Flying Triangle Captured Over Kansas, Might Be Classified SR-72

The famous Skunk Works Lockheed Martin just revealed their work on the potential replacement of the venerable SR-71 Blackbird, exclusive of U.S. Aviation Week website.

Decommissioned there 15 years, this legendary aircraft, holds an impressive number of records for altitude and speed, has not been replaced. With the advent of satellite, many had predicted the end of this type of aircraft strategic intelligence ... But they were wrong. The U.S. Air Force and DARPA focus in recent years on the development of hypersonic technology to give end to U.S. military intervention of new horizons.

The SR-71 operational power allowed to see what they wanted when they wanted, and most importantly, when they wanted, preventing the "victims" of this espionage high speed time to hide. As long passage of satellites is predictable, and some countries are developing, like China, means allowing them to destroy satellites.Technology would militarize space by creating killer satellites, but the various international treaties are stopping. By against ASAT missiles have already been developed and tested by the U.S. and China.

The hypersonic aircraft monitoring would be an appropriate response to conflict and future monitoring. A cruising speed of about Mach 6 will not allow the enemy time to react and in addition, no known anti-air defense could reach.

The major challenge in the world is the hypersonic engines. The current standard reaction engines can achieve a speed close to Mach3, beyond which a ramjet must take over, then a super ramjet. The difference between the two is that in the ramjet, the air is slowed below Mach 1 before the compression and combustion, whereas in the super ramjet, the compressed air at supersonic speed. It's simple words like that, but combining three types of engines in a single plane, handle extreme temperatures, especially supersonic shocks to inside engines is far from an easy task. It took seven years of intense research Lockheed Martin associated with Aerojet Rocketdyne to get to study the propulsion system.

The future SR-72 will be unmanned, that goes without saying. The manufacturer will not have to study and put all survival equipment, control and man-machine interface. It is a sacred space saving, mass, money, and ... Security.

The big question today is whether the Air Force will follow up on this project, which the manufacturer provides a first prototype will be tested from 2018, in just five years.

This project is based on the work of the HTV-3X

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