February 1988:

The New York Times reports that the U.S. Air Force was working on a super-secret new reconnaissance aircraft capable of flying beyond Mach 6, in a story crediting "Pentagon sources."

August 1989:

A former Royal Observer Corps member working on a North Sea oil rig 100 km off the coast of Norfolk, England, spotted a matte-black aircraft refueling from a U.S. KC-135, accompanied by two U.S. F-111s. The aircraft was "a perfect triangle," slightly bigger than an F-111. The formation was heading towards the English coast. This may have either been a prototype of the cancelled U.S. Navy A-12 Avenger II, several of which are reported to have flown, or more likely the TR-3A Black Manta Recce aircraft.

March 1990:

Aviation Week & Space Technology first reported that the name "Aurora" was inadvertently released in the 1985 U.S. defense budget, as an allocation of $455 million for "black" aircraft production in FY 1987. There was clear distinction that this was for building aircraft, not research and development, indicating that the program was probably already well along in its design history.

The U.S. Air Force retires the SR-71 Blackbird, saying that the country's strategic reconnaissance will instead be performed by satellites of the Air Force's Space Command. Rumors spread that the Aurora is the "real" reason for the Blackbird's retirement. Two years later, the Air Force will quietly reinstate the SR-71, apparently because satellites could not fully cover the Blackbird's mission.

Observers in Nevada begin hearing and seeing a distinctive aircraft flying over the Mojave Desert at high altitude and speed, usually in the early morning. The contrail has been described as "doughnuts on a rope." The engine note at take-off "sounds like the sky ripping." An inside official was noted as saying, "It's so black you won't hear anything about it for 10 to 15 years."

October 1990:

Aviation Week & Space Technology published reports of "a high altitude aircraft that crosses the night sky at extremely high speed . . . The vehicle typically is observed as a single, bright light -- sometimes pulsating -- flying at speeds far exceeding other aircraft in the area, and at altitudes estimated to be above 50,000 feet. . . . Normally, no engine noise or sonic boom is heard."

May 1991:

Aviation Week & Space Technology reports that classified briefings have been given to selected members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials suggest that some of these aircraft might be "the ultimate weapons featured in comic books" -- the ones so devastating that any potential adversary would never think of disturbing the peace for fear of the "Good Guys'" retaliation.

Aviation Week, stressing that it is only a "theoretical possibility", claims that one of the Aurora aircraft has an airframe like a flattened American football, about 110 feet long and 60 feet wide, smoothly contoured, and covered in ceramic tiles similar to those used on the space shuttle, which seem to be coated with "a crystalline patina indicative of sustained exposure to high temperature. . . a burnt carbon odor exudes from the surface." Power comes from conventional jet engines in the lower fuselage, fed by inlet ducts which open in the tiled surface. Once at supersonic speed, the engines are shut down, and Pulse Detonation Wave engines take over, ejecting liquid methane or liquid hydrogen onto the fuselage, where the fuel mist is ignited, possibly by surface heating. Speeds are reported to be in the region Mach 6-8. Beneath the fuselage are 121 tile-covered ports, housing nuclear or conventional munitions. These are ejected downwards at subsonic speed. The aircraft is reported to have a minimal RCS (radar cross section), and a dedicated recce version is possibly already in service.

June 1991:

The first of a series of unusual, earthquake-like rumblings were detected in Southern California. On at least five occasions, these rumblings were recorded by 25 or more of the 220 U.S. Geological Survey sensors across Southern California used to pinpoint earthquake epicenters. The incidents were recorded in June, October, and November of 1991, and in late January 1992. Seismologists quickly estimate that these were sonic booms, not earthquakes. Eventually, the USGS estimated that the aircraft responsible for these booms were flying at speeds between Mach 3 and 4, and at altitudes of 8 to 10 kilometers. The aircraft's flight path was in a north-northeast direction, consistent with flight paths to secret test ranges in Nevada. Seismologists say that the sonic booms were characteristic of a vehicle smaller than the 37-meter-long space shuttle orbiter. Furthermore, neither the shuttle nor NASA's single SR-71B were operating on the days the booms were registered.

November 1991:

Reports of "unusually loud, rumbling sonic booms" near Pensacola, Florida in November 1991 have been associated with the Aurora program.

Late 1991:

An anonymous arms control analyst says he examined a late-1991 Landsat image of Dreamland (Area 51) that shows three white triangles sitting by the main runway. Each was about the size of a Boeing 747.

February 1992:

At Beale Air Force Base, the California facility that was long home to the SR-71, on two consecutive nights in late February 1992, observers reported sighting a triangular aircraft displaying a distinctive diamond-shaped lighting pattern, comprised of a red light near the nose -- similar to the F-117 configuration -- two 'whitish' lights near what would be conventional wingtips and an amber light near the tail. While the wing lights are reportedly much brighter than normal navigation lamps, they do not illuminate the aircraft's planform. Observers claim the vehicle's wing lights are approximately twice as far apart as those on the F-117, and nose-to-tail light spacing is about 50 percent longer than that on the stealth fighter.

