Secret UK report points to existence of 'Aurora'

From: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/15/aurora/

Skies fill with hypersonic black helicopters

By Lester Haines Published Thursday 15th June 2006 14:35 GMT

A recently-declassified UK government report into UFO sightings is causing a bit of a kerfuffle after conspiracy theorists spotted what they believe is a reference to the legendary "Aurora" - a mysterious US black project which has been feeding the secret tech rumour mill for years.

The first clue from the 2000 report - entitled "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK" and which concludes pretty well that UFOs don't exist, as we previously reported (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/08/ufos_dont_exist/) - is buried in a working paper (http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/189E48A0-0169-4C89-AA95-120EE0B50E7D/0/uap_vol2_pgs61to75.pdf) (PDF) under the heading "Exotic technologies":

Research and development on hypersonic technology is expanding, principally in the USA. The projected (USAF) priority plan is to produce unpiloted air-breathing aircraft with a Mach 8-12 capability and transatmospheric vehicles which can operate between the upper air-breathing and sub-orbital flight regimes, as well as highly supersonic vehicles at Mach 4 to 6.

There's more. Or rather, there's less, which amounts to more if you believe in the existence of Aurora. Another working paper (http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6A30B96E-35AD-4F73-93B1-863F59A3A0E4/0/uap_vol2_pgs76to90.pdf) - "'Black' and other aircraft as UAP events" - investigates the possibility of exotic aircraft being reported as UFOs. Three projects originally appeared in the document, although just the SR-71 Blackbird now remains. Two paragraphs have been struck from the document and two photographs, presumably of the two absent classified programmes, are also missing.

Spooky. The BBC showed the report to Bill Sweetman of Jane's Defence Review who concluded the MoD "identified two separate US 'Black' programmes that might have operated from the UK. It could be something they have reason to know about".