The Boscombe Down Incident: The Infamous Death of the Aurora

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Collage TheDrive on the Boscombe Down incident.

Night accident


The British airbase Boscombe Down is an analogue of the American "zone 51", designed to test the most modern and promising military aircraft. Initially, the base belonged to the DERA agency, whose functions were in many ways similar to the famous American Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA. Since 2001, the office was abolished, and Boscombe Down came under the jurisdiction of the British Department of Defense and the private QinetiQ.


The legendary hypersonic Aurora. Computer reconstruction. Source: wikimedia.org

Most of the stories associated with Boscombe Down, one way or another, suggest the notorious plane crash back in 1994. This is largely due to the veil of secrecy, which London still refuses to remove. The lack of official comments and a real conspiracy of silence force conspiracy theorists to invent the most incredible versions of what happened. One of the most plausible scenarios was the crash of an experienced American reconnaissance aircraft. But first things first.



Late in the evening of September 26, an unknown plane crashed on the runway number 23 of the Boscombe Down air base. Eyewitnesses claim that this happened during takeoff and the car was not seriously damaged. According to the Independent, the aircraft at least broke the front pillar and froze, with its nose buried in the concrete.

The special services approached the protection of the secret car very responsibly - they covered it with a tarpaulin, cordoned off the perimeter and carefully moved it to a covered hangar. There is evidence that several ambulances were seen on the runway. This is rather strange, given the not very large-scale nature of the damage.

There is still an inconsistency in the version voiced by the Independent.

The authors of the publication claim that among the first to arrive at the crash site were SAS officers in civilian clothes. Question: how did the observers manage to determine the departmental affiliation of those who came to the rescue in Boscombe Down, if they were in civilian clothes?

A certain Mr. Oliver, who watched what was happening at the airbase, generally spoke about two SAS visits to the scene of the incident. The first time the special forces arrived by car, and the second - by Agusta 109 helicopters, which, as it turned out, could only belong to SAS in 1994.

Further events unambiguously indicate that the crashed aircraft belonged to the American Air Force. Two days after the September 28 incident, the giant C-5 Galaxy arrived for the vehicle from the United States and took it home from a hangar in Boscombe Down. It is noteworthy that even the flight of a military transport plane took place according to a special scenario. Initially, the giant was sent to the German Ramstein, but already on the approach to Europe, it was redirected to a British airbase. Probably, the pilots of the C-5, having flown the Atlantic, did not fully know about the real purpose of the trip.


C-5 Galaxy promptly evacuated the crashed plane to its homeland.

In this storiesby and large, there is nothing extraordinary.

The aircraft, even an experimental one, crashed and was evacuated by a military transport aviation in USA. Such incidents happen, sometimes with much more serious consequences. But 27 years have passed, and the British government refuses to comment on what happened in September 1994. Let's say this is a deliberate concealment of really classified data, or, perhaps, a deliberate attraction of public attention. Say, the UK also has its own "zone 51", and London takes part in the top secret programs of the US Air Force.

Be that as it may, it only adds fuel to the burning hearts of conspiracy theorists.

Muddy story


Immediately after the government's refusal to comment on what happened in Boscombe Down, there was a darkness of investigators who literally all the oddities taking place in the skies of Great Britain at that time were associated with the crashed plane.

Air Forces Monthly mentions two American planes that landed at the airbase in the first two days after the incident. The first was the United States Air Force C-12 Huron. There was absolutely nothing unusual about his appearance, except that this car had not been noticed here before. As commentators note, such aircraft were used by the Pentagon for intra-European transfers.

But with the landing of the Boeing 707 at Boscombe Down airbase, everything is not so simple. Firstly, the plane was unmarked, and, secondly, after 1994, many suspected it of being serviced by the CIA and the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). The E-System company, which for some time owned the plane, also added fuel to the conspiracy fire. In the early 90s, the office was spotted in collaboration with the CIA in the field of work on secret flying objects. Gradually, outside observers and analysts began to realize that it was not a simple plane that had crashed on the Boscombe Down runway. The main profile of his work could be intelligence in the interests of the Air Force and the CIA.

