The Aurora is a rumored supersonic capable aircraft, and might go as fast as Mach 20.
Here's the basic deatails in a nutshell:



What the Aurora's statistics are thought to be:


Mission:
Reconnaissance

Length:
About 110 feet

Width:
About 60 feet

Take-off Weight:
Completely unknown

Fuel:
LH2/LO2

Fuel Weight:
Completely unknown

Main Propulsion:
At subsonic speeds:
Conventional jet engines.

At supersonic speeds, there are 4 possible propulsion systems:
Pulse Detonation Wave Engine
Ramjet
Scramjet
Regular Pulsejet

Get more information on these propulsion systems with the book, Advanced Airbreathing Propulsion.

Take-off Thrust:
Probably very high

Maximum Speed:
Mach 6-20 (Most people believe that its speed is Mach 6-8, but some think that it could go up to Mach 20.)

Armament:
Unlikely to be capable of armament but may be capable of launching Phoenix Air to Air missiles.


The most likely system of thrust it uses is a Pulse Detonation Wave Engine. Heres a site link: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/pdwe.html

Post whether you think it exists or not, and it would be pretty cool if a user made a model for fsx.

It got moved..., and im gonna post a picture, im just looking for a good one...

And the wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_aircraft

thing is, with the american government, their is every possibility it could indeed exist but then every possibility it could not, one thing the US gov can do is top secret dev. and then make it work quite well

personaly, the concept is good, but i can imagine it being like the concorde, to expensive to run.
what fuel would it use to reach mach 20?
if it was conventional fuels how much is it wasteing?
if its not conventional, is their any chance it could be accesable by use plebs in the near future as a replacemane to fossil fuels?

if thats so,

any respect i have for the US government is lost

here i am, paying 96pence on average for a litre of unleaded fuel when the us govt. possibly has a more efficent alternative, any govt. that can keep the world on the brink of bankcruptcy for its own gains over the former soviet union deserves to be shot!!!

if it is running on conventional fossil fuels, then its wasteing an awful lot of it, and for what, no particular reason, just to see how far they can push the envelope at the exepense of everyday pleb, who will suffer increase fuel prices thanks to their wasite of fossil fuels.

either way, if this project is real, its a waste or a very selfish act of supremacy over the russians.

Whether it is called Aurora or not and weather this particular incarnation exits of not, the USA have never got rid of a spy plane before the next one was up and running. Fact is satellites are only good when it is not cloudy. Radar pictures and IR do not give the depth and clarity of a photo, they take time to maneuver  into place, and require the space shuttle to fix them. Which means, somewhere in a hanger surrounded by large men with large guns is the next U2/SR71/Aurora. Non believer, make an advanced booking for one of the major air shows...........20 years or so should do it.

Matt