There was also unusual radio traffic monitored on April 5 and 22, 1992, at about 6:00 A.M., between the Edwards Air Force Base radar-control facility (call sign "Joshua Control") and an unknown high-altitude aircraft with the call sign "Gaspipe." Two advisories were recorded—"You're at 67,000, eighty-one miles out," and "Seventy miles out, 36,000. Above glide slope."
Fighter aircraft, such as F-15s and F-16s, do not fly above 50,000 feet, as they lack pressure suits. When Aviation Week and Space Technology contacted Edwards Air Force Base, they said Joshua Control had no record of an aircraft with the call sign Gaspipe on those dates. No U-2Rs or the NASA-operated SR-71s were in flight at the time.[771]
A year later, another unusual contrail was observed. On April 15, 1993, weather satellite photos received at the University of Leicester in England showed a spiral-shaped contrail. When they were published, one letter writer was struck by the similarity with the "doughnuts-on-a-rope."[772]
The original 1990 Aviation Week and Space Technology articles were illustrated with artist conceptions of a rounded-delta design. This was followed by the flattened-diamond aircraft. After the Scottish reports, drawings were published of a pure-delta Aurora. In the summer of 1992, still another design was publicized. It was similar in shape to the XB-70 bomber flown during the 1960s.
The first sightings were made in the late summer of 1990. On September 13 and October 3, 1990, sightings were made at Mojave (near Edwards) in the late evening. Another sighting was made north of Edwards in April 1991 at about 11:00 A.M. On May 10, 1992, a writer with CNN saw the plane flying near Atlanta, Georgia, at about 5:00 P.M. The final sighting occurred on July 12 at 11:45 P.M. at the Helendale Airfield, near Barstow, California.
This field is located next to a Lockheed radar cross section test range.
Lockheed aircraft land at the field to bring in workers to the test range. The witness said the aircraft turned on its landing lights while quite high, then descended quickly in an S-pattern. There was bright moonlight, which allowed the witness a good look at the plane as it landed. Although the weather was clear at Helendale, there were severe thunderstorms in Las Vegas and the Groom Lake area. The implication was that the sighting was an emergency divert. On January 6, 1992, there had also been a sighting of a shape being loaded on a C-5 cargo plane at the Skunk Works facility in Burbank. It was described as looking like the forward part of an SR-71 fuselage, except the chines were rounded. It was about 65 to 75 feet long and 10 feet high. The C-5 was cleared to Boeing Field in Seattle.
The aircraft was described as having a large delta wing and a long forward fuselage. The wingtips were upturned to form fins. The edges of the wing and fins had a black tile covering, while the rest of the fuselage was white. The rear fuselage had a raised area with a black line extending down it. Some witnesses reported seeing a long-span canard near the nose. Because some did not recall seeing the canard, it was thought to be retractable.
(A large delta wing, long-forward fuselage, and canards were prominent features on the XB-70.) It was described as being about 200 feet long; witnesses said it "dwarfed" an F-16 chase plane. There were two rectangular engine exhausts, and it produced a "very loud, low-pitched roar" with a rhythmic beat to it.[773]
It was speculated that the XB-70-like aircraft was the first stage of a two-stage satellite launcher developed following the loss of space shuttle Challenger in 1986. The aircraft would reach a speed of Mach 6 to 8, then the second stage, attached to the raised section of the rear fuselage, would fire to put a small satellite into orbit. Such a procedure would be ideal for a quick-response launch of a reconnaissance satellite in a crisis.[774]
It was noted that the Groom Lake facility had recently undergone an expansion, which believers pointed to as support facilities for the Aurora.
The old housing area, built for the A-12 personnel, was demolished and replaced by 180 new units. An indoor recreation facility and a new commis-sary were also built. Four water tanks were built on the hillside behind the base for fire-fighting purposes. There was also an extensive runway upgrade program, which included the addition of a second runway. Another improvment was construction of a new fuel tank farm at the south end of the base.
This was believed to store the liquid methane that fueled Aurora.[775] About midway down the Groom Lake flight line, a large hangar was built. It had a high roof. Believers thought this was the hangar used to load Aurora's upper stage.[776]
In a separate incident, a United Airlines 747 crew reported a near miss with an unknown aircraft. It occurred at 1:45 P.M. on August 5, 1992, as the airliner was headed east out of Los Angeles International Airport. The crew reported the plane was headed directly toward them and passed five hundred to a thousand feet below them. The crew thought the plane was supersonic as the closure rate was two to three times normal. They described the plane as having a lifting-body configuration, much like the forward fuselage of an SR-71 with some type of tail, and was the size of an F-16. It was speculated the plane was a drone that had "escaped." The sighting took place near the Edwards test range. The FAA and Edwards radar records were examined, but no target was recorded when the crew said the near miss occurred.[777]
The flood of reports on Aurora generated a number of denials by Air Force Secretary Donald Rice. In a letter to the Washington Post, he said,
Let me reiterate what I have said publicly for months. The Air Force has no such program either known as "Aurora" or by any other name. And if such a program existed elsewhere, I'd know about it— and I don't. Furthermore, the Air Force has neither created nor released cover stories to protect any program like "Aurora." I can't be more unambiguous than that. When the latest spate of "Aurora" stories appeared, I once again had my staff look into each alleged "sighting" to see what could be fueling the fire. Some reported "sightings" will probably never be explained simply because there isn't enough information to investigate. Other accounts, such as of sonic booms over California, the near collision with a commercial airliner and strange shapes loaded into Air Force aircraft are easily explained and we have done so numerous times on the record. I have never hedged a denial over any issue related to the so-called "Aurora." The Air Force has no aircraft or aircraft program remotely similar to the capabilities being attributed to the "Aurora." While I know this letter will not stop the speculation, I feel that I must set the record straight.[778]
On July 23, 1992, Rice told reporters, "I can tell you that there is no airplane that exists remotely like that which has been described in some articles." On another occasion, Rice called Aurora "fantasy." On October 30, 1992, Rice said, "The system that has been described in those articles does not exist. We have no aircraft program that flies at six times the speed of sound or anything up close to that."
772
Letters,
773
William B. Scott, "Recent Sightings of XB-70-Like Aircraft Reinforce 1990 Reports from Edwards Area,"
774
William B. Scott, "Secret Aircraft Encompasses Qualities Of High-Speed Launcher for Spacecraft,"
775
Peter W. Merlin, "Dreamland — the Air Force's remote test site,"
776
"Groom Lake's secret revealed?"
777
Michael A. Dornheim, "United 747 Crew Reports Near-Collision with Mysterious Supersonic Aircraft,"
778
Steve Douglass, "Project Black: The hunt for secret stealth aircraft,"