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- <text id=90TT1714>
- <title>
- July 02, 1990: American Notes:Espionage
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- July 02, 1990 Nelson Mandela:A Hero In America
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 27
- American Notes
- ESPIONAGE
- Blackbird's Secret Son
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> When the Pentagon announced last December that it was
- retiring the famed Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, it explained that
- satellites can do what the high-flying (100,000 ft.),
- 3,000-m.p.h. spy plane did and at less cost. But was the real
- reason that an even faster snooper is being developed in the
- Nevada desert? The 1986 defense budget contained a mysterious
- reference to the "Aurora" project. Now a prototype of the
- aircraft is reported to be rocking the desert with shock waves
- during test flights. Rumors say the Lockheed plane may be
- unmanned and can fly at speeds greater than Mach 6 (4,100
- m.p.h.)--fast enough to cross the Pacific in less than two
- hours. Neither the Air Force nor Lockheed will confirm its
- existence.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-