🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan11.070508.12914@qualcomm.com> karn@servo.qualcomm.com (Phil Karn) writes:
>And you have to consider the competition, such as a stealth airplane
>designed specifically for reconnaissance. Airplanes can get a lot
>closer to the subject than satellites, and they let you easily change
>the instruments to suit the mission. They can also loiter in one spot
>for a long time.
>Now if you could keep the existence of such a plane secret, perhaps by
>retiring your known spy airplanes with great fanfare and issuing a
>cover story about how they've been completely replaced by satellites,
>then you might actually be able to use it repeatedly before your
>adversary even begins to suspect you have it. Of course, you might
>have to make up another cover story to explain all those sonic booms
>heard on a regular basis here in Southern California...

Such a replacement for the SR-71 exists.  I believe that the name of the 
new plane is "Aurora" and that there has been at least one article speculating
about it in Air&Space.

--
Mark Biggar
mab@wdl1.wdl.loral.com