Then, suddenly, Shamu changed shape.
THE "NEW SHAMU"
In early 1994, all the assumptions about Shamu were challenged. Rather than a flying-wing design, the "new" version of the Shamu story held that it was a Northrop design for a one-of-a-kind electronic warfare aircraft. The aircraft was large and has been described as "conventional" — one source likened it to the Boeing Stratocruiser airliner of the 1950s.
Shamu's fuselage was now described as rounded and bulbous. Like the Stratocruiser, the cockpit windows wrapped around the front of the fuselage. The side of the fuselage was described as flat and covered with antennae for the jamming equipment. It also had a very small vertical fin. This gave it the whalelike appearance. The wings were said to be slightly swept and were set low on the fuselage. The plane's four jet engines were buried within the wings (similar to the Comet airliner). According to another (allegedly) "reliable source," Shamu looked funny. People actually laughed when they saw it for the first time. It was likened to an unnamed cartoon character. (Security prevented saying which one.) The timescale of the project also changed. It now was reported to have been under way in 1977-79. This was the same time as the Have Blue flight tests.[735]
TACIT BLUE — THE TALE OF THE LONELY WHALE
In the months that followed the hardcover publication of this book, "Shamu" was still believed to be a flying wing. By the spring of 1996, there was even a description — a small flying wing with a transparent windshield in the leading edge for the pilot and two inwardly curved fins, code-named "Tacit Blue." By late April, reports began to circulate that the air force would soon unveil a "fighter-sized" Black airplane. On April 30, Tacit Blue was finally unveiled. To the surprise of all but the author, it was "funny looking."
Tacit Blue began in 1978, when DARPA asked Northrop to develop a stealth reconnaissance aircraft. It would have to operate behind front lines and carry radar able to detect armored units. The data would be relayed in real time to a ground command post.
The plane's designers, John Cashen (who later designed the B-2) and Steve Smith faced a difficult task. The F-117A was designed to have a minimum radar return from the front and back. This was because it flew towards and away from a target. The Tacit Blue would fly in circles, and thus be exposed to radar signals from all directions. This required "all-aspect" stealth. They also had to fit a large radar inside an airframe that was about the same size as an F-15.
The design that emerged was a slope-sided box with straight wings, two angled square fins, and a shovel-like chine on the nose. The pilot's windshield wrapped around the front like that on the Stratocruiser airliner. (The unnamed cartoon character it resembled was Howard the Duck.) The plane was 55.8 feet long, had a wingspan of 48.2 feet, and weighed 30,000 pounds. As with the Have Blue, the Tacit Blue made use of existing components — F-5E landing gear, an F-15 ejector seat, and two Garrett ATF3-6 high-bypass turbofan jet engines from the Falcon 20 business jet. The engines were supplied with air from a flush inlet atop the fuselage, while a slot exhaust was between the fins.
As with the other stealth aircraft, the Tacit Blue was highly unstable. If allowed to "weathervane" in a wind tunnel, a model would actually fly backwards. A nose up or down attitude would cause it to roll over. A General Electric digital quadruple-redundant fly-by-wire control system was needed to make Tacit Blue controllable.
Northrop test pilot Dick Thomas was selected to make the first flight. Thomas, Cashen, and the rest of the team were keyed up the night before. When two beers didn't help to relax them, Thomas and Cashen played a one-on-one basketball game until they both dropped. The next day, February 5,1982, Thomas made a successful flight.[736]
The Tacit Blue proved to have limited performance — an operating altitude of 25,000 to 33,000 feet, a speed of 250 knots, and an approach speed of 120 knots.
