This is the amazing Lockheed Martin SR-72—the space Blackbird

reply to post by grey580


Good luck. It's almost impossible to get anything on a black project unless it's by accident.

reply to post by Florasaurus


Why would it? They're inside the plane, so they wouldn't feel any acceleration at all (at least not much).

reply to post by Zaphod58


So ... Do you figure that's the Aurora, Phoenix or a spin off of technology from one or both?

Oh, yeah, and when do we all convince ATS to send mods out for investigative research...like booking a ride on that thing to report back the amazing experience? (grin)

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Aurora was never real. This is actually an offshoot of the Falcon program.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I was thinking in terms of maybe manoeuvering... Although I suppose you'd still be stationary inside the aircraft so my comment was a load of baloney

reply to post by Zaphod58


Oh? Well, I will defer to your expertise in the subject matter. Thanks!

(hops off with a puzzled look to go learn about the aforementioned program)

reply to post by Florasaurus


At that speed, you're not going to be maneuvering enough to do anything to the pilots. The SR-71 turn radius was hundreds of miles, at Mach 2. This one will be worse.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


www.lockheedmartin.com...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.gizmag.com...

There are a few starting points for you.

Golly, gee! the Skunk Works has revealed what they are working on?????
Give me a break! They have never done that with their secret projects. It doesn't make sense.
Now, don't go mentioning the F-117 stealth fighter and the B-2 bomber as evidence for their pre-talking their in-development stuff. Both of those are subsonic craft and not worth a whit during a real shooting match The are cover for the real business going on and are nice, make-work projects for America's last industrial block, the aerospace industry. And it looks like you could add the F-22 and the F-35 to make a well-rounded, impractical bunch. They, of course, will make great export fighters for our "friends."

If you follow the general world news of things seen moving--not flying, but moving--in the sky, namely typical UFO and black triangle reports by citizens, you will have other good evidence for a completely new, secret industry that produces that style of equipment. Of course, true UFOs come from off-world, but sightings of the triangles in the last three decades are an indication that using air and propulsion to literally fly are a tad outdated by our defense industries. The concepts for triangles come directly from the half a century of noting the physics of the original UFOs.

This is really interesting. They have apparently developed an off the shelf fighter type engine that can get fast enough for a ramjet to take over, and a ramjet capable of operating at lower than usual speeds for that type of engine.

It looks like this is a compromise of the original Falcon concept of a turbine engine to Mach 4 then a scram jet to mach 10.
They've been publicly working on the Falcon project for the last 10+ years or so and they retired the SR71 in 98' so it's a safe bet that they have had something along these lines for some time now. After all, if it's being talked about now it can't be the newest and greatest that been developed.

www.defenseindustrydaily.com...

Thats amazingly cool.

Just so people understand the speed here.

A 9mm bullet, fired with a full powder load probably gets to 900mph.

Mach 6 is around 4500mph.

It would win a race with a handgun, and not by a little, by leaps and bounds.

Hey Zaph? Remember our talk a bit back on an article you brought up. The pilots story of the run from the US. Then got a breathtaking view over the Azors. His blackbird had to be at precise locations to refuel before proceeding to Israel. Then had a oil light come on.
Well this question is about fuel. What would it take to keep Black swift aloft. Or will sub orbit handle that.

That last article I mentioned... I thought in my mind was it for any new Hypersonic recon aircraft for the U.S..
This is a pleasant surprise.

The link you supplied goes back to 2007. Which leads me also to believe this projects been around awhile. And further along then being told. Is this the mysterious jet being reported blasting out of the U.S. and landing in northern U.K. or Scotland? Or is that just myth?

P.S. lots of mods in here! 2 of you still have that new mod smell.

reply to post by Bigburgh


reading the article they've been working on the engine issue for some 7 years.

Although further studies were conducted after the demise of the HTV-3X under the follow-on Darpa Mode-Transition program, that fell by the wayside, too, after completion of a TBCC engine model in 2009-10. So, Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne “sat down as two companies and asked ourselves, ‘Can we make it work? What are we still missing?’” says Leland. “A Mach 4 turbine is what gets you there, and we’ve been working with Rocketdyne on this problem for the last seven years.”

Finally, he says, the two achieved a design breakthrough that will enable the development of a viable hypersonic SR-71 replacement. “We have developed a way to work with an off-the-shelf fighter-class engine like the F100/F110,” notes Leland. The work, which includes modifying the ramjet to adapt to a lower takeover speed, is “the key enabler to make this airplane practical, and to making it both near-term and affordable,” he explains. “Even if the HiSTED engines were successful, and even if Blackswift flew, we’d have had to scale up those tiny turbines, and that would have cost billions.”

This is very cool.
I've always been fascinated by military aircraft.
Nothing like watching a B1-B bomber buzz the tower.

reply to post by Bigburgh


Boomer135 mentioned in another thread somewhere that the AF still flies the KC135Q's with separate tanks to carry JP-7 and JP-8 fuels, so the AF still has something in the air that drinks JP-7. The SR-71 used JP-7 fuel.
Zaph, maybe you can correct me...do we have non-black world jets that burn JP-7 on a regular basis that would need a fleet of tankers carrying JP-7?

reply to post by Sammamishman


Nope. The only aircraft that ever used it was the -71.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Do we still fly KC135Q's?

Another ATS thread that has some connection to this one.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thanks all three of you above..interesting note of the use of Jp-7

Sammamishman
reply to post by Bigburgh

 

Boomer135 mentioned in another thread somewhere that the AF still flies the KC135Q's with separate tanks to carry JP-7 and JP-8 fuels, so the AF still has something in the air that drinks JP-7. The SR-71 used JP-7 fuel.
Zaph, maybe you can correct me...do we have non-black world jets that burn JP-7 on a regular basis that would need a fleet of tankers carrying JP-7?

edit on 1-11-2013 by Sammamishman because: (no reason given)

So is this saying JP-7 is still in use? So I'm not mistaken.