ThothWeb - Your Portal to the Unknown - UFO’s or Top Secret Spy Planes

A recent investigation has taken a look at one particular type of anomalous aerial phenomena with the hope of piecing together a modern day mystery. Around about fifteen years ago ufologists noticed a change in the sightings that were being reported.

Alongside the usual assortment of disc shaped objects and unexplained lights, there were increasing numbers of reports of black triangles in the sky; triangles that could perform manoeuvres and achieve speeds that conventional aircraft couldn’t match. By all accounts and purposes, these objects were unidentified flying objects but were they terrestrial or extraterrestrial in origin and if they were terrestrial could they have been a result of reverse engineering alien craft?

The prime suspect in the black triangle phenomena is Aurora, the highly classified surveillance aircraft that according to the Pentagon does not exist.

In mythology, Aurora was the Roman Goddess of the dawn who rode her chariot across the sky, the supreme vantage point from where she could observe the world. Aurora is perhaps a fitting name for a surveillance craft that travels through the sky at a cruising speed of 5,300 miles per hour, can be anywhere in the world in under 3 hours and is officially a myth.

The first question we must ask is, does Aurora really exist? Aurora is not a new project by any stretch of the imagination, first coming to the public’s attention twenty years ago in 1985 when it was accidentally listed in the U.S. Department of Defences budget request for the following year (1986) listed under the heading of ‘Air Breathing Reconnaissance’.

Aurora Plane?

Despite the strenuous denial of the air force and Lockheed, the defence contractor responsible for the construction and development of Auroras predecessors, the U-2 spy plane, SR-71 (Blackbird) and the F-117 Stealth fighter, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence to suggest that Aurora is an operational reality. Certainly according to Jane’s Defence Weekly, Lockheed's accounts have indicated that much of their income is derived from classified and special mission aircraft.

Chris Gibson, who was an engineer on a North Sea Oil rig, made one of the most credible sighting of the aircraft in August 1989. What makes Gibson’s report particularly sound is the fact that not only was there independent witness by the name of Graeme Winton but Chris Gibson was a fully trained member of the Royal Observer Corps, aircraft recognition team, for twelve years. He was considered an expert in this field and had himself written an aircraft recognition manual for the Corps. What Chris Gibson saw that day was four aircraft flying in formation, the largest of the four was a KC-135 Stratotanker, on its left flank were two F-111’s and on the right was a mysterious black triangle that despite being an expert in aircraft identification, Gibson could not identify. Gibson states that this remains the only aircraft he has never been able to identify.

According to a tentative analysis by Jane’s Defence Weekly, Aurora has been airborne since around 1985. The 75-degree swept triangle design of the aircraft, which was described by Mr. Gibson, corresponded to designs of hypersonic aircraft designed to travel at speeds in excess of Mach 5. The aircraft, which Jane’s Defence Weekly estimates cost around $1 billion each and first flew in about 1985, certainly they were thought to be fully operational by 1990 when the U.S. retired its last SR-71 spy plane. Officially the retirement of the SR-71is was said to be due to intelligence from satellites making it redundant, however most defence analysts suggest Aurora replaced the SR-71. Aerospace analyst Wolfgang Demisch has put the number of aircraft at between 24 and 30 but given that Aurora is a so-called ‘black budget’ project that officially doesn’t exist, it is impossible to say with any certainty.

Is it possible that Aurora’s clandestine operations could account for the thousands of sightings of black triangular shaped craft that have been seen all over the world? If it does, then the sighting suggest that Aurora has a massive degree of manoeuvrability and speed variation.

A sighting report filed in April of this year by a witness who stated that he is both a physicist and a licensed pilot makes interesting reading. The person concerned was camping out while hunting in the wilderness when he saw a big black triangular shaped object which he estimated to be about 80 feet long and 60 feet wide moving about 800 feet above him. It had an estimated airspeed of 30 mph. Not knowing what it was and being somewhat unnerved to find himself alone in the wilderness with what appeared to be an alien spacecraft above him, he took aim at it with his rifle, in so doing he obtained a clearer view through his gun site; he could clearly read the words ‘Emergency release’ on the underside of the craft. At this point, he realised that what he was seeing wasn’t an alien spacecraft as he’d first imagined but a military aircraft. Through his sight he could see that the plane’s outer casing appeared to be covered with well-fitted tiles, much like the ceramic tiles used on the Space Shuttle.

Certain elements of Aurora are rumoured to utilise similar technology to the space shuttle, which enables it to fly between 50 and 80 miles above the earth. Flying at that altitude and speed the protective tiles would be an important feature of the aircraft, but if it was Aurora, on that day in April, it wasn’t travelling at 5,300 miles an hour 80 miles above the earth – it was travelling at 30 miles an hours 800 meters above the earth! The fact that it did have the protective tiles suggests that this vehicle not only had the capability to operate in that extreme environment, but also that is capable of extremely slow low-level recognisance operations.