The Hughes radar performed well. At first glance, use of radar violated a basic tenet of stealth — remain silent. It was designed, however, to use low power and techniques which made the signals seem to be only background noise. Flight test showed the inlet worked well, but crosswinds on the ground caused stalls during engine startups. The cockpit was also too wide for a single-seat plane — the pilot had to lean in different directions to see.[737]
Despite the success, it was soon clear the Tacit Blue would never enter production. It would have had to operate over the lines. Although invisible to radar, it could still be seen during daylight. In all, 135 flights were made; the last on February 14, 1985. Five pilots flew the plane — Dick Thomas, Lieutenant Colonels Ken Dyson, Russ Easter, and Don Cornell, and Maj. Dan Vanderhorst. The primary accomplishment of the program was to develop all-aspect stealth, later used on the B-2 and F-22/23 programs.[738]
As with other Black airplanes, Tacit Blue had its secret symbols. The walls at Northrop were adorned with pictures of whales, reflecting the secret plane's secret nickname of "The Whale."
While "Shamu" was real, the other triangular planes were not. The "TR-3A" sightings were of F-117As (which are delta-shaped). The "F-121" was described as taking off vertically with an anti-gravity engine.
The unveiling of Tacit Blue was a source of personal satisfaction. On Saturday, May 4, 1996,1 was told that an individual found it suspicious that I had become interested in Black airplanes and UFOs, that my previous book, Watch the Skies! had been published by Smithsonian Institution Press, that Dr. Carl Sagan had liked the book, and that I had been right about Tacit Blue. He concluded I was spreading government disinformation. It was my birthday, and this was the best gift I had ever received.[739]
At the Tacit Blue press conference, the name of another Black airplane came up. It is rumored to be the most remarkable flying machine ever built.
It is called "Aurora."
CHAPTER 12
Tales of Darkness and Shadows
The Illusive Aurora
We listen carefully for distant sounds and screw up our eyes to see clearly.
Sun Tzu ca. 400 B.C.
For the past several years, strange sounds have been heard coming from the skies above the western United States. These sounds are described as a "rumbling," akin to a small earthquake or like the sky is being ripped open.
The source of these sounds is claimed to be the "Aurora" — a Mach 6 Black aircraft developed and flown in secrecy. The Aurora's speed is such that it could, according to the stories, fly from Washington, D.C., to Baghdad in ninety minutes. With its claimed top speed of 4,500 mph (six times the speed of sound, or 1.25 miles per second), the Aurora is seen as the epitome of a century of aerospace development. It is described as embody-ing an otherworldly technology.
These tales of darkness and shadows have been told in the technical press, weekly news magazines, and television news and entertainment programs. The air force has repeatedly denied the existence of the Aurora, yet the stories have continued to spread and grow. Ever more details have been added to the stories: what it looks like, what it smells like, and how its propulsion system works. The stories have also spread worldwide — sightings and "hearings" have been reported from a remote field in Scotland and on a small island in the Pacific. Aurora has also been used to raise questions about the development of such Black aircraft, and the role and necessity of such advanced weapons in a post-Cold War, one-superpower world.
There is just one little problem…
PRESENT AT THE CREATION
In August of 1976, the author was attending a convention of the Western Amateur Astronomers at Palomar Junior College. While there, a Caltech graduate student told the author that he had heard that Lockheed was developing a high-speed, high-altitude replacement for the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft. That was the start.
In 1979, Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine published an article describing high-speed aircraft studies undertaken at the Skunk Works.
By the 1990s, the article speculated, a Mach 4, 200,000-foot aircraft could be developed. The aircraft would relay its image and radar intelligence
data via satellite in real time. It would be powered by an advanced turbo-ramjet engine — a J58 with a ramjet surrounding it. The airframe would be an aluminum-beryllium alloy. The aircraft would be delta-shaped, similar to the X-24B lifting body. The main problem was cost — the engine alone would cost $1 billion to develop. By the year 2000, Lockheed estimated it would be possible to build a Mach 7, 250,000-foot aircraft which used supersonic-cruise ramjet (scramjet) propulsion.[740]
At the same time, the air force was looking at advanced bomber and cruise missile designs. One area of study was penetration altitude. Since the mid-1960s, when the SA-2 SAM had chased them out of the stratosphere, bombers had gone in at low altitude. The A-12/SR-71 showed a high-speed and high-altitude profile could work. Some wanted to use a very high, very fast attack profile, harkening back to the B-12 studies. One possibility looked at was a hypersonic cruise missile. It would be capable of Mach 6 at altitudes of 150,000 to 200,000 feet.[741]
At this time, it was assumed that any future Black airplane would rely on ever higher speeds and altitudes to survive. It was not commonly understood that stealth and high speeds were incompatible.
