has the look of the X-33 a bit don't it.
Its a neat article so I'm going to help you out a bit with some quotes and pic's.

[edit on 22/08/06 by Canada_EH]

Rather, it depicts HTV-3X, a new addition to a family of hypersonic test vehicles that has tended to lose and gain members since Falcon got started. HTV-3X, though, is by far the most ambitious member of the HTV clan, and although opinions clearly are varied as to the feasible timescale for the project, it could get a real hypersonic aircraft flying long before the B-52-sized HCV.

It's also the demonstrator that has been described as the lead-in to a new reconnaissance/strike aircraft nicknamed SR-72. For the moment, though, it's a proposal struggling for attention and money.

By the way the original thread on Aviation Week is SR-71 revealed. Is this what people where talking about? To me the SR-72 myth that flew around had very little hard details so really it could of been anything so this could fit.

It looks pretty interesting.

Note the Skunkworks logo on the wings of the first image so this is clearly a Lockheed project funded by DARPA.

It also bears a definate resemblance to this patent concept that Northrop Grumman submitted in 1994:




[edit on 14/8/07 by gfad]

If i remeber correctly that patent was what turned into the gruman and boeing submission for the JSF contest the X-32.

Northrop didnt make a submission for the Joint Strike Fighter program. The X-32 was a Boeing aircraft.

Hmm, I think I remember seeing somewhere that people thought that blueprint was the design for the "Aurora."

I doubt anything will come of it. Just like many of the other "X" series hypersonic projects, it may just remain a DARPA study and nothing more.

Shattered OUT...

it is my understanding that hypersonic UAV's have been tested before, think they drop them from B52's

I was under the impression that the mentioned design is of a new program of no relation to the original X-43 Falcon.

I did not know this was a combat systems design platform spawned from the research gathered during the X-43 flights.

Shattered OUT...

Sorry gang - but this site is looking a dis-informational conspiracy page. In fact what is going on is nothing of what you write, but touches on the outer fringes of interesting topics.
To start, the top photo is of the failed Lockheed/Martin X-33 project; while most of the project did prove that some of the technologies should be explored (and were) further like the aerospike engine, the aero-design, and the heat-reducing materials, what failed and put the kiss of death in the project was the fuel tanks technology (unable to expand and contract due to the tremendous extreme conditions). That said - the bottom photo is a demonstrator vehicle desgined to show incremental progress toward a final vehicle that can demonstrate; "routine air breathing operations in the Mach-5 plus speed regime." Vehicles included the HTV-2. Bids are open for the formerly called HTV-3X, now called the Black Swift. A Hypersonic tailless Mach 5+ global strike vehicle to be added to the US Bomber fleet.