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

reply to post by Astr0


That's a fairly old video too. They still refer to the F-35 as the X-35.

reply to post by Sammamishman


Hmmm, when was that first flight again?

reply to post by Zaphod58


Another aspect to this is STEALTH.
How stealthy is this?

As far as 'technically' not being a space plane, and not hazarding violation of the Space Treaty, with the element of stealth thrown in, we get into the murky waters of whether or not the capabilities of this project have been downplayed, as well as how far they might be downplayed.
If downplayed sufficiently, we're looking at potential for pseudo-LEO, which, other than self reporting, could neither be confirmed or denied from independent tracking due stealth.

Of course, the opposite may also be true where the capabilities are exaggerated, but, when it comes to projects like this, what's the most common approach? Downplay or exaggerate what the public gets told?

reply to post by Riffrafter


Will do.

Bigburgh

kingofyo1
reply to post by Bigburgh

 

Really wishing I had YT access at work :'( Would you be able to freeze frame and upload to the site for me to see?

My tablet has limited capabilities.....give me a few mins. I'll be back.

OK my tab won't permit it...this is a problem cause there is so much I want to post.. you'll notice I'm always commenting but never starting threads. I'm so sorry.
But I will say this.. its an add from Lockheed Martin.. at 1:42 you will see a computer image of an F-15 firing a missile.. the very next aircraft is computer generated too.. it looks just like the SR-72 that's been seen today's aviation sites and business weekly.
If there is anyone here that can screen capture the image at 1:42 to 47 just after the F-15.... thank you your help is appreciated.

reply to post by Zaphod58


The plots getting so think I can hardly breath.

X-35 first flight = 2000, didn't become F-35 till 2006.

*ding* light goes on in head.

Now I know why this aircraft is being revealed to the public...The original article is from a weekly news magazine, correct?

This is from an old Nat Geo video - looks beautiful. Looks very familiar.

MystikMushroom
*ding* light goes on in head.

Now I know why this aircraft is being revealed to the public...The original article is from a weekly news magazine, correct?

Well, according to the MIB the only *real* news can be found in weeklies...

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite


This is a lot like the X-15 program. It wasn't a space plane and never went anywhere near orbit, but flew high enough that the pilots earned astronaut wings.

The stealth aspect for this comes down to the question "can modern stealth materials withstand the heat this aircraft will generate?". The SR-71 would leak like a sieve on the ground, but once at speed it grew three or more inches, and locked the fuel tanks so they stopped leaking. Other heat related issues included the tires.

So the question is, has stealth evolved that far? Ten years ago I would have said a resounding no. The F-117 RAM, if it caught fire in flight, and you couldn't put it out immediately, about the only answer was to eject. Now, I'm not so sure, with new materials I've learned about recently.

As to your other question, almost all equipment in the US inventory is somewhat downplayed.

reply to post by Sammamishman


Makes you sit back and think, don't it.

reply to post by Astr0


Well hey, lookee there! We got us a windtunnel test of a 72!

reply to post by kingofyo1





All in all, looks like LM had this 'some where' for a long long time.

reply to post by Astr0


Just looking at the video quality this had been in development a long time. If they haven't flown one yet, I'll eat my hat, the one with all the pins on it.

Zaphod58
reply to post by grey580

 

By 2018 my right unmentionable. I'm willing to put money it's flying right now and has been for years. Which means it's going to have an incredibly successful and fast test program.

See this thread for more

edit on 11/1/2013 by Zaphod58 because: (no reason given)

Yep you are correct as many years ago my sliding glass windows were about shaken out of their frames by this. The space shuttle flies directly over me during its fly over the west coast of Florida for landing and the sonic booms are nothing compared to this bad boy. Within a few minutes everyone on the west coast called into the news channels asking if we had an earthquake. The DOD blamed it on two F-18s flying into McDill from the South witch is a good hundred miles away from where it was felt and they showed a video of the F-18s flying over Sarasota and they were not flying fast at all.

It took an F-15 flying at a few hundred feet off the deck at super sonic speeds over my house to compare to it. The local police thought it was a good idea to take off in their chopper the same time the president and AF-1 was out of Tampa right in the same flight path without calling the control tower to find out that the air space was a no go for a few minutes till air force one was long gone.

I bet the chopper pilots had to clean out their suites after they had a strike eagle force them to the ground and the ass chewing they got for not calling ahead. This happened a year or two after 9/11 so they were not dealt with politely by the Air Force.

reply to post by Zaphod58


oh im SURE they've flown it for a long time! remember all of the reports from back west of the sonic booms registered on earthquake vibration machines? that had no registered aircraft on record as having those sonics? I'm almost willing to bet one of my children on the fact that this was one of those if not multiple reports

I swear I think this has something to do with a military space program...The AF launches more rockets than NASA. With space tourism heating up, the only way to keep things hidden up there IMO is optical stealth/light bending abilities.

reply to post by grey580


I'm going to guess that having released any info on this plane then they must have already moved on to developing more advanced aircraft. Also,I'm thinking they have done test flights and more with this thing maybe 10 or more years ago. That seems to be the minimum amount of time they wait before releasing any info on aircraft

They might have *had* to release information on the SR-72. Sometimes you can't hide things forever.

MystikMushroom
They might have *had* to release information on the SR-72. Sometimes you can't hide things forever.

So true. However, if they want to use it in day time like the F-117, they'll have togo public, as you cannot 'brown out' Beale AFB with a blazing sun over head.

Any one remember this?

#Some years later, I was talking with a fellow test pilot named Rogers Smith, who at the time was flying the SR-71 at NASA Dryden. He related a story about flying from Edwards to White Sands and back. He asked his back seater, flight test engineer Marta Bohn-Meyer, to see what the controllers at White Sands were showing as their ground speed and altitude. The controller replied that they were at 3500 feet per second and 129,000 feet. Both Rogers and Marta knew that wasn’t correct. When asked again, the rather flustered controller replied, 2450 feet per second and 81,500 feet. They both knew that there was another flight above them, using their flight as a cover for a classified program.
#

What ever passed them over head has never seen the light of day.