R.A.F. to U.S.A.F.: Gotcha!

PEOPLE IN PARTS OF NEVADA AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HAVE noticed the loud sonic booms and strange pulsing noises for months. Seismologists at Caltech have been picking up echoes of extremely fast overflights heading east from Los Angeles. Now Royal Air Force radar technicians at the NATO base in Machrihanish, Scotland, have identified the cause of it all. Officially, the U.S. Air Force is mum. But insiders say Lockheed has been test-flying AURORA, the top-secret hypersonic U.S. spy plane, code-named “Senior Citizen,” which can fly at speeds exceeding 4,000 m.p.h. That’s about 90 min. from Washington to Baghdad.