Message posted by quellish (Member since 06/26/2008) on April 30, 2022 at 17:04:29 PST:
As far as I am aware I was the first to publish the program name BRILLIANT BUZZARD, in 1996 or 1997 on my website. Two different sources referred to that name as an SDIO project to develop a TSTO launcher. At about the same time or shortly after, the name was also published in the Journal of Electronic Defense. At the time I had received or found a number of potential sightings across a very wide geographical area. Only a few turned out to be credible, most of the others DID seem to be misidentifications of other aircraft like the Beech Starship. That was an important lesson for me to not put much value in eyewitness reports of unusual things. Like Peebles I do belleve that developing a TSTO system would cost billions of dollars. In the last 30 years I have searched for sources of that funding many times and have not found it. There just is not a lot of good evidence that such a program or aircraft exists, and it would be difficult to conceal.
In Reply to: Re: Is Brilliant Buzzard a misidentified Rutan Long-EZ? posted by Vahe Demirjian on April 30, 2022 at 14:56:29 PST:
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