Lockheed's Skunk Works Reveals Successor to the SR-71 the World's Fastest Plane
From Aviation Week:
Ever
since Lockheed’s unsurpassed SR-71 Blackbird was retired from U.S. Air
Force service almost two decades ago, the perennial question has been:
Will it ever be succeeded by a new-generation, higher-speed aircraft
and, if so, when?
That is, until now. After years of silence on
the subject, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has revealed exclusively to
AW&ST details of long-running plans for what it describes as an
affordable hypersonic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
(ISR) and strike platform that could enter development in demonstrator
form as soon as 2018. Dubbed the SR-72, the twin-engine aircraft is
designed for a Mach 6 cruise, around twice the speed of its forebear,
and will have the optional capability to strike targets.
Guided by
the U.S. Air Force’s long-term hypersonic road map, the SR-72 is
designed to fill what are perceived by defense planners as growing gaps
in coverage of fast-reaction intelligence by the plethora of satellites,
subsonic manned and unmanned platforms meant to replace the SR-71.
Potentially dangerous and increasingly mobile threats are emerging in
areas of denied or contested airspace, in countries with sophisticated
air defenses and detailed knowledge of satellite movements.
A
vehicle penetrating at high altitude and Mach 6, a speed viewed by
Lockheed Martin as the “sweet spot” for practical air-breathing
hypersonics, is expected to survive where even stealthy, advanced
subsonic or supersonic aircraft and unmanned vehicles might not.
Moreover, an armed ISR platform would also have the ability to strike
targets before they could hide....MUCH MORE
