Aurora: The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane (Mil-Tech Series)

I have read so much since then, but for a easy to digest history of what "we" think we know about US Secret Aircraft I first got this book in 1992 when in High School and although I lost is when I joined the Navy I decided recently to find it and buy it again. It's still just as good!

Good condition

This book is now (2010) about 17 years old. I got it when it first came out. I probably take this book off the shelf once a year or so, looking up one thing or another. Looking back 17 years, it's amazing how little new information has been made public about hypersonic aviation projects and the happenings at Dreamland aka Area 51 aka Groom Lake.This inexpensive little book still probably has the best history of hypersonic aircraft projects and the challenges of hypersonic (mach 3+) flight. You would thought that by now we would know for sure whether Aurora ever existed. Sorry, we don't. Since this book was published, scientists have gotten supersonic combustion ram jets to work up to a point, but they haven't really thought of a useful purpose for them. Also, there appears to be a revival of the concept of an atmospheric skipping military plane. This concept was first explored by Dr. Eugene Sanger in Germany before World War II. You can read about it in the Aurora book.

This is a well-written book and has substancial evidence that the Aurora exists.Hey,no one had any hard evidence the F-117 existed and look at it now.I think this is a good book.

Interesting little book, in the very readable style the author is know for. By its nature (dealing with beyond top-secret), not all sources can be named, but it is a VERY good read. Also love the little planform view of the CF-105 Avro Arrow, as an example of a design for a well over Mach 3 hypersonic machine....

I read this book and while Bill Sweetman may have made a case for the possible existence of a hypersonic successor to the SR-71 Blackbird, relying on knowledge of hypersonic flight regimes, combined cycle rockets and scramjets, reports of loud sonic booms, and the black budget documents of the late 1980s, any possible evidence to suggest that the Americans built a hypersonic spyplane to replace the Blackbird is now seen as weak and circumstantial in light of the X-43 flight tests of the early 2000s, the failure of the X-30 to enter the hardware phase, and the unveiling of the SR-72 design six years ago. Considering that hypersonic air-breathing flight has only been conquered in the past two decades, there's a high chance that the Pentagon was right that a hypersonic successor to the SR-71 never existed, and the temporary reactivation of the Blackbird in 1995 further cast doubt on the narrative of the SR-71 being supplanted by a hypersonic spyplane.

Most people who speak about military secrecy are kooks who believe that the government is in cahoots with "the Visitors." But Bill Sweetman isn't one of them. His "Aurora: The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane" examines the best available evidence and draws a logical conclusion: the military has at least one high-speed aircraft.Sweetman overviews operations at Groom Lake from the U-2 to the A-12 to the Have Blue and F-117. He also looks back at most major hypersonic research programs that were carried out over the years. From there he talks about air-breathing rockets and arrives at the general shape of the aircraft known as Aurora.My complaints? The book was such good reading that I was disappointed when it ended. It was too short (but the government has done a good job keeping the program secret, so we're lucky that Sweetman was able to write a book at all.) And I felt that Sweetman was holding some information back. He mentions that someone got a head-on view of Aurora at Groom and said that the intake 'resembled an evil smiley face.' I want to know more about this informant and if they had any more information.Aviation fans, go out and read this book now. Just watch out for the black helicopters:-)

Although one can speculate on whether or not this aircraft exists,or ever existed, the book itself is very interesting. The technology detailed in the book as well as the history of American hypersonic aircraft is amazing, and the perfomance qualities of such aircraft are equally amazing. At the same time, the book isn't too long and doesn't require too much reading time on a subject some people may find too boring to be made into a long book. I may, however, disagree with the author's view of the idea of the government keeping Top Secret aircraft under a cloak of secrecy. Keeping these types of aircraft and their technology secret , in my opinion, is beneficial to the nation's defense and national security. I recommend this book to anyone interested in hypersonic aircraft and technology, as well as those intrigued by the mysterious "Aurora" spyplane.