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SUBJECT: SECRET AIRCRAFT                                     FILE: UFO3094






SECRET AIRCRAFT ENCOMPASSES QUALITIES OF HIGH-SPEED LAUNCHER FOR
SPACECRAFT,by William B. Scott/Lancaster, Calif.
 
  Sightings of a large aircraft in Georgia and California during the
 last two years have raised new questions about whether the vehicle is a
 high-speed replacement for the Lockheed SR-71.
 
  It is not known if the "XB-70-like" aircraft is the vehicle popularly
 referred to as "Aurora" or the "pulser" that leaves "donuts-on-a-rope"
 contrails.  Its size, configuration and features suggest the aircraft
 may have multiple missions.
 
  Observer descriptions, discussions with industry experts, and
 Aviation Week & Space Technology analyses suggest that the large
 aircraft could be the first of a two-stage system designed to launch
 small payloads into orbit.  Released at Mach 6-8 from a raised section
 on the aircraft's aft deck, an unmanned vehicle could accelerate to
 orbital velocities, then release a small satellite in space.  It also
 could remain in the atmosphere or fly a suborbital flight path,
 carrying its own suite of reconnaissance sensors.
 
  This concept, at present, has not been confirmed by any U.S.
 government agency or military service.  However, aeronautics and space
 experts agreed the concept has considerable merit, particularly for
 orbiting payloads essential to national security.
 
  Such a two-stage-to-orbit concept is hardly a new one, having surfaced
 as a candidate U.S. launch system in the 1950s.  It also is the basis
 for Germany's Saenger design.  Advancements in strong, lightweight and
 heat-tolerant materials--as well as breakthroughs in hybrid propulsion
 systems--may have made the two-stage concept attractive for
 limited-weight, critical payloads.
 
  According to William R. Laidlaw, a former vice president of advanced
 systems for North American Rockwell and current founder/CEO of
 Aerotest, early studies defined the characteristics of such an
 aircraft.  He said a high-speed, air-breathing launch vehicle would
 tend to be long, with a high fineness ratio; have a broad, delta
 planform; probably have wingtip-mounted vertical fins; use a
 multi-cycle propulsion system capable of reaching the Mach 6-8 regine,
 and be large enough to carry adequate hydrogen, methane or other
 advanced, high-energy, cryogenic fuel.
 
 
 EARLY STUDIES CONSISTENT
 Aviation Week analyses are supported by possibly related events and
 deduction, such as:
 
 X A long, slender aerodynamic shape with rounded chines was loaded into
 an Air Force C-5 transport at Lockheed's Burbank, Calif., "Skunk Works"
 facility on the night of Jan. 6.  Estimated to be 65-75 ft. long and 10
 ft. high, it was light-colored and had a distinctive, blended-shape aft
 cross section.  The C-5 departed Burbank at 11:15pm PST and was cleared
 to Boeing Field near Seattle, Wash.
 
 X A quick-reaction project to develop a two-stage-to-orbit vehicle
 would have been highly attractive to the Defense Dept. after the
 shuttle Challenger accident and a subsequent series of expendable
 launch vehicle failures in the mid-to-late 1980s.  A concerned Defense
 Dept. may have embraced a means of assuring access to space, especially
 if it were an on-demand, flexible launch system.
 
 X Air Force officials who canceled the SR-71 program said "satellites
 can do the job" of strategic reconnaissance.  That position appeared to
 ignore the predictable and inflexible nature of satellites' fixed
 orbits.  A high-speed aircraft/spacecraft system that could orbit a
 small satelliite carrying a suite of reconnaissance sensors and
 communication equipment would overcome that detraction, however.  If
 the second-stage vehicle were fairly "stealthy," the satellite could
 be launched covertly into any orbit at the most desirable time.  This
 approach also would preclude risks associated with in-atmospere
 aircraft overflying hostile areas.
 
 X Several spacecraft manufacturers have developed small satellites--or
 "small-sats"--that would be compatible with a two-stage launch system.
 Until recently, none would acknowledge they had built any, though
 (AW&ST June 15, p. 94).  TRW, Ball Aerospace and others may have
 developed a stable of covert flexible spacecraft that can be
 configured with a variety of sensors, then launched into orbit on short
 notice.
 
 X Senior National Aero-Space Plane program engineers have admitted
 privately that their studies indicate a two-stage-to-orbit system is
 technically feasible and would be more economical than a single-stage
 system.  "Given what we know now, we'd prefer to go with a high-speed
 aircraft and launch something from it to get into orbit," one engineer
 said.  This concept would save about one third the fuel weight required
 of a single-stage NASP system, he said.
 
 X Several years ago, the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory's "Beta"
 program was based on a two-stage-to-orbit system that uses a "Concorde-
 like" vehicle to launch a "miniature delta-shaped" craft into space, an
 engineer familiar with the effort said.  For reasons still
 unclear, the aircraft was not built, he said.
 
 HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS
 A high-speed, two-stage launch concept is a logical descendant of the
 M-12/D-21A system Lockheed's Skunk Works developed under the
 A-12/YF-12/SR-71 "Blackbird" programs.  A version of the Central
 Intelligence Agency's A-12 reconnaissance aircraft, the M-12 was
 designed to carry and launch a single 12,000lb. D-21A ramjet drone at
 80,000 ft. and Mach 3.  Two of the M-12 "motherships" were built.
 
  The A-12--originally designated the A-11 by Lockheed--was a single-seat
 predecessor of the two-man SR-71.  It first flew in April, 1962.  The
 YF-12A, designed as a Mach 3 interceptor armed with air-to-air missles,
 provided valuable flight test data for the follow-on SR-71 aircraft.
 All three Blackbird models had similar external planforms.
 
  Although one aircraft was lost during a test, several D-21A drones
 were launced from the M-12 at speeds over Mach 3, proving that
 high-speed separation is feasible.  Another experiment demonstrated
 that the D-21A drone could operate its engines while still attached to
 the carrier aircraft, augmenting M-12 thrust during acceleration to
 high launch speeds.  The drone engine was fueled from the M-12's tanks
 during this phase.
 
  Financial analysts recently concluded that "Aurora" and other
 classified programs at Lockheed grew from $65 million in 1987 to $400
 million last year, and could reach $475 million by 1993, according to
 Lawrence M. Harris, a Kemper Securities analyst.
 
  Harris estimated that "Aurora" could be operational in 1995, and may
 have made its first flight in 1989.
 
  Employment at Lockheed's Advanced Development Co. has fluctuated
 somewhat in recent years, but, now at 4,600 employees, has remained
 higher than can be explained by residual TR-1, F-117A and F-22 work.


      
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