Later, in the 70's, the USAF had a major role in the development of the Space Shuttle, which was supposed to be able to fly another mission within days of landing. A millitary Launch Site for the Shuttle was even built at Vandenberg AFB in California.

However, the Shuttle never lived up to expectations, and was only able to fly a few missions a year. In 1986, the Shuttle Challenger exploded, killing Seven Astronauts. Following this, the Shuttle was only allowed to carry payloads that needed its special capabilities. The Air Force began launching most of it's missions on expendable rockets again.

However, in 1990 reports started coming in from the Mojave Desert of a large aircraft, resembling the cancelled XB-70 Bomber from the 1960's.

Some observers also claim that another larger and more agile aircraft has been cruising the California desert. This aircraft reportedly has a wingspan close to 150 feet. While this dimension is roughly equivalent to that of the B-2 bomber, observers insist that they can distinguish it from the B-2 at night. Unlike the B-2 and the aircraft flying in F- 117A formation, this vehicle appeared highly manoeuvrable. One is said to have turned 90 degrees on its wingtip.

According to reports, since September 1990 this large light-coloured aircraft, with a platform similar to the XB-70 supersonic bomber, has been seen near Edwards AFB, CA by residents of Mojave, CA, and workers at Edwards AFB. A total of five separate sightings of this vehicle were reported to Aviation Week and Space Technology.

Observers said they first saw a large, primarily delta-shaped aircraft at night during the summer of 1990. On Sept. 13, 1990, and Oct. 3, 1990, the same type of aircraft was seen flying near Mojave, Calif., in the late evening. Mojave is about 16 naut. mi. northwest of Edwards AFB.
Engine noise associated with the aircraft seen on Sept. 19 was described as a low-pitched rumble. However, noise from two chase aircraft - one was an F-16, the other was not identified - may have combined with that of the large aircraft, distorting the latter's sound. Afterburner flames from twin exhaust ports located under the wing trailing edge and immediately outboard of the aircraft centerline during the Oct. 3 sighting.

A similar aircraft was seen in April, 1991, at about 11 a.m., flying north of Edwards AFB at an estimated altitude of 5,000-10,000 ft. An observer said it was large - dwarfing an F-16 chasing it - and was light coloured, possibly white.

The first sighting this year was near Atlanta, Ga., on May 10. Glenn Emery, now a writer associated with Cable News Network, said a large, unidentified aircraft was flying eastbound at about 5 p.m. Because its size was unknown, its altitude was difficult to judge, but was estimated to be 10,000-15,000 ft. The vehicle was clearly higher and faster than the airline traffic descending for landing at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport.

Another sighting, on July 12 at 11:45 p.m., occurred near a Lockheed-operated radar cross section (RCS) test range in the Mojave desert. Described as an "XB-70-like" shape, the aircraft tuned its landing lights on while at fairly high altitude, then descended quickly, following an S-pattern flight track. It made a final turn at about 200 ft. above a road, crossing less than a mile in front of a motorist who had watched its descend. Ambient noise masked any sounds from the aircraft.

This vehicle is frequently interpreted as a "mother ship" for launching a smaller air-launched hypersonic aerospace plane.

The speculation was that the Air Force had developed a Two-Stage Reusable Spaceplane to end it's reliance on the Shuttle. This was in fact based on the 60's idea to launch a modified X-15 Rocketplane from the back of an XB-70.

A system like this would be able to put classified millitary payloads or astronauts into orbit from anywhere in the world. The decision to develop the craft would probably have been taken in 1986, following the Challenger disaster. The famous 'Aurora' budget document shows that all the R&D work for that aircraft had already been done. The engines, heat shield, and other technology from Aurora would lend itself to the project very well.

Since the first reports of the aircraft in 1990, there have been others. On 5 August 1992 a Boeing 747 had a near miss with a "Large Supersonic Aircraft" near George AFB. The pilots discribed it as "looking like the front part of an SR-71"

A large "SR-71 shaped" forward section was spotted being loaded onto a C-5 transoprt plane at Lockheed's Skunk Works plant. The C-5 was heading off to the Boeing plant in Seattle.

Also in 1992, Steve Douglass took pictures of a strange "Donuts-on-a-Rope" contrail. Such a contrail has been associated with exotic 'Pulsed Detonation Wave Engines', which would allow it to reach high speeds, as would be neccessary for the first stage of a spaceplane system

"Coincidentally", the Space Shuttle flew it's last millitary mission in 1992!!
In 1994, an arms control anyalyist reported that he had seen a classified satelite image of Area 51, which showed 3 large triangular aircraft: "They are about the size of 747 liners, and remind me of the XB-70 Bomber prototype from the 1960's".Since 1986, a large number of modififications have been made to Area 51. The runway was extended to become almost 7 miles long, implyind that something very fast would be landing there. Large tanks were installed for the storage of Cryogenic fuels - the same sort that are used in rockets. Perhaps most significantly, a huge hangar has been built, perhaps to house the 200 foot long Mothership. Rumor says that the hangar is cooled with liquid notrogen to stop satelites using Infa-Red cameras to image it. Base personnel call it "Hangar 18".

The upper stage, that will actually carry the Astronauts and other payload into orbit, has also been developed from existing technology. In the late 80's, NASA developed the HL-20, a lifting body designed to take astronauts and cargo to the Space Station and act as a "lifeboat" while they were there. It was even designed to be launched from a "Large Supersonic Aircraft". This would make it ideal as an upper stage for the System

It may have been this Upper Stage that Steve Douglass heard using a scanner. Apparently, he heard a pilot complaining that "I've got a few screws loose on the heatshield". Only a craft designed to re-enter the earths atmosphere would even need a"Heatshield"!

Most recently, sightings of the Mothership have come from Florida, even one from Patrick Air Force Base, just south of the Kennedy Space Center! There have been reports of strange explosions from all over Florida. This would seem to indicate that the system is fully operational and is now performing missions launched from Florida, the best area in the U.S. for such launches.

This aircraft has been reported to have the Codename "BRILLIANT BUZZARD". This is interesting, because projects with "BRILLIANT" as the first word are SDI, or 'Star Wars' projects. For example, a space-based Anti-Missile system had the code name BRILLIANT PEBBLE.

Interestingly, though the U.S. Millitary maintains a large interest in space, they seemn amazingly reluctant to do anything about their ambitions. For example, recently, USAF Captain Mitchell Burnside Clapp came up with an idea for a cheap re-usable spaceplane for the air force. This was known as Black Horse. Despite claiming that they wanted such a vehicle, the concept was eventually turned down. Hmm........could they already have a craft to perform those missions?

I'm sure that there will be many more sightings of this aircraft and its Contrail as time goes on. I'll update the page when I get more info.