The Scotsman reports that an air traffic monitor for the British Royal Air Force saw a blip on a radar screen suddenly appear from the Machrihanish base in Scotland and accelerate quickly to Mach 3. He called the base to find out what he saw, and was told to forget about the incident.

Early 1992:

An aircraft fitting the description of the Aurora was seen being loaded into a C-5 at night at Lockheed's Skunk Works. The C-5 then departed for Boeing Field in Seattle. Speculation is that this aircraft is a hypersonic drone launched from the larger Aurora aircraft, like the SR-71/D-21A system.

In early 1992 a number of houses (+/- 25) in the northern Netherlands were damaged as a result of a sonic boom. However, there were no aircraft reported in the region that could have caused the boom . . . A Dutch newspaper suggested it came from a top secret plane temporarily based in Scotland for testing.

April 1992:

In an article titled "Secret Is Out on 'Quakes': It's a Spy Plane," the Los Angeles Times reports on the mysterious rumblings that have rattled the nerves of San Gabriel Valley residents at least five times since June 1991. U.S. Geological Survey seismological data reveal that the "quakes" were in fact sonic booms made by aircraft. Caltech seismologist Jim Mori indicates that "it's something that's traveling through the atmosphere at several times the speed of sound in a generally northeasterly direction." Analysis of seismological data indicate that the aircraft responsible for the sonic booms is faster than the SR-71 but not as fast as the space shuttle. In this article, Jane's Defence Weekly's North American technology editor Bill Sweetman, a noted observer of military aircraft, says this and other evidence points to a classified U.S. hypersonic aircraft.

Rumors of Aurora's operations from a remote airbase in Scotland continue to simmer in press reports. ". . . RAF radars have acquired the hypersonic target traveling at speeds ranging from about Mach 6 to Mach 3 over a NATO-RAF base at Machrihanish, Scotland, near the tip of the Kintyre peninsula, last November and again this past January." ["RAF Radar Tracked 'Aurora' Over Scotland at Speeds From Mach 3 to Mach 6," by Jim Rogers, Inside the Air Force, 24 April 1992, pages 1, 10-11.]

Mid 1992:

Increasing knowledge of the Aurora has led observers to believe that the aircraft is not a prototype, but rather on full flight status. By mid-1992, Jane's editor Bill Sweetman suggested that "the frequency of the sonic booms indicates that whatever is making them is now an operational aircraft."

Summer 1992:

An observer saw an Aurora type aircraft on final approach to a secret Lockheed-operated RCS range in the Mojave desert one night in the summer of 1992. Because it was a moonlit night, he was able from a range of about one mile to discern a prominent raised-dorsal spine, two rectangular exhaust nozzles and a light-colored paint job with darker leading and trailing edges. Other observers who claimed to have seen a similar aircraft flying near Edwards AFB say it "dwarfed" an F-16 chase plane, and reckoned it was about 200 feet long.

In the article "In Plane Sight?" which appeared in the Washington City Paper on the 3rd of July 1992 (pg. 12-13) one of the USGS's seismologists, Jim Mori, noted: "We can't tell anything about the vehicle. They seem stronger than other sonic booms that we record once in a while. They've all come on Thursday mornings about the same time, between 6 and 7 in the morning."

October 1992:

A night sighting was made near Beale AFB in California, ex-home of the 9th SRW flying the SR-71. The aircraft was seen in company with F-117s and a KC-135Q. (The KC-135Q was a dedicated version specifically for carrying the SR-71's special JP-7 fuel.) Because it was at night, the exact shape of the "Aurora" aircraft could not be determined, but showed an unusual diamond shaped nav light pattern, which when compared to the formatting of F-117s suggest that it was about fifty percent longer with twice the wingspan. The engine note was described as being "like a very low rumble, like air being passed over a very large bottle."

Additional reports have been received from the Los Angeles area of double sonic booms, minutes apart, which are characteristic of two aircraft flying slightly different tracks. Again, the U.S. Geological Survey's analysis indicates an aircraft with a speed in excess of Mach 3.

A senior USAF officer hinted that Beale AFB would be assigned a new mission within two years. It is thought that "Auroras" have visited the base, perhaps temporarily, in recent months. Local residents report hearing a series of "booms, like artillery firing" emanating from within the base perimeter. Propulsion experts confirm that these booms are consistent with "light-off testing" of Pulse Detonation Wave Engines.

In Amarillo, Texas, Steven Douglas first photographed the "doughnuts on a rope" contrail pattern of Aurora passing overhead. Shortly after, he heard digitally encrypted speech on a narrow-band frequency used by the USAF for special missions, and as a Comsat downlink. He also intercepted air-to-air radio traffic between a USAF AWACS and two unknown aircraft using the call signs DARKSTAR MIKE and DARKSTAR NOVEMBER.

