Resources

Franklin B. Mead Jr.

AFRL propulsion · Mead corpus does not support manufactured plasma orbs

Beamed-energy / aneutronic-fusion / laser-thermal propulsion. Dense-plasma-focus plasmoids in his papers are centimetre-scale, device-bound and transient. The 2004 Teleportation Physics Study (Davis; Mead as project manager) is theoretical. No pathway to metre-scale autonomous atmospheric orbs.

What platform received the FY2013 dual-band RF Persistent Sensing integration?

PB2015: completed and integrated onto an ‘identified platform,’ then the effort ended. Public exhibits do not name it. FIRST RF / Shadow 200 and ISIS test-facility work are documented UHF/X-band alternatives. Orion is chronology-only.

FIRST RF Phase II — dual-band UHF/X-band airborne SAR

FA8650-11-C-1016 · $749,593 · start 26 Jan 2011 · topic AF093-138

Official SBIR: lightweight dual-band UHF/X-band SAR on a modified Artemis COTS radar plus FIRST RF single-aperture antenna. SWaP ~20 lb / 150 W. Design target included Shadow 200. A concrete alternative to treating Orion as the unnamed FY2013 RF Persistent Sensing platform.

Ashton Hall — plasma-orb negative finding

Project file · December 2025

Author-level reading of Franklin Mead / AFRL propulsion literature. It does not support metre-scale manufactured plasma orbs.

MAGIC JCTD initiated

FY2010 Q3 · OSD/DDR&E

Competition among five defence-industry partners. $5m initial to AFRL. CENTCOM persistent-ISR sponsorship in Aurora’s 2010 release.

Manufactured plasma orbs in alleged footage

Not adopted. Drive backup records a negative scientific finding.

Ashton Forbes has claimed laboratory-scale manufactured plasma spheres. The Ashton Hall backup concludes Mead/AFRL propulsion literature does not support metre-scale autonomous plasma orbs.

Ashton Forbes

Independent researcher · alleged thermal and wide-area video

Source of widely circulated alleged thermal/WAMI videos and platform identifications. Those identifications are hypotheses, not findings. Plasma-orb claims are treated as unsubstantiated. A third-party extract of 824 of his videos is a claim list, not proof. Edward C. Lin FOIA does not name MH370.

Aurora Orion contract FA8620-12-C-3027

~$86.56m aggregated · completion extending to 2019

Public award aggregation for the BIG SAFARI / Orion definitive contract. Transaction-level FPDS history — especially modifications August 2013–March 2014 — is still open. Budget authority, ceilings and obligations are not the same as cash spent.

Aurora Orion RPA

Twin-diesel MALE UAS · China Lake first flight 24 Aug 2013

Selected air vehicle for MAGIC: a multi-day, medium-altitude remotely piloted ISR platform designed to carry multiple sensors. First flight (24 Aug 2013) had no mission system; the December 2014 endurance record carried ballast. Those two flights do not decide what was fitted on sorties 2–17, including March 2014.

Blue Devil I operational demonstration ends

31 December 2013 · four King Airs returning to Leidos

Attributed via Inside the Air Force, 22 Jan 2014, quoting USAF officials. The four leased King Airs were returning to Leidos, so the original Afghanistan fleet was not an operational candidate on 8 March 2014. The multi-INT sensor package remained US Government property and was being assessed for reassignment (MC-12 and MQ-9 mentioned, not selected). The sensors did not disappear with the lease.

Where was the Blue Devil I government-owned sensor package in January–March 2014?

Aircraft gone; sensors remaining as government property, being assessed for reassignment. Destination on 8 March is open — including Orion, MQ-9, MC-12, or another host. Not shown, and not ruled out.