Comments by "C S ~ \x5bDuke of Ramble\x5d" (@DUKE_of_RAMBLE) on "" video.
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I want to think there's some kind of correlation between the fact there is an unconfirmed program dubbed "Aurora", and also happens to be one that came only a little while later which is dubbed "Borealis"... 😏
Maybe it's more obvious than one may think: both are nearly identical programs for extremely high altitude, high efficiency engines, but it simply comes down to "Aurora" each not feasible and therfore never made it to the flight-demonstrator phase. Whereas it's counterpart, "Borealis", proved possible through small scale and in turn that small plane was modified to accept an upscaled model of that test engine.
Which would be just as you said: Occam's Razor.
What's more likely? The US had a ultra-fast and top secret plane that was operating for who knows how long, since the mid-80s...
Or, that it was a canceled sister-project to "Borealis" program?
_(because to me, it seems odd that the Borealis program is named this and instead wasn't called Aurora; however, if there's another program that similarly aimed to test a new engine design, but was called "Australis" [the name of the southern hemisphere aurora], then I'd be content to concede to that being a more likely "sister" program...) _
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