Message posted by Roadeye on June 25, 2008 at 12:26:20 PST:

True Joerg,

And at the time things were still cooking in Eastern Europe.
In fact, the RAF, the Luftwaffe, the RCAF, and the USAF all had a very strong presence in Goose.
It still is, as you are probably aware, used as a low level training area for many NATO countries.
Although the formal presence of the British and the Germans has been drastically reduced from what it was back then.
My guess, as far as my sighting is concerned though, is that this aircraft was probably in it's late phases of testing.
Whether or not it ever went into full operational status...who knows.
What does intrigue me though is that it was well before most of the "Aurora" timelines I've found, rumored or otherwise, seem to start.
To add more to the description:
It had an elongated triangular shape...starting at or near the nose of the aircraft and continuing back to the trailing edges...no separate elevators (delta wing)
The twin rudders or tails were radically inclined toward the centerline of the aircraft.
And the exhaust...there appeared to be two exhaust ports at the end of two raised humps for the lack of a better word that exited on top of the fusilage between the twin tails...they were rectangular shaped with edges that appeared to blend from the bumps into the wings.
Now I've seen many artists conceptions and "alleged photos" of what was referred to as the Aurora project in the 1990s but nothing I've seen so far really resembles the aircraft I saw that day.
My theory has always been that it was some sort of prototype being tested overseas and may have been using Goose as a termination point or starting point for that matter for trips back and forth across the Atlantic.
Although not a secret base by any means....Goose is fairly remote.
It also served as a Vulcan Bomber base up until a year or so before...so large delta winged aircraft would not attract too much attention from the locals.
Like I said it was a very quiet plane, very agile and appeared to be extremely fast.

It was a blast to see it...
I wish I had had a camera.
But who's really to say whether or not it actually ever went into operational status or not.
I had never even heard of the Aurora project at the time and to be honest...before it appeared I was finding myself very entertained by the luftwaffe F-4s and the British Lightnings etc, as well as the F-16s that were all flying around the very busy base at the time.
The appearance of this strange aircraft was totally unexpected...and very exciting to say the least.

I only wish I could see it again...a picture at least.
Or even find out what it may have been.

Pity.

It was a cool looking plane.

Just my two cents.

Roadeye

In Reply to: Re: Welsh Police Spot "unusual" craft - Irony posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on June 25, 2008 at 11:43:45 PST:

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