Scotland’s Machrihanish airbase at the tip of the Kintyre Peninsula, which is the most remote airbase in Britain, has been thought to be playing host to the Aurora since at least 1992. Despite its isolation, the base is reputedly guarded by a detachment of US Navy Seals, unprecedented security for a little used military base. Like Groom Lake in Nevada, where the Aurora is said to be based, Machrihanish also boasts an exceptionally long runway, thought to be one of the aircraft's main requirements. Strategically Britain is doubly important to the operational requirements of the aircraft, if necessary, specially modified tanker aircraft flying from Britain refuel Aurora in midair with the liquid methane fuel it uses, avoiding the need for daylight landings; this would presumably tie in with Chris Gibson’s sighting.

Like the US, Scotland has experienced a surge of Black triangle sightings amongst the UFO community. RAF radar stations have been reported as tracking ‘hypersonic targets’ over Scotland travelling at speeds between Mach 3 and Mach 6. Are these sightings really extraterrestrial craft, or simply sightings of an ultra secret recognisance plane? Once Aurora has refuelled in Scotland, it is said to return to the U.S. across the North Pole under the cover of darkness. It would appear that the aircraft's frequent nighttime visits could account for the numerous sightings of mysterious black triangular craft documented in Scotland.

One of the most perplexing elements of the black triangle phenomena is the sound. Over the last ten years or so, hundreds of witnesses have reported enormous, totally silent, black triangular craft hovering or slowly cruising at low altitudes over them, often making no effort to avoid detection by using bright white lights or flashing coloured lights. This seems to be completely at odds with what aviation experts know about Aurora, which is associated with sonic booms, pulsating roars and earthquake like rumbles that one witness described as ‘a noise you feel in your chest’.

Aurora Contrail

Aurora's distinctive noise pattern and bead like contrails are said to be due to the fact that it uses advanced Pulse Detonation Wave Engines for propulsion, which produces the telltale "string of beads" contrail. USGS seismologists have analysed the rumbles, say the aircraft's (Aurora’s) turbulence creates a distinctive signature, or wave pattern, on the seismograph unlike that of any known aircraft.

A well-documented black triangle sighting dating back to 1988 offers further insight into the issue of the black triangle phenomena. A large triangular shaped craft appeared over a frozen lake where it was said by witnesses to hover silently before it began to rumble so loudly that witnesses had to shout to make themselves heard, a series of smaller ‘Cessna sized’ triangular crafts then left the main craft performing a series of recognisance flights before returning to the main craft. This of course sounds like a classic ‘mother ship’ UFO sighting, and that may well be the case. Certainly the incident was investigated by both MUFON and the U.S. Coast guard before the US Military stepped in when it seems that “the Army and NASA had instructed them not to investigate the matter further or go out on the lake in their cutter to observe the ice in the area of the landing, since the matter was "out of their league and out of their hands."

Assuming that the report is genuine, which isn't unreasonable, given that the coast guards were summoned to the scene and witnessed the craft for themselves, there are three immediately obvious possibilities to consider here:

1) This is a very good example of a sighting of a triangular UFO and that NASA and the military are aware of the existence of these craft. If the craft was of extraterrestrial origin then it appears that the military are aware of their existence and may have based Aurora on similar technology either through a collaborative effort or reverse engineering technology.

2) That the US military has more than one ultra classified surveillance aircraft that is triangular in design. This would of course explain how these triangular craft seem to operate at such diverse altitudes and speeds.

3) That the witnesses saw Aurora, or an adaptation of Aurora undergoing a low level night time exercise using remotely operated drones. Certainly we have to, at least, consider at this point if Aurora could potentially have stealth technology that incorporated a silent mode for undertaking low-level recognisance work and be capable of hypersonic flight.

This is an idea that hasn’t really been given much prominence; after all, the Aurora is known for its speed and high altitude capabilities, not being slow, low and silent, but there are too many sightings of black triangular UFOs meeting this specification for us not to ask questions. As we’ve said, it is possible that there is more then one type of secret black triangular aircraft in use by the Air Force. However, if the first report we cited is correct, and the craft they observed had ‘space shuttle like tiles’ then that does suggest that the one craft can operate in very diverse modes. Something that flies low and slow doesn’t need heat resistant tiles; those would be reserved for a craft that flew on the edge of space itself.

What is clear is that there does seem to be clear evidence of a connection between reports of the notorious black triangles and the military. Sightings of the black triangles are often made in the remotest of areas where witnesses are few and far between. Not the kind of place where an alien visitor could gather much information about mankind who they had supposedly come to study or contact, but perfect locations for the military to carry out their own exercises without being disturbed.

To see a drawing of the Aurora and the Mothership, click here.

Click here to read the UFO sightings reports referred to in this article.

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