Secret Robotic Space Planes

Preditor

Predator
Photo Source: US Air Force

Think about this for a second. Years ago we perfected the remote controlled planes that we are sending out all over Iraq and Afghanistan. Do you think that we stopped with planes? In a way we have been launching remote controlled probes into space since the space program started. Don't you think that the military would have loved to develop a remote controlled craft of some kind, that could go into space and have the ability to fight a war? I would be willing to bet dollars to dimes that we have this ability now and have had it for some time. Let's take this a step further. There was a space plane on the books that was going to be built by NASA by 2008. Supposedly it never was. It is hard to know if projects are actually canceled, or moved over to the black ops stage. That is when they claimed to be stopped, but are being built covertly. I mention this plane because it was going to have the ability to be flown either manually with a crew, or remotely. Sound familiar. Global Hawk, need I say more?

A plane like this could fly up into orbit and capture, or incapacitate, any satellite it wanted to and would be able to see anything shot at it far enough in advance to avoid it. When all the space faring nations were talking about launching satellites, they agreed that space would be kept weapons free, but I don't think that any of us believe that it really is, but I guess I could be wrong. I remember a scientist saying that if we knew what was really overhead, we would really be worried. I can not recall his name at the moment but I think we understand what he was talking about.

X-37B

X-37B
Photo Source: US Air Force

The US Air Force was supposed to launch a space plane in 2010. It was supposed to be based on the X-37B. This is another unmanned plane that is flown by remote control, but will go up into orbit. The contractor was going to be Boeing. Did they ever build it? Apparently they did. It could be shrugged off as a UFO. This makes an excellent alibi. Unfortunately I believe that more and more so called UFOs are really space enabled vehicles built by this government and that they love the idea that these planes are protected, because they will be called UFOs. I am not saying that UFOs don't exist, just that there is more reason than ever to mistake one of ours for one of theirs.

When I saw that one of the civilian space companies was going to go into space with a converted small jet passenger plane that would be converted to a space plane at the cost of only several million dollars, I thought to myself that it might be easier to get into space than ever before and far cheaper. The concept of flying a space plane up to a height of 50,000 feet or so and then letting it loose to go the rest of the way up on its own motors saves so much fuel that it almost becomes practical. I also thought to myself that the US Air Force has many large planes that could easily carry a smaller space plane up to those altitudes and even higher. Then I thought that I bet that they have been doing this for years already. That is how they used to launch the plane that broke the sound barrier when they were testing it. They might have been able to convert a fighter plane into a space plane and thus it would be well armed. Maybe this is how the Aurora came about. The Aurora is a space plane that the US was said to have years ago and is now said to be in its 3rd generation.

Aurora

Artist Concept Of Aurora
Photo Source: GNU Free
Documentation License

It would be so easy to hide the cost of a converted plane into a space plane, because it would be relatively cheap. The government hides billions of dollars that are in black projects every year. If they could convert an existing plane to a space plane, that would allow the plane to keep many of its design attributes and the bonus is that it could land as a plane. Who knows, maybe it could even have a small jet engine for reentry and landing besides the rocket engine for space travel? Could our newer fighters have been built with devices that make the conversion easier? If I wanted to do a conversion like this who would I go to? Some would say I would have to go to the big boys like Boeing or General Dynamics, but that is not necessarily true. One of the most innovative companies is Scaled Composites. This company has one of the most talented aircraft designers that ever lived and his name is Burt Rutan. You may have heard of him, he built the space plane that won the X prize. Rutan once proposed a plane that would have replaced the famous A-10 which is no longer in production, with a plane that would have only cost one million dollars. It was essentially a flying canon that could knock out anything. It was turned down by the military who have their own good old boys to build things. Unfortunately these things cost at least 100 million dollars and are usually not as good as a Rutan design.

There have been a lot of sightings at Groom Lake at Area 51 of a huge plane that resembles the XB-70 and some say that it carries a smaller plane aloft. It is known as the Blackstar carrier/orbiter and has been around since the 1990s according to some people. The smaller plane is said to be under the fuselage and the bigger plane is said to be able to get to supersonic speeds and very high altitudes before releasing the smaller plane.

Are we hiding the fact that we have had the capability to send space planes into orbit? In a way this is a sin. I say that because of how we have had to launch the space shuttle and its 1 in 200 chance of exploding. In other words we might have risked all those astronaut lives to keep a secret that many already suspected was true. So do we have a space plane? It certainly looks that way.

Update:
As most of you know by now, I usually write my articles about 3 to 4 weeks in advance. Since I have written this one, the U.S. Air Force has announced that it is going to launch a robotic winged space plane based on the X-37B. I feel like Nostradamus.