SR-72 Confirmed: Mach 6 Project Blackswift

Awesome find Dan. I was never aware of this project and your right in saying that visually the 2 look very similar. I had to pull some of those images for my own library of pictures. I'm going to do a bit more research and see just what the goals where and the overlap of these 2 programs.

Hi Canada.

Yeah loFlyte was my suspicion, and the more i rolled around the net looking for stuff the more it seemed that Lockheed farmed out the early stuff to a company we would over look.

Now, I know there is a HiFlyte version... but its dead end on the net in regards to project info / flights ect.

Seems to be the developmet stage went blacker than black.

N.B. Bearing in mind LoFLYTE stand for Low Observable Flight Test Experiment I think this may be part of your puzzle.

[edit on 3-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]

In 1997 the Third MACH 10 body was 80 % complete and thats from Robert Paps mouth himself !

A second vehicle has been completed and a third, with a Mach 10 shape, is 80% complete, says Pap. Rapid prototyping is used to build the airframes, based on computer-derived conical flowfields.

So if in 1997 they had the MACH 10 craft 80% complete, I really am starting to think that this Groom lake hanger is the test / storage area for the full productions article (maybe small scale, say ten articles or so) and that it will be another decade at least till we see this in the white world.

www.flightglobal.com...

Go to the bottom of the article - but do read the whole thing because it is VERY interesting to say the least.

Hey I got mailed a full Hi-Res image from some one and it is of the wind tunnel model.

The detail is fantastic and it is in colour!




This is just a snip of the image, the full size is huge.

Originally posted by Dan Tanna

A second vehicle has been completed and a third, with a Mach 10 shape, is 80% complete, says Pap. Rapid prototyping is used to build the airframes, based on computer-derived conical flowfields.

To be clear Dan I think the idea behind at least the first of these models was to test controllability of these "shapes" at low speed. Nothing in the quoted area makes me think they actually has a mach 10 capable plane/model. Only a speculated/informed idea on the shape that said aircraft would be and testing an area of flight that a smaller company like this can afford.

deleted because what I posted was 100 % wrong.






Next time..... next time i'll be right! (maybe ? )

[edit on 5-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]

SR-72



Intelgurl - thanks for the search pointers.


Looks like this is longer and slimmer than the model on the stand wants us to believe. What a bloody beauty!

This I am looking forward to seeing in the skies

Oh and have a sneaky peaky at the under side of the model on the stand.



space

Now thats a beauty.

[edit on 5-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]

imagine dash speeding to launch point and lobbing
cruise missiles at targets.
it does resemble the green thunderbird though........ or evolution of

Hit any where on the globe within a two hour window, over flight any defences at any time of day or night...

Thats one hell of a system.


Looking forward to seeing it in the skies above us !

Hot dammit ! thats a fantastic video. Looks absolutely gorgeous. Hope the videos embedded correctly.






and Intelgurl, is that you in the video ???

Could some one please help me get the vids to show ? thanks.

[edit on 6-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]

[edit on 6-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]

Aurora (also credited as the SR-91 Aurora) is the popular name for a hypothesized American reconnaissance aircraft, believed by some to be capable of hypersonic flight at speeds of Mach 5+. According to the hypothesis, the Aurora was developed in the 1980s or 1990s as a replacement for the aging and expensive SR-71 Blackbird. A British Ministry of Defence report released in May 2006 refers to USAF priority plans to produce a Mach 4-6 highly supersonic vehicle, but no conclusive evidence has emerged to confirm the existence of such a project. It is believed by some that the Aurora project was canceled due to a shift from spyplanes to high-tech unmanned aerial vehicles and reconnaissance satellites which can do the same job as a spyplane, but with less risk of casualties.

link with video

anyone seen this

Found this from bill sweetman

The Skunk Works Points To The Future
Posted by Bill Sweetman at 6/11/2008 2:24 AM CDT

At the AUVSI show, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works revealed new versions of some familiar programs and showed that some projects are livelier than we thought.

Everyone can stop using the photo that we took at DARPATech last year, showing Lockheed Martin's concept for the Blackswift hypersonic research vehicle. (See our earlier reporting here and here.) The real design looks a little different, rather than resembling a scaled-down Falcon HCV.


linky

Thank you Jezza for this new, its very interesting. This is the new design of the HTV-3X , look very high speed plane.

reply to post by TAGBOARD


Tagboard,

I think others and myself are concern about open source information, that's all I'm gonig to say. Keep the tread going but everyone be careful, there's a thin line.

Thanks,
Joe Z.

reply to post by intelgurl


Intelgurl,

I agree with you, this did get a little bit out of hand. I will have to check with my security dept before I post any thing about NGB.

Thanks,
Joe Z.

reply to post by Bhadhidar


Bhadhidar,

I see you are here also, just making sure the information is limited.

Joe Z.

Originally posted by Joe Z
just making sure the information is limited.

If you had any bit of authority to make sure the information was limited you wouldn't saying this - you would be "lurking" in the shadows saying nothing and having FBI agents at the door of those who actually broke OPSEC regs.

This is just another typical grab for attention and notoriety, except the members of the Aircraft Forum are too sophisticated to swallow your hook.

No one responds, everyone recognizes you for what you are and no one really cares... hence the silence.

Stared and thank you Bios for finally saying it.
-Good to see you are still lurking
Hope all is well with you and natalie. Do you know if she will ever start posting to a blog again or anything? If not it is understandable just miss the insights
Look forward to seeing where black-swift goes along as its not black like the possible polecat. I'm wondering if you have hunch about polecat bios as some of us here think its possible it has went black and a new prototype my already be flying as its been 2 years now.
Sorry its a bit off topic but this thread has slowed a bit so maybe I'll get away with this one quick question.

Originally posted by intelgurl
The original image given out by the USAF for this project (dubbed the SR-72)looked like this...

Don't know about the timeline, but I saw something that had the same shape from the bottom flying over the west end of the San Fernando Valley about four years ago. The only reason I looked at it was because the engine sounded 'odd', kinda like a jet sputtering. Now this is a hghly populated area, but as any local knows, on a hot day in the valley people are inside in the AC and not watching the skies. The area is also home to a few remaining black project companies and close to Lancaster/Palmdale.

[edit on 21-6-2008 by 2stepsfromtop]