A month later, radio enthusiasts in California monitoring Edwards AFB ATC, callsign JOSHUA CONTROL, heard early morning radio traffic between JOSHUA and a high flying aircraft using the callsign GASPIPE. JOSHUA controllers were vectoring GASPIPE into Edwards AFB, using terminology usually used during space shuttle recoveries. "You're at 67,000 feet, 81 miles out," was heard, followed by, "Seventy miles out now, 36,000 feet, above glideslope." At the time, NASA was operating both the SR-71 and the U-2R from Edwards AFB, but it has been confirmed that neither of these types were operating at the time the GASPIPE call was heard.

Financial analysis company Kemper Securities examined Lockheed Advanced Development Company's declared revenues from "black" programs. Returns for 1987 were $65 million, while returns for 1993 were $475 million. The only declared Lockheed classified projects are the U-2R and F-117A upgrade programs, and nothing new had been announced between 1987 and 1993. It was also discovered that the total U.S. budget allocation for Project Aurora for 1987 was no less than $2.27 billion. According to Kemper, this would indicate a first flight of around 1989. The increase of U.S. defense payments to Lockheed indicate that the aircraft is probably about one-fifth of the way through its development program, or has been "extensively prototyped." Around $4.5 billion has already been spent.

Late 1992:

The 1992-93 edition of Jane's All the World's Aircraft lists the Aurora as an uncorroborated "black" program under USAF strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The listing reports that the Aurora name was first accidentally revealed in 1983 (actually 1985) among other manned USAF recce assets. Press reports indicate initial Aurora development as early as 1988. Jane's description also reports the project was allegedly cancelled by Congress in July 1990. It was also believed that a veteran SR-71 flight crew was assigned to Groom Lake since 1990, despite the fact that the SR-71 had been officially retired by the Air Force.

December 1992:

The Wall Street Journal publishes an article entitled "Evidence Points to Secret U.S. Spy Plane," describing Jane's Defence Weekly's soon-to-be-published analysis of the Aurora. The article pieces together the puzzle of Aurora from Chris Gibson's 1989 North Sea sighting to the mysterious sonic booms in Southern California in 1991-92. By this time, the world's interest in the Aurora story had reached a pinnacle. When Gibson realized the drawings published by Jane's closely matched the sighting he made in 1989, he said, "I nearly spat my coffee all over the floor."

February 1993:

The USAF applied to buy over 4,000 acres of land overlooking Area 51 in Nevada. Local residents have reported hearing Pulse Detonation Wave Engines being tested inside the perimeter. These tests have also been reported from Edwards AFB. One local pilot who lives near Edwards said that the engines could be heard 25 miles away when being ground tested.

Late 1993:

Jane's Defence Weekly editor Bill Sweetman publishes "Aurora: The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane," the first book-length account of the Aurora. It is mostly a history of high-speed flight and a survey of hypersonic flight theory, along with what little is known of the Aurora. Sweetman originally reported on the story of the stealth fighter in a series of articles for Jane's in the late 1980s, and his knowledge of this topic was well-regarded. Much of the Aurora-related information in this book was reported for Jane's by Sweetman.

March 1994:

Further evidence of Aurora comes with details of a new hangar which has been built to house it, several stories high, with a large gantry crane inside. Apparently this is used to mate the hypersonic drones to the Aurora mothership. Huge cryogenic storage tanks containing liquid methane or liquid hydrogen have been built. These are the two fuels that Pulse Detonation Wave Engines would use.

January 1995:

A sighting by two British Airways pilots and other witnesses at Manchester Airport in England on January 6, 1995, has been attributed to the Aurora aircraft.

April 1995:

Nevada's "Freedom Ridge," a popular hill overlooking Area 51, is shut down by the U.S. government. Hundreds of aircraft followers had visited the location over the years, hoping for a glimpse at top secret U.S. aircraft.

July 1996:

A report is made of a mysterious sonic boom over Orange County, California, coming on July 20, 1996. It is reported that the "quake" occurred around 3 p.m. PDT, fitting the "skyquake" pattern of previous reports.

November 1996:

Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine is reporting that SR-71 operations have resumed. The first flight was a week prior to the report. The fiscal 1997 budget provides $30 million for operations, which will result in about 250 flight hours. Three crews are assigned to operations, but it is not known how many aircraft are available.

December 1996:

In the December 2 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology, a small column reports of a "screaming roaring take off" heard by Palmdale, California residents at about 6 a.m. November 25. The article quoted an old aviation hand who lives there as saying it was unlike anything he'd ever heard.

Unknown Dates:

The crew of a London-bound United 747 on climb-out from LAX filed an "airmiss" report after an "unidentified supersonic aircraft" passed within 500-1,000 feet vertically of them near George AFB in California. The crew described it as "a lifting-body, like the forward fuselage of an SR-71 but without wings."

Further sightings have been made in the U.S. Observers in California have reported seeing an aircraft with a similar platform to the XB-70 Valkyrie, with a clipped delta wing with winglets, narrow blended fuselage with a clear canopy, sharp nose and possibly a retractable canard.