SR-72: US secret hypersonic jet to allegedly break sound barrier in 2025
interestingengineering.com
Widely reported as the fastest plane ever developed, Lockheed Martin's SR-72 "Son of Blackbird" will test the claim sometime in 2025.

SR-72: US secret hypersonic jet to allegedly break sound barrier in 2025 | Believed to be a top-secret project of the US Air Force, the SR-72 is touted to reach over 4,000 mph (6,437 kph), making i…::undefined

  • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.worldEnglish
    47·
    6 months ago

    This new plane is a hypersonic weapon delivery drone, barely related to the SR-71 aside from the speed it can travel.

    As to the sixty years thing, satellites made spyplanes nearly entirely obsolete and traditional aircraft with stealth technology covered the remaining cases well enough that there wasn’t a need for more speed. Research went into making missiles better instead, and this is designed to be a launch platform for those missiles.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      6 months ago

      yep. you could hide from radar, but thermals or acoustics would give you away. if you’re trucking mach 5 leading edge friction alone might give you away even if you’re coated with RAM and aerogels and magic dope.

      I suspect it’s just Lockheed wringing more ‘magic’ out of the skunkwork’s legacy. I don’t doubt the aircraft will be awesome, but like the f22, it’ll be limited by physics and budgets and we’ll wonder what the competing runner-up would do better/cheaper/faster.

      See: YF23 heh.

      That said I really do hope the Skunworks is still making magic we just aren’t cleared for, and maintain the Kelly Johnson / Ben Rich legacy of hits.

    • Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      Then why do we still operate the U2? SR-71 was operated all the way until 1999. Hubble was launched in 1990 so the large mirrors for spy telescopes had to have been in use well before that.