SR-71 Successor Launched, 'Speed Is The New Stealth'

[ProdigalJim]

All:

This is one of the best parts of my day job...getting the inside skinny on stuff like this. My colleague Guy Norris (who is as wonderful a guy as you'll ever meet) worked very patiently on this story, and has done a fine job.

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_11_01_2013_p0-632731.xml

Highlights:

-a twin-engine Mach 6 cruising aircraft with strike capability
-combined turbine and scramjet engine, for turbine-based combined-cycle (I've spent my whole career writing about engines, so this part has me particularly jazzed)
-potential 2018 entry into service
-the optionally piloted demonstrator vehicle, to prove everything out, is about an F-22-sized aircraft

We also did a rich-media thing comparing the engine cycles of the SR-71 and this new SR-72:

http://www.aviationweek.com/Portals/aweek/media/hyperengines/hyperengines.html

[NIN]

Oh, darn it, I thought we'd have sexy photos, a PIREP, and evidence that this thing has been flying out of [redacted] since 1995 or something.

While thats a great article, its akin to Kelly Johnson saying in 1953 "Yeah, we have the concept for a Mach 3+, 80,000ft+ interceptor/strike/reconniasance aircraft" (what would become the A-11/A-12 and eventually the SR-71).  In 1952, darn near none of the technologies that went into the A-12 were proven in the slightest.

A functional Mach 6+ turbo/scramjet combined cycle engine is still essentially theory until we get a demonstrator flying that can actually do it.  How many X-43 / X-51 flights didn't result in diddly? (and as I recall, the X-51 is not combined cycle, so its not much of a demonstrator at least as the "getting to Mach 2.5-Mach 3 with a turbojet" part is concerned)

[Flying Pig]

^Yeah...exactly.   But you gotta admit... the Flux Capacitor was decades before its time!

[PHall]

The Skunk Works has been trying to sell the Air Force this concept for about 20 years now.
They haven't sold any yet....


Of course there's this X-37 beastie that's flown a couple of times...

[NIN]

The Skunk Works has been trying to sell the Air Force this concept for about 20 years now.
They haven't sold any yet....

Of course there's this X-37 beastie that's flown a couple of times...

X-37 is not exactly a replacement for the SR-71 by anybody's stretch. Rocket boosted != air-breathing.

Oh, wait, thats right, satellites will do that job.

And planes don't need guns anymore, right?

[PHall]

The Skunk Works has been trying to sell the Air Force this concept for about 20 years now.
They haven't sold any yet....

Of course there's this X-37 beastie that's flown a couple of times...

X-37 is not exactly a replacement for the SR-71 by anybody's stretch. Rocket boosted != air-breathing.

Oh, wait, thats right, satellites will do that job.

And planes don't need guns anymore, right?

No one "knows" what the X-37 does.  And the people who do aren't talking.