Rumors of such high-speed projects continued to circulate during the 1970s and early 1980s. The only published account was a brief report that Lockheed had, by 1982, already flown a Mach 6 research aircraft.[742] This was also the time the Have Blue was flown, the existence of stealth was unveiled, and the stories about the stealth fighter grew.
In February 1985, the project gained a name. The Department of Defense issued a budget document, a declassified version of the P-1 weapons procurement document for fiscal year 1986. Under "Strategic Reconnaissance" there was an entry titled "Aurora." The project would receive $80.1 million in fiscal year 1986, and $2.272 billion in fiscal year 1987. This was an unusual amount—$80.1 million was a very small amount for an aircraft development program, while $2.272 billion was very large. Such a sudden growth was also remarkable. It was speculated that the Aurora entry should have been removed before the document was declassified. It was also speculated that Aurora was the B-2 or F-117A program. Soon, another possibility began to be discussed.[743]
On January 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger was destroyed during launch, killing the seven crewmembers. In the wake of the tragedy, there was discussion of possible future shuttle replacements. These centered on single-stage-to-orbit vehicles. They would take off from a runway, then accelerate to Mach 25 speed and go into orbit. The technology necessary would be tested in the X-30 National Aero Space Plane program. Some remembered cases where White projects had Black counterparts. Examples included the White SR-71 and Black A-12 Oxcart. Another was the Hubble Space Telescope. This scientific instrument was similar in design to the Lockheed Big Bird photo reconnaissance satellite. If the X-30 was a White project, might the rumored superfast aircraft be its Black counterpart? Such a Black project, it was suspected, could have already cleared up some of the X-30's technological unknowns. It was also noted that the air force wished to retire the SR-71 fleet due to cost. It was presumed that an SR-71 replacement was in the wings.
AURORA
In early 1988, there were several articles on the alleged Aurora. On January 10, the New York Times reported that the air force was developing an aircraft able to reach Mach 5 (3,800 mph) and altitudes of over 100,000 feet. The aircraft would incorporate stealth technology to evade detection.
The article quoted one official as saying, "With the SR-71, they know we're there but they can't touch us. With the new technology, they won't even know we're there." The progress of the development effort, when it would become operational, and the specifications could not, the article said, be determined. Nor could the contractor be determined, although it noted Lockheed was reportedly building the F-19 stealth fighter.[744]
That same month, Armed Forces Journal published a financial analysis that indicated Lockheed's income far exceeded that which could be explained by the C-5B, C-141, or C-130 transport aircraft, TR-1 reconnaissance aircraft, P-3 antisubmarine aircraft, F-117A, or YF-22 stealth aircraft.