The most interesting thing is that the online edition TheDrive got hold of a description of the crashed plane somewhere. According to eyewitnesses, the vehicle had a charcoal-gray fuselage with beveled fins and characteristic cheekbones in the bow. The mysterious plane was about the size of a large fighter and had a canopy that flipped forward. It can be seen that the Stealth plane crashed in Britain. And the Americans took him not somewhere, but immediately to the secret Lockheed Skunk Works, better known as USAF Plant 42 Airport in Palmdale. Experimental aircraft for the US Air Force are assembled here. Now, in particular, at the 42nd plant, work is underway on an unmanned stealth reconnaissance aircraft RQ-170 Sentinel.

X plane


What kind of car crashed at a secret British airbase?

Some analysts believe that it was the legendary and top-secret "Aurora" - an aircraft that in the 90s was not talked about only from the iron. Numerous eyewitness testimonies speak in favor of testing the aircraft at supersonic (or even hypersonic).

Two years before the accident in the United States, a radio amateur picked up a signal from an aircraft descending from a height of 20 kilometers. Around the same time, in Holland, local residents were frightened by powerful sonic booms from an unidentified plane. The researchers separately mention that it could not have been Concord - civil aviation services did not record its flight. In Great Britain itself, radio amateurs recorded numerous requests for the landing of high-altitude aircraft at the Machrihanish airfield, which until 1995 belonged to the US Air Force.

The Air Forces Monthly mentioned in 1997 suggested that the incident at Boscombe Down was related to the crash of an ASTRA (Advanced Stealth Reconnaissance Aircraft) aircraft. It is likely that his flights were taken for testing the notorious Aurora.

The ASTRA aircraft appeared as a result of work on a deep modernization of the YF-23 stealth aircraft, which participated in the American Advanced Tactical Fighter competition for the development of a fifth generation fighter. Lockheed Skunk Works could lead a separate project of a reconnaissance high-altitude vehicle based on the YF-23 prototype.

But at the moment there is not a single reliable information about the existence of "Aurora" or even a machine of the ASTRA project.

Former Skunk Works director Ben Riya has debunked the myth of the Aurora scout. Allegedly, a certain Pentagon colonel accidentally gave the name to the development program for the B-2 stealth bomber "Aurora". Since then, for some reason, these two projects began to live in two parallel destinies: the B-2 turned into a tangible machine, and the hypersonic Aurora remained in the minds of conspiracy theorists.

However, this does not add clarity to the question of the origin of the plane crashed on the Boscombe Down runway.


The alleged appearance of the TR-3A Black Manta. Source: pinteres.com

The new version was put forward by TheDrive, recalling the American project TR-3A Black Manta. This stealth was supposedly developed in the late 80s as a subsonic tactical reconnaissance, optionally equipped with a laser target illumination system for missile strike.

TheDrive authors believe that there were indeed several such aircraft in the US Air Force. And that one of them died ingloriously at Boscombe Down. But in this case, we are only talking about assumptions, not supported even by a photograph of poor quality.
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39 comments
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  1. +3
    April 15 2021 18: 05
    It looks like on the basis of these developments, NGAD, a 6th generation air superiority fighter, is being created. It is made by the Skunk Works. The prototype made its first flight last year. A few days ago, we posted a conceptual image of it.
    1. -11
      April 15 2021 18: 09
      Especially funny two folding keels
      1. +8
        April 15 2021 18: 17
        On the contrary, it is interesting when maneuverability is needed, the tail unit rises, when low visibility is needed, it goes down.
      2. +11
        April 15 2021 18: 21
        This is required for advanced stealth. Keels increase lateral signature in VHF and longer wavelengths. But without them, it is impossible to conduct a maneuverable battle. This solution allows, depending on the mission, to be less noticeable or more maneuverable.
        Laughter is a standard defensive reaction, no big deal. Psychologists can help you with your problems, but unfortunately you do not realize this. Therefore, continue to "laugh" here, although the help of specialists is needed.
        1. -1
          April 15 2021 22: 56
          Quote: OgnennyiKotik
          Therefore, continue to "laugh" here, although the help of a specialist is already needed

