air Force very soon after graduating high school in '94. His first assignment after basic was in the UK, but he didnt say where exatclly in the UK. He had a little bit of off-time between bases (he was moving from the UK to Japan), and one night we went out and had a few beers. I asked him "how was it going", "Whatcha been doin' up there" (the usual keeping-up junk)... And he mentioned that he was pretty much just a grunt guarding a hanger. So I asked him if he saw any cool jets and he said "Yeah, I saw a blackbird a couple times, some of the newer fighters, the aurora, (and continued on)". So I replied "Umm, The Aurora?!?". His only reply back was "what? what are you talking about? I didnt say that?" and went stone silent for about 2-3 minutes. I still think it just slipped, but in the few times I've talked to him since, he always seems to change the subject quickly and wont say anything. So I just let it rest. Maybe once he's out of the AF he'll let me know the truth .

Thanks for the replys so far!

I could not see any contrails because on the first "sounding" at Valley there was full cloud cover and on the other two occasions it was dark but on the most recent of those sighting's I did see the wingtip/anti-collision lights which appeared to be in a triangular or flying wing shape and there was no tail nav light (usually white) which is normally situated on the top of the tailplane assy leading me to think that maybe there was no tailplane!!!.

I know that the position of the aircraft lights does not normally have any relation to the shape or planform of the aircraft i.e you can stick the anti-cols anywhere as long as there is one on the top and one on the bottom!.

The thing that makes me think that this was something different was the downward facing wingtip lights which are normally red for the port side and green for the stbd. They are not searchlight's which point downwards and move about randomly!. The only thing close is the Nitesun lights fitted to some of the police and military helicopter's and I can rule that out as they where too far apart to be on the same helicopter and unless they have some sort of "whisper mode" AKA Airwolf and Bluethunder it did not make any helicopter turbine or piston engine sounds!

So as to what it was I can only say that the UK or US military are testing or operating some very different aircraft in our skies as all of my sightings have occured over populated areas with no real effort of concealment apart from time of day or weather condition's.

As a final fact I can also say that I have also worked for a certain british aircraft manufacturer which has a factory location in Warton and heard quite a few rumours about what was being tested or operated from it!!!!!

Aurora?, TR3A/B?, HALO who knows but there is something out there and maybe we will never know what it is untill either they de-classify them or one goes in somehere and the media get there before the military!

Keep up the good threads

SV out!

originally posted by: Silentvulcan
Thanks for the replys so far!

I could not see any contrails because on the first "sounding" at Valley there was full cloud cover and on the other two occasions it was dark but on the most recent of those sighting's I did see the wingtip/anti-collision lights which appeared to be in a triangular or flying wing shape and there was no tail nav light (usually white) which is normally situated on the top of the tailplane assy leading me to think that maybe there was no tailplane!!!.

I know that the position of the aircraft lights does not normally have any relation to the shape or planform of the aircraft i.e you can stick the anti-cols anywhere as long as there is one on the top and one on the bottom!.

The thing that makes me think that this was something different was the downward facing wingtip lights which are normally red for the port side and green for the stbd. They are not searchlight's which point downwards and move about randomly!. The only thing close is the Nitesun lights fitted to some of the police and military helicopter's and I can rule that out as they where too far apart to be on the same helicopter and unless they have some sort of "whisper mode" AKA Airwolf and Bluethunder it did not make any helicopter turbine or piston engine sounds!

So as to what it was I can only say that the UK or US military are testing or operating some very different aircraft in our skies as all of my sightings have occured over populated areas with no real effort of concealment apart from time of day or weather condition's.

As a final fact I can also say that I have also worked for a certain british aircraft manufacturer which has a factory location in Warton and heard quite a few rumours about what was being tested or operated from it!!!!!

Aurora?, TR3A/B?, HALO who knows but there is something out there and maybe we will never know what it is untill either they de-classify them or one goes in somehere and the media get there before the military!

Keep up the good threads

SV out!

Doubts about the purported existence of the "TR-3" tactical reconnaissance flying wing were vindicated by deployment of the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel. The reason Aurora became associated with a putative hypersonic replacement for the SR-71 was because that codename appeared in the P-1 Pentagon budget document from 1985 under the heading "Air-breathing reconnaissance", but we now know that Aurora was the Pentagon codename for funding the procurement of the B-2 and that the USAF never had an operational hypersonic follow-on to the Blackbird in the 1990s. Although Senator John Glenn was an opponent of the retirement of the SR-71 in 1990, he nevertheless saw no reason to believe that the Pentagon was not telling the truth about what was happening at Area 51, and his opinion was proven right by the reactivation of the SR-71 in 1995. The Quartz/AARS strategic reconnaissance flying wing UAV project was intended as the true successor to the Blackbird, but was cancelled in the early 1990s due to high costs without ever reaching the hardware phase.