Aurora Origami Fighter Plane Does Have an Important Mission

Aurora Origami Fighter Plane Does Have an Important Mission

What is the future of origami fighter planes? To find out the answer to this question, I combed the internet and went to the public libraries. To my astonishment, I found an article that gives me an insight of a pioneering futuristic application of origami planes.

Japanese scientists, working closely with the Japan Origami Airplane Association, have prototyped a spacecraft made of chemically treated special paper that is resistant to intense heat and wind. This prototype survived many of the tests that simulate outer space conditions. Some of the tests include putting the origami spacecraft under Mach 7 speeds and 230Celsius temperature inside a hypersonic high speed wind tunnel. This implies that the light weight and proprietary paper technology address the heat and frictional problems allowing the paper spacecraft re-enter the atmosphere gradually descending back to earth. The research team took a further step to request a Japanese astronaut to release this origami plane from the space station and it could take many months for this origami spaceship to make its way back to earth. Once this technology is proven, the origami technology could be used for future unmanned spacecraft.

But again, many spacecrafts and fighter plane developments have been shelved along the way due to technology or financial constraints. Some military fighter plane development are even so classified that what we hear are rumours or leaked news. One such example is the Aurora (also known as the SR-91 Aurora).

The Aurora is an unconfirmed US reconnaissance aircraft believed to have been developed in the 1980s-1990s to replace the SR-71 Blackbird. It is also believed to be capable of hypersonic flight at speeds up to Mach 4-6, and possibly up to near Mach 10 at high altitude flights.

News of its manufacture was released in 1990, with Aurora used as the codename for a variety of projects, probably meant to result in the production of hypersonic aircraft for the military. The hypothesised contractor, Lockheed, which also developed the F-117A Stealth fighter/bomber and U2 Dragon Lady, has probably already used a budget of $4-5 billion.

Several sightings and observations have been made since the supposed period of development and prototyping in the 1980s, both by individuals and by meteorological sensors.

As an intriguing subject shrouded in secrecy, the Aurora has been featured in popular games and other media including computer game Command & Conquer: Generals, the film Falcon Down, and novel Area 51.

The Aurora has intrigued me for years that I have developed an origami model of it. Having done the origami future applications research, my wildest dream is to see the Aurora origami model that I develop land up in Mars and finding its way back to Earth. This is no more an impossible dream. Who knows?