SR-72 Confirmed: Mach 6 Project Blackswift

I spoke to an extremely reliable source who told me that the huge new hangar at Groom Lake is for a Mach 6 hypersonic UCAV that has spun off from the hypersonic Falcon project.

The source told me that this is to be a system that will have both ISR and attack versions and it is being made at Lockheed's Skunk Works. Support equipment has already arrived at Groom Lake along with operator flight sim workstations, etc.

The USAF recently published an article in the Air Force Times that stated the following:

The Air Force has awarded Lockheed’s Advanced Development Projects arm a top-secret contract to develop a stealthy 4,000-mph plane capable of flying to altitudes of about 100,000 feet, with transcontinental range. The plan is to debut the craft around 2020.
Source: An SR-72 in the works?; Air Force Times - Thursday Jun 21, 2007

The timetable according to my source is way farther advanced than that discussed in the Air Force Times article. Apparently this aircraft is only a couple of years from being operational - as opposed to the Air Force's stated 12-13 yr development time.

The name of the new UCAV project is called "Blackswift" and is supposed to have a hybrid turbine/ramjet, similar to but much more advanced than the SR-71's J-58 hybrid engines.

There is only one source on the web that has discussed the Blackswift and so I have included a link to that web site.

Blackswift Hypersonic Aircraft Cruises at Mach 6: Daily Tech.Com, August 14, 2007

The original image given out by the USAF for this project (dubbed the SR-72)looked like this...



The actual model of the "Blackswift" vehicle looks like this...



The peices of the puzzle are coming together on this one.

Natalie ~

This is a real bomb, it's nice to have some real news for a change.

Any ideas on the payload and weapons mix for the attack version?

Originally posted by northwolf
This is a real bomb, it's nice to have some real news for a change.

Any ideas on the payload and weapons mix for the attack version?

No such info at this time - this is a black project and we're lucky to get this much.

I wasn't expecting any facts, but are we talking about one paveway or significant strategic loads...?

And anyway, thanks for the info, flagged and "starred" your post

Looks like the Aurora has a new name, or I could be way off. Either way this gets my for a heads up, and current news development.

Good to see you around Intelgurl, have always looked forward to your posts. That's a high altitude craft, by far above the competition.

Originally posted by ADVISOR
Looks like the Aurora has a new name, or I could be way off. Either way this gets my

for a heads up, and current news development.

Good to see you around Intelgurl, have always looked forward to your posts. That's a high altitude craft, by far above the competition.

The USAF knows how to push a black project thats for sure.

As for Aurora this wouldn't be it but it fits the roles that it could of filled. The Aurora project name either had to do something with the B-2 programe or was a test vehicle for this type of aircraft. If they plan to go operational with this SR-72 Blackswift then I'm 90% sure that there was a test aircraft before this oone much like the HaveBlue etc.

I know that only a week ago there was a article on flight global about the new release for the Blackswift model and there was a hint that it could be the rumoured SR-72 project. With your soruce intelgurl this really has clout along with the expansion at Area 51.

Looks like there might a large-ish foreign market opening up soon for armed, long-duration extreme high-altitude (100KFT+) Aerostats with "look-down" IR and radar capabilities.

Very cheap (compared to high-tech hypersonic UCAV's) insurance against un-desired snooping.

if this is whats on display..imagine what they will never show..! amazing stuff if it turns out to be true..

Bhadhidar, do you really think we would sell such a cutting edge piece of equipment to foreign countries? Some things are best left in the nations hands that builds it, and this is one of those things, just as the SR-71 was and the B-2 and F-22 are. Not everything that the US builds has to be sold to foreign countries.

Great post. I really like how it looks, it reminds me of the X-33 a little bit. Hopefully more bits of information trickle out during development. I don't want to have to wait till 2020 when they'll publically debut it, like the one article suggests.

i still wonder about operational range and weapon carriage capability.
like the SR-71
i doubt it'll be ably to carry much of a weapons load (attack version)
and carry enough gas to fly so fast for any extended period of time.

reply to post by bdn12


Ah, but there's the rub.

The technology a foreign nation would need to defeat this new, multi-million (Billion?) dollar aircraft is Already avaialble on the open market. And certainly nations as technically advanced as Russia, China, Iran, and even North Korea, can (and probably already have) assemble(d) the necessary bits to cheaply and effectively accomplish that goal.

Remember, the technology to loft high-altitude weather and research balloons is many decades old. Getting them to stay "up there" for several weeks is the most difficult part; the rest is virtually "off the shelf".

reply to post by bdn12


Ah, but there's the rub.

The technology a foreign nation would need to defeat this new, multi-million (Billion?) dollar aircraft is Already avaialble on the open market. And certainly nations as technically advanced as Russia, China, Iran, and even North Korea, can (and probably already have) assemble(d) the necessary bits to cheaply and effectively accomplish that goal.

Remember, the technology to loft high-altitude weather and research balloons is many decades old. Getting them to stay "up there" for several weeks is the most difficult part; the rest is virtually "off the shelf".

Originally posted by DS-AviationServices
...i doubt it'll be ably to carry much of a weapons load (attack version)...

We don't know what it's payload capability will be. However with smaller yet still effective munitions coming online, like the SDB you do not need a large weapons bay to still have very significant strike capability. I imagine a new bomb (or missile) will need to be available to handle hypersonic launch. This would give it tremendous kinematics (see stand off) performance. I also like the idea of making such an aircraft nuclear capable, however given that it is unmanned this is very unlikely.

Originally posted by DS-AviationServices
...and carry enough gas to fly so fast for any extended period of time...

The Blackbird could cruise very near it’s maximum speed during combat missions and this aircraft is rumored to have transcontinental range as well. I see no reason why it would not be able to cruise at hypersonic speeds and very high altitude.

Anyway, great timing by the USAF... Just when Russia is showing it's Soviet colors again and when China is modernizing it’s military...

[edit on 26-8-2007 by WestPoint23]

I thought we already had flying saucers and stuff? 2020 seems to be a long way off to produce something that we already have now that can outperform it.

Wow!! A SR-72 man!! And it is a bomber and an attacker!!

I would like to see it in action flying with mach 6 over my head

Just a quick thing on one of the most awesome posts around (it's awesome to have some real news. It was looking like PAK-FA's roll-out was going to be the next big thing, and Raptor fanatics everywhere would hate that, right? ).

Does the USAF intend this to be a UAV/UCAV or will it be manned?

reply to post by princeofpeace


Which then means maybe we don't? Honestly its impossible to 100% prove or disprove these ideas to people anyways.

[edit on 22/08/06 by Canada_EH]

i can well believe in a sr72.project..as most of you well know the military is more advanced than they let on.so us peasants aren't privy to the full technology and advancements in flight..i think the f117 made that all to clear.

what would people make of this if they saw one?
vf-15 pteranodon

I don't really believe that FALCON and the SR-72 have much to do with each other. FALCON is a white program and the rumored SR-72 is a black program. I think the SR-72 would be more in line with an Aurora-type aircraft, which, by artist renderings, looks similar to the FALCON HTV's, but not quite the same. The Aurora looks sleeker than the bulky HTV. If I'm wrong though and FALCON HTV's are the SR-72, my humble opinion is that the SR-71 still looks cooler and more futuristic.