The article speculated this hidden income was from "something very big — perhaps a very black program within a black program." It was suggested that Lockheed was building a "super-stealth" replacement for the SR-71 and that flight tests had begun in 1987.[745]
It is worth noting that neither of these articles used the term Aurora as the name for the super-high-speed aircraft. That was done by the third article, which was published in the February 1988 Gung-Ho magazine. It described Aurora as being fueled by methane and capable of Mach 7 (5,000 mph) and 250,000-foot altitudes. The aircraft was described as having a three-man crew and as being operational since the mid-1980s. It was also claimed that inflight refueling was done by special KC-135Qs. Among other things, the article quoted one official as saying, "We are flight-testing vehicles that defy description. To compare them conceptually to the SR-71 would be like comparing Leonardo da Vinci's parachute design to the Space Shuttle." A retired colonel was quoted as saying, "We have things that are so far beyond the comprehension of the average aviation authority as to be really alien to our way of thinking." Finally, a retired Lockheed engineer was reported as saying, "Let's put it this way. We have things flying in the Nevada desert that would make George Lucas drool."[746]
In 1989, an eyewitness came forward to claim, among other things, that he had seen Aurora close up while working at Groom Lake. He described it as fueled by liquid methane and requiring the entire three-mile runway at Groom Lake to take off. During takeoff, he said, "it sounds like a continuous explosion." Aurora was described as able to reach speeds of Mach 10 and altitudes of 250,000 feet.[747] Aurora was later described "as an X-15 on steroids — fat and chunky with short stubby wings."[748]
In 1989 and 1990, a number of reports began to appear that described a very loud, deep rumbling engine noise, sometimes punctuated by a one-hertz "pulsing" sound. The aircraft also left a "sausage-link-shaped" contrail. The first reported sighting occurred in July 1989, at about 3:00 A.M., near Edwards Air Force Base. The "pulser," as it became known, was reported to be flying at medium altitude and visible as a "white glow."
On October 18, 1989, another "hearing" occurred during the early evening hours. The sound seemed to take off from North Base at Edwards. It was described as "extremely loud, with a deep, throaty rumble" which shook houses sixteen miles away. People came into the streets trying to locate the source of the sound. No light or glow was seen, but the roar continued for about five minutes; it seemed to be heading north and climbing into the sky. One witness said, "Your eyes tended to follow the noise; something was climbing at a very steep angle." Local residents said the sound "was like the sky ripping" and was unlike anything heard at Edwards for years.
One witness compared it to the Saturn 5 rocket engine tests of the 1960s.
A double sighting occurred on June 19, 1990, near Mojave, California, (in the Edwards area). The first occurred at 3:44 A.M., while the second was at 4:50 A.M. Both were headed to the northeast, and it was not clear if the sighting was of one aircraft twice or two different vehicles. There were eight separate reports of the "pulser" from Mojave. All occurred between midnight and 5:00 A.M., and all the objects were headed northeast.
Similar sightings were also reported from central Nevada during 1989-90.
Again, it was a rumbling noise, with a one to two-hertz pulse rate and heard in the early morning hours. One Nevada sighting occurred on August 6, 1990. The aircraft was reported to have left the Groom Lake range and overflown a small town. A witness said it was "the loudest thing I've ever heard. It wasn't breaking the sound barrier, but it was rattling the windows!"[749]
FIRST ARTICLES
The sighting reports sparked the interest of the technical press, and Aviation Week and Space Technology began a series of articles on the subject.
The first appeared in the December 18, 1989, issue, against the background of the fall of the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe.
Much of the article was a discussion of the role of Black development in the post-Cold War world.
It did note the sighting reports and quoted "officials close to the program" as saying, "Aurora is so black, you won't see anything about it [in public] for 10 or 15 years."[750]
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 Aviation Week and Space Technology articles sparked a flurry of newspaper articles on Aurora during November and early December 1990.[752]
In its December 24, 1990, issue Aviation Week and Space Technology published an extremely detailed account of a "theoretical" hypersonic aircraft "which could be cruising the skies tonight." The vehicle was shaped like a flattened diamond or football—110 feet long and 60 feet wide. The fuselage's edges were rounded, and the aircraft's contours were likened to a skipping stone. All surfaces were covered with black ceramic tiles. The article said, "They have a scorched, heat streaked appearance, and seem to be coated with a crystalline patina indicative of sustained exposure to high temperature. A burnt-carbon odor emanates from the surface. The aft body tiles are distinctly more pockmarked and degraded than those on the forward half of the aircraft, as if they had experienced the most heat."
Dark Eagles: A History of the Top Secret U.S. Aircraft Page 36