Message posted by Vahe Demirjian (Member since 04/28/2022) on December 31, 2023 at 16:27:33 PST:
The Los Angeles, Sun-Sentinel, San Diego Union, and New York Times conjectured that codename Aurora was related to requests for funding B-2 or F-117 production when they reported on the FY 1986 Pentagon budget request containing the name Aurora. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/12/us/defense-department-seeks-more-money-for-secret-weapons-analyst-says.html A January 1988 Los Angeles Times article was the first print media source to wrongly associate the codename Aurora with an SR-71 successor because unexplained budget holes in Lockheed's 1988 financial reports and comments from Wolfgang Demisch regarding advanced projects by Lockheed apart from the F-117 would create the notion that Aurora had been applied to a follow-on to the SR-71. Bill Sweetman conceded that even if his belief in the existence of an operational hypersonic successor to the Blackbird was true, then Aurora would not have been the real name for the alleged aircraft and might have been changed, and Carpenter's comments about having created the Aurora codename for funds requested for procurement of the B-2 vindicated Sweetman's note of caution that Aurora might not have been the codename for the supposed hypersonic replacement for the SR-71.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-09-fi-4198-story.html
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1985/02/09/23-billion-sought-for-aurora-project-kept-secret-by-af/
In Reply to: Re: 1985 Pentagon budget document mentioning the name Aurora posted by Blade75769 on December 31, 2023 at 8:51:34 PST:
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