          What about, "Laughing for no reason is a sign of foolishness ..."? tongue
        2. 0
          28 May 2021 18: 12
          Even with a keel, it will fly like a pancake - just remember the F-117A and a bunch of problems with flight stability ... And even without a keel and in transient deployment modes and at supersonic. This does not even cause laughter ... If it comes to that, the development resembles the SR-71, or rather its refinement to mind. There can be no question of any folding keels at high speeds. A low-speed vehicle is not interesting.
          1. 0
            6 July 2021 13: 05
            Quote: Andrey sh
            just remember the F-117A and a bunch of flight stability problems

            the f-117 had problems that have now been resolved. Previously, the Americans had a very limited apparatus for calculating aerodynamics - they could not calculate vortex phenomena and a number of other processes, and this was precisely what made the f-117 unstable and not very predictable.
        3. 0
          19 June 2021 07: 11
          Keels increase lateral signature in VHF and longer wavelengths. But without them, it is impossible to conduct a maneuverable battle.

          American fighter Northrop N-1 (1940)

          German fighter Horten-229 (1945)
    2. +5
      April 15 2021 18: 14
      Most renders of 6th generation aircraft are without a tail unit to reduce radar signature from the sides, not just the front. Here they are going to be made foldable.
      1. +1
        April 15 2021 18: 24
        Yes, a very interesting idea. Solves many problems. My main question was how they are going to conduct a maneuver battle without keels. And here is the "fashionable" solution today.
        1. +1
          April 16 2021 13: 45
          Quote: OgnennyiKotik
          Yes, a very interesting idea. Solves many problems. My main question was how they are going to conduct a maneuver battle without keels. And here is the "fashionable" solution today.

          Aha
          When, on the transition from "stealth mode" to "air combat mode", he begins to raise the keels, he will be twisted so that he will quickly turn from a "conqueror" into a training target ...
        2. 0
          April 17 2021 10: 11
          Solves many problems.


          The movable keel may end up as a dead end. Surely it was invented and used many years ago, for example, in the 90s, where, presumably, that crashed plane came from.
          And now the technology of metamaterials has appeared, which did not exist in the 90s, and which can lead to the fact that the progress of science will devalue these old technologies and airplanes will again become a model of aerodynamic perfection, as in the 50s.
    3. +5
      April 15 2021 19: 41
      But this is the only picture posted in
      BIENNIAL REPORT 2019-2020 (page 55) from the US Air Force.
      Maybe misinformation in general?
      1. 0
        April 15 2021 19: 44
        Quote: voyaka uh
        Maybe misinformation in general?

        Of course, it can be misleading, until we see it in metal one cannot be sure. But for the title of a real monster, as IO Defense mines said, this concept pulls. And it matches all the leaked information.
    4. -1
      April 15 2021 19: 45
      Well, well, trust the fake renders. And direct air intakes - and half of Lockheed fans will spit. KMK, NGAD will not represent anything special, judging by the scraps of information - the main thing there is to cut it quickly and inexpensively. The engines will only be updated.
      1. +2
        April 15 2021 19: 59
        Quote: d4rkmesa
        And direct air intakes - and half of Lockheed fans will spit.

        S-shaped air intakes there will be like the B-2/21 or YF-23.


        1. +1
          April 15 2021 20: 04
          On the render, they are of a different shape, it seems that you can even draw two parallel axes according to the symmetry of the engines. Ala Su-57. If Lockheed has anything to do with it, then they usually don't make planes that way.
          1. +1
            April 15 2021 20: 10
            That's what the render is for. It is a conceptual plane, a real plane can be very different from it. In fact, the idea with keels is interesting. I think the real NGAD will be closer to the YF-23, and in the renders the fighter is similar to the "fat" 23rd.
    5. 0
      April 17 2021 14: 38
      If this aircraft ever existed, then naturally, these developments were used in all aircraft created since then in the United States. It was more than a quarter of a century ago, after all.
  2. +3
    April 15 2021 18: 35
    Interestingly
    We can say, adding to the news of a week ago
    https://amp.topwar.ru/181764-incident-s-chernym-treugolnikom-voennye-ssha-i-velikobritanii-hranjat-v-tajne-dannye-o-samolete-razbivshemsja-na-baze-boskomb-daun-v-1994.html
    But why does the author write about the absence of official comments?
    The British seemed to have declared that it was an emergency landing of a Tornado with an experimental radar and some other new elements.
  3. +2
    April 15 2021 18: 43
    With secrecy and misinformation, they almost always have order, taking into account the number of any prototypes.
  4. +2
    April 15 2021 18: 54
    A film about the incident for those who speak the language of a potential enemy.
    1. +1
      April 16 2021 10: 00
      In the video at the 5th minute, the driver's seat is very similar to the UAZ-469, but not it. What kind of analogue?
      1. +2
        April 16 2021 11: 12
        Some ancient Land Rover Defender. They have not been released since 1948.

