Ah, but never mind extraterrestrials, is the U.S. Air Force exploring space? The question sounds silly at first, doesn't it? Doesn't everyone know that we don't have space ships except for the shuttle which has never been out of earth orbit? As a matter of fact we have less shuttles than ever and the ones we have are all grounded right now anyway. Well on the surface this would all seem to be true, but we have to look a little deeper.

It has been almost 65 years since the end of World War II. During that war the Germans developed not only large rockets, I say developed not invented because they improved on the inventions of Dr. Charles Goddard an American rocket scientist, but rocket planes. The Germans also had plans for a saucer type vehicle. These are the devices we know about, but there may have been others that remain secret. Now where did these scientists go at the end of the war? Thanks to a program called operation paper clip we got many of them. It seems the scientists were never punished for their transgressions in World War II in exchange for their help in developing missiles and other devices. Of course the Russians also had their share of these German scientists as witnessed by their race into space and the launch of the first satellite.

US Hermes Rocket 1945 Based on German V2

Source: NASA

People in this country went merrily along thinking they knew what was going on when suddenly we found out we had a plane called the Blackbird or SR71 that was developed in the 1950s and entered service in 1966 and was at least 20 years ahead of anything else in the world. It was constructed of materials, some of which were unknown prior to this plane. It flew at incredible speeds, officially up to Mach 3.2 (Mach is the speed of sound, about 650 mph at sea level and up to 750 mph further up). It is believed that this plane can fly up to or past 100,000 feet, that's about 19 miles up. This plane could fly 3200 miles without refueling. In 1976 the plane was timed at 2,193.167 mph. Yet for all this, the plane was retired in 1990. Here was the fastest, highest flying plane ever made, yet it was retired without an official replacement. Does this make sense, not to me? Was there another plane out there that was better, that we weren't told about?

SR71 Blackbird

Source: NASA

Lets look at how the Air force keeps a secret. Remember how surprised we were when we found out there were stealth bombers and fighters flying for years and we never knew it. The only reason we found out about them was the government decided to use them in public. It seems that there is this place at Lockheed called the Skunk Works. They were the same ones who created the SR71 Blackbird and earlier the U2. Then they came out with the F117 stealth fighter. They could really keep a secret.

F117A

Source: U.S. Air Force

A rumor has been circulating for some time that there is a new plane on the scene from the Skunk Works called the Aurora. The military has denied its existence. It is said that this plane is much faster than the SR71 it replaced and may be able to fly into space into low orbit. Amid the denials, a funny thing happened. A model of the Aurora was produced for sale. Tie this in with sightings over Area 51 of extremely fast and maneuverable craft, and we may have discovered something. I ask the question again, did it make sense to discontinue the best recognizance plane ever made without a replacement? I don't think this is what happened. I think the Aurora replaced the SR71 and is flying around right now.