posted on Jul, 6 2014 @ 12:26 PM
a reply to:
Zaphod58
Maybe the successor to the successors, successor. ...successor?
Please read my entire post as total speculation based on what I'd expect to have happened with the sr71's family lineage up to date concerning the
aircraft that have been asked to and are probably now fulfilling the sr71's mission profile.
I've always felt that from the sr-71 they quickly built another aircraft from what they had learned about metallurgy and engines from building the
sr71. Like the oxcart and sr71 were more likely test beds to develop the initial technology. Built a dozen or so and then started up on production
of the real spy plane. from there I think it's likely they built something similar to the sr71 just slightly better and that flew for few decades.
Like a sr71 2.0 maybe even a "sr72" if one were to make a arbitrary lineage number system for craft with this type of mission profile.
meanwhile the idea of very fast and very high took off and they made a more radical propulsion design and needed a totally new body or shape to house
it in, abandoning the sr71-72 type of aircraft for more "aurora" looking craft. Something i'd call SR73-74 on my made up numbering system for the
planes lineage. It was probably much faster and flew much higher than the sr71/72 could have but it was loud and semi obvious. earthquakes, sonic
booms, weird ass contrails. Can't just fly that over russia or china or even allied nations with skywatchers and things like seismographs. People
wee noticing.
SO work on quiet boom technology and that yielded lots of neato applications besides quiet boom and maybe the whole quiet boom thing was adapted from
technology attempting to do something else and all of it has opened lots of corridors to explore technology wise. So they built the new thing that
everybody is beginning to see and or wonder about that can do the fly very high and fast thing like it's old man could but it has this new quiet boom
and maybe much more using this new technology and is magnitudes stealthier and quieter and probably faster than anyone else in the family.
And the best part is unless you spent 60+ years building up the institutional knowledge on the intricacies of the manufacturing of all the components,
logistics, and experience along with one massive military industrial complex you aint never going to build one, or even come close to really
duplicating it. That means you china and russia.