It's a name that evokes awe in the aerospace industry -- Aurora, a Mach-6 hypersonic aircraft that nobody's sure exists. We join hypersonic pioneer Paul Czsyz for the inside scoop on Aurora and a next-generation Mach-15 successor that may be capable of even reaching space...

"In '66 I joined the advanced design group over at McDonnell, and one of the projects that I was working on was a Mach 6 hypersonic vehicle that would fly unrefueled in a combat situation about 1,500 nautical miles, with about a 4,000 nautical mile overall range. There were a couple of different versions of it -- one was to shoot down submarine launched ballistic missiles launched off the coast of the United States, and the other one was essentially to interdict soviet ships that were coming through the GIUK gap.

It could exist. I've had strange calls in the evening by people who were telling me, 'I used to work with you, and I'm standing next to the aircraft that you'd recognize', and then they hung up. I think the rumor mill is probably right about Aurora." - Professor Paul Czysz

File Size: 588kb (PDF 7)
PDF Link: Aurora & Beyond - Paul Czysz on Hypersonic Aircraft

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Site: SLU Faculty Page, PlanetSpace Article