Aurora maybe not aircraft, maybe nuke tests on F117/B2 airframes

I have spent alot of time on the Aurora mystery as I'm sure alot of people here have. One thing I keep thinking is that since the "aurora" name came from a line item in a budget document ref. to "other aircraft" then maybe it's not an actual aircraft, but rather part of something else.

There are other "Aurora" programs in the military. One was an Army program to test the effects of pulsed radiation on vehicals, equipment, buildings, etc. Some of the scientists that worked on this project came from the Nevada test site, the infamous "Area 51".

During the 1980's thru the 1990's pulsed radiation tests were conducted on satellites and missiles for proposed SDI (star wars) projects. The size of the doors to undergound test area are big enough to accomodate an aircraft or at least parts of an airframe or other components, so it's possible tests were done on the F-117 and the B-2. That would explain the secrecy as those projects were still highly classified in the 1980's.

IS it possible that that is what the mysterious 1980's "Aurora" budget item was? It's possible I suppose, but not as romantic as a Hyper-sonic stealth spy plane. I'm not 100% convinced of anything but this seems plausible to me.

Here is a link that is interesting, especially if you actually read all the info at the bottom.
Cryptome

Edit to remove pics, pics are on the provided link though.

[edit on 7/13/2006 by looking4truth]

Wow that crytome link is very interesting. I never knew it until now, but I grew up literally rate next to that pulsed radiation simulator I dont have any stories or anything other than that.

Your theory does seem like a plausibe one, but how much was the expenditure on the line item for? or was that black too? was it more cost wise than other aircraft projects?

The theory seems to fit with some of the evidence.

FAS.org
The first suggestion that these studies might be translated into operational hardware appeared in the Fiscal Year 1986 procurement program document, colloquially known as the P-1, dated 4 February 1985. A line item in this document, labeled "Aurora," was slated to receive $80 million in 1986, and over $2.2 billion in 1987. Since this line item appeared next to the line funding the TR-1 reconnaissance aircraft, it stirred up a hornet's nest of conjecture that a secret aircraft was being developed to replace the aging SR-71.

The Air Force quickly denied the existence of a secret program, and said the "Aurora" budget line was simply one site for B-2 bomber funds when that program was highly classified. One Air Force official commented, "I wish I could say it is (an SR-71 follow-on), because we'd love to have it. But it's just accounting, I'm afraid."

I have heard all sorts of theories. It gets to be a big jumbled mess, but that might be intentional, you never know.

There is some truth the the speculations behind the original 'Aurora' name. You can remove that name, but does not change the fact that there are Black Project aircraft that have been sighted and we don't know anything about them. For me, personally, I believe that, at that time, that line item was actually for an aircraft that matches at least one of the discriptions of something possibly flying out of Groom Lake. I think that after that leak, the name was quickly changed and all information with that name stopped right there, even though the actual project continued. If that is true, then it would be easy to attach the name to something less glamourous and pass that off as the 'original' item. Until we see all the information that was attached to that line item, there is no way to say the Aurora 'Aircraft' did not or does not exist.
P.S. Why would they put a budget request for a lab under the recon aircraft section, anyway? Even if it was for the F117 or B2, there's no sense to it.

[edit on 14-7-2006 by TSR2005]

I personally believe that by leaving the word Aurora on that budget report the government has (unintentially) set back our research of black aircraft and made it much harder for us to do real research. Basically as soon as anyone sees what they think could be a black aircraft they scream AURORA leading to this tag being put on every sighting, plausible or not. Originally aurora was taken to refer to a high speed recon craft but Ive seen it used now to refer to everything from stealth fighters to anti-grav saucers. Its obvious to me that the USAF are researching high velocity aircraft, it just makes sense, but I have never really understood how ppl linked the word aurora on a budget statement to that specific project. To me it just looks like guess work.

The word Aurora has become a touchstone for every possible black project creating an indistinguishable blur of both concievable aircraft to crackpot pseudoscience which in turn has actually hindered black project research. I wish we could forget the word Aurora was ever mentioned and get on with talking about secret aircraft rather than shouting Aurora all the time!

Bravo, GFAD. Bravo. Testify, brother.

Originally posted by TSR2005

P.S. Why would they put a budget request for a lab under the recon aircraft section, anyway?

Even if it was for the F117 or B2, there's no sense to it.

[edit on 14-7-2006 by TSR2005]

I could only speculate. Possibly because of the expense of such tests adding it to the budget as a seperate item seemed appropriate at the time? Scale mockups of crew compartments and onboards electronics sytems, plus the exotic coatings that give the aircraft stealth, I could see the value of testing those things. Plus we've all heard stories of "black projects" being placed all over the budget, even in dept. of the interior budget requests. So you can't asssume anything about those budgets except that maybe they're over-inflated to cover waste.

But that raises the question of what other items in the budgets have been placed under similar code-names. If one speculates that Aurora was hidden in another department when it goes to something else, it can be asumed it was not the first or the last to receive such treatment. So, why hasn't any other code-name been publisized as well as Aurora? You can hide them in the budget, but they ARE in the budget. Given such facts, I'm more partial to believing it was leaked by accident and that it is a type of recon aircraft that has been flying for sometime now. Though, like I said earlier, it may not be under that name any more.