Sr-71 Blackbird Successor - When the last SR-71 Blackbird landed in 1998, it was a double whammy. Aviation lost not only one of the most advanced aircraft ever built, but also one of the most beautiful. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works has announced that it is building a successor to the Blackbird: the SR-72. Using a new hypersonic engine design that combines turbines and jet engines, the company says the unmanned SR-72 will be twice as fast as its predecessor, with a cruising speed of Mach 6.
The SR-71 Blackbird is one of the largest aircraft in history. It was built during the Cold War in the early 1960s by Lockheed at the secretive Skunk Works and flew from 1966 to 1998. With its unprecedented black-coated titanium hull, it was designed as a reconnaissance platform capable of flying 2,900 nautical miles. (5,400 km) at a constant supersonic speed at an altitude of 80,000 feet (24,000 m).
Sr-71 Blackbird Successor
The thrush could fly so fast and high that it could literally outrun enemy missiles, and it did so regularly. Needless to say, it left the interceptors far behind, and of the 32 built, none were lost to the enemy. Over the years, he even became stronger, because the heat generated during the flight was so great that the titanium body was burned.
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The SR-71 was also known for many records. It was the fastest and highest flying manned aircraft in the world, reaching 85,069 feet (25,929 m) in continuous flight, and still holds the speed record. On September 1, 1976, a US Air Force SR-71 Blackbird flew from New York to London in 1 hour 54 minutes 56.4 seconds at a top speed of approximately Mach 3.2 (2,436 mph, 3,920 km/h). To this day, there is no aircraft that could match its characteristics.
He was still breaking records until the end. After the end of the Cold War, many SR-71s ended up in museums as the program wound down. When an SR-71 was delivered to the Smithsonian in 1990, it broke four speed records flying from Los Angeles to Cincinnati, Ohio.
The idea of a hypersonic replacement has been around for years, and Lockheed is currently working on the SR-72. Unlike its predecessor, the SR-72 will be unmanned, but will be twice as fast with a cruising speed of Mach 6 (4,567 mph, 7,350 km/h).
The purpose of the SR-72 is to provide the US with not only a hypersonic reconnaissance platform, but also a strike aircraft. "A hypersonic aircraft combined with hypersonic missiles could penetrate closed airspace and hit almost anywhere on the continent in less than an hour," said Brad Leland, Hypersonics program manager at Lockheed Martin. “Speed is the next advancement in aviation to counter emerging threats over the next few decades. This technology will change the rules of the game in theater, just as stealth is changing the battlefield today.”
Blackbird Sr 72: This Us Military Aircraft Can Outrun Missiles
According to Leland, the Mach 6 platform will not only leave very little time for the enemy to respond, but will also be a very effective way to launch hypersonic missiles. Because they don't need a launch vehicle, if launched at six times the speed of sound, they can be much lighter and simpler in design.
Key to the SR-72 is what Lockheed calls a turbine-based combined-cycle engine, which incorporates Lockheed's expertise in building the HTV-2 hypersonic demonstrator, which flew at Mach 20 (15,224 mph, 24,501 km/h) during tests. . In this new system, the two SR-72 engines are actually two engines in one. Each engine shares combined intake ports and injectors connected to two very different powerplants, allowing for significant drag reduction.
The top engine is a turbine that is used to power the SR-72 when it takes off from a conventional runway and accelerates it to Mach 3. The lower two-mode jet engine then takes over and accelerates the aircraft to Mach 6. The design is that Lockheed worked with Aerojet Rocketdyne for seven years to figure out how to use an off-the-shelf turbine that could be incorporated into a hypersonic jet system.
In an interview with Aviation Week, which broke the story, Leland explained that retiring the SR-71 has left significant gaps in the satellite, subsonic and unmanned platforms to replace it, which the SR-72 will fill. The article goes on to point out that the SR-72 program overlapped with the Pentagon's hypersonic research and weapons programs, which dictated the schedule and many design parameters.
Sr 71 Blackbird
According to Leland, the SR-72 required no new technology to be invented so that the demonstrator could fly by 2018 and the aircraft could be ready by 2030. "The demonstrator is the size of an F-22, with one engine, and could fly for several minutes at Mach 6," says Leland. "It will be about the same size as the SR-71 and have the same range but twice the speed."
David Sondy is a playwright, author and journalist from Seattle, Washington. A retired field archaeologist and university lecturer, he has expertise in the history of science, technology and medicine, with a particular emphasis on aerospace, military and cyber topics. In addition, he is the author of four award-winning plays, novels, reviews, and numerous scholarly works ranging from industrial archeology to law. David has contributed to many international magazines and has been a contributor to New Atlas since 2011. At the beginning of the year, Boeing presented a conceptual design of an attack-reconnaissance aircraft that could fly five times at an aerospace forum. speed of sound is the spiritual successor to the famous Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft. A model and artist rendering shows the twin-tailed, delta-wing jet with a powerful sweep in a so-called "waverider" configuration, meaning the hypersonic aircraft will use the shock waves it creates in flight to increase lift and reduce drag.
, although Boeing has not yet given the green light to develop the aircraft. If the aerospace company continues to develop a hypersonic scout-reconnaissance aircraft, it will likely build a large-scale single-engine demonstrator aircraft about the size of an F-16 before going full-scale. an SR-71-sized twin-engine aircraft 107 feet long.
Boeing's hypersonic project, if launched, would compete directly with Lockheed Martin, which built the SR-71 and plans a successor called the SR-72. The Boeing and Lockheed designs are very similar: both plan to use a combined-cycle engine that uses a conventional turbojet for acceleration to about Mach 3, followed by a twin/jet engine for the jump to hypersonic speed. Boeing is working with Orbital ATK to develop the engine, while Lockheed is working with Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Testors 1/48 Sr 71 Blackbird
Reports that Boeing is constantly modifying its hypersonic design, and the forward fuselage bulge seen in concept images and models is likely to change. Piloted jets to replace the SR-71 are not under consideration, but the "son of the Blackbird," whether built by Boeing or Lockheed, will likely be designed to fly unmanned.
Details about the two hypersonic programs continue to leak, and the closed-door operation could be a step ahead of what Boeing and Lockheed have revealed. Read more about Boeing's hypersonic ambitions at
Jay Bennett is Associate Editor. He has also written for Smithsonian, Popular Science, and Outside Magazine.
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CIA officials initially preferred the Convair design because of its lower radar cross section, but the A-12's specifications were slightly better and its projected cost was much lower. The benchmark results of the companies proved to be decisive. Convair's work on the B-58 was plagued by delays and cost overruns, while Lockheed produced the U-2 on time and under budget. In addition, Lockheed had experience in implementing a "black" project.
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