        1. +1
          April 16 2021 12: 29
          No, obviously not him. That differs from 469 only in a minimum of parts such as another window mount and a convex speedometer glass. Maybe then some kind of alteration of the countries of the former socialist camp.
  5. +3
    April 15 2021 22: 42
    learned about Alpha exclusively from the game Generals

    and only then became interested in the project.
    For mystery lovers, a bonanza (along with Zone 51)
  6. +1
    April 16 2021 10: 31
    And the engine does not shine through the body in any way ?! There are no specialists in radio electronics?
    1. +3
      April 16 2021 11: 39
      As I understand it, the principle of stealth boils down to scattering radio waves and minimizing reflection in the same direction where the radar radiation came from. Accordingly, the fuselage, which "hides" the engine, is responsible for this. Although I may be wrong, I am not a real welder)
      1. 0
        6 July 2021 13: 13
        there is an amendment. stealth technology, first of all, disrupts stable tracking of targets and aims not to scatter as such, but to reduce the scattering time in an inconvenient direction and its intensity.
    2. 0
      April 21 2021 15: 17
      Not that it shines through, the reflected signal turns out to be modulated by the vibration of the engine, from its spectrum you can determine the type of engine. While they promise, it has not been implemented in the troops.
      1. 0
        28 August 2021 00: 32
        This is only on condition that the signal is reflected from the blades of the VNA and the compressors of the engines - like in the Su-57. If the blades are not visible, like all real stealths - F-117, F-22, F-35, B-2, J-20 - then the enemy radar / radar will not catch any "vibrations" in the reflected signals.
  7. 0
    April 23 2021 04: 15
    An article from a series - whatever to write, the main thing is to write. Hali like in Russian.
  8. 0
    20 May 2021 00: 34
    Ambulance and firefighters in the event of an incident are simply a necessary protocol.
  9. 0
    6 July 2021 13: 43
    British airbase Boscombe Down

    Nonsense ... To drag a secret American plane to England for testing? And even in an area with a high population density ...
    And considering that Salisbury is nearby ... laughing
  10. 0
    28 August 2021 00: 24
    Quote: nemez
    And the engine does not shine through the body in any way ?! There are no specialists in radio electronics?

    - Absolutely not! smile See all stealth ...
    1. 0
      10 October 2021 08: 09
      Read about systems for remote radar diagnostics of engines, you will not speak so categorically.
  11. 0
    28 August 2021 00: 28
    Quote: Shishkov
    As far as I understand, the principle of stealth is reduced to scattering radio waves and minimizing reflection in the same direction where the radar radiation came from. Accordingly, the fuselage is responsible for this, "hiding" the engine. Although I may be wrong, I am not a real welder)

    - Absolutely.

    Quote: yehat2
    there is an amendment. stealth technology, first of all, disrupts stable tracking of targets and aims not to scatter as such, but to reduce the scattering time in an inconvenient direction and its intensity.

    - Empty, wasted "amendment". It is true only about the decrease in the intensity of signals reflected in the receiver of the sounding radar / radar.
    1. 0
      10 October 2021 08: 05
      Why empty. AKP ZRBr should receive three marks of the target in a row, tie up the vehicle, and the pass - disruption of the tracking, there will be no firing. The collapsed plumage helps here. You don't have to be super stealth.
      1. 0
        10 October 2021 11: 34
        - Stealth pursues, first of all, the requirement to reduce to a minimum the detection range of you as a target. Then the escort begins. First you just need to find the target.

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