Intelgurl,
Do you think the Blackswift, is the same plane than the Hypersonic cruise vehicle?
For the size I think it must be much bigger than the SR71.

I may be wrong but i would have thought the only place in the UK that is remote enough to keep this even slightly secret is in the very north of Scotland? almost everywhere else in both England and Wales is pretty close to places of which are pretty well populated?

I dumb question I'm sure but, if they have been reverse engineering Alien Space Carft that is faster, more manuverable etc etc etc, why are we screwing around with winged aircraft? Is it some kind of Pet Project or front to suck many for the "Real Cutting Edge Stuff and other projects? Are these going to be production models or just a few for?

I should know more about this before opening my mouth but that photo reminds me of an Ad; like a 09 Mazaratti they are letting a little bit leak about to get our attention and build interest. Like, OH..that is what they have been spending all that money on. I like planes, don't getme wrong but it just seems like something from some drawing board for the 70s//no doubt it has every bell and whistle nut but is can't make 45 degree turns at 3KPH.

Just some thoughts..

Yeah I'll let you off with that one :-)

Keep us posted of any news, I agree with you about the attempt at pushing this into the black, let see if we can avoid that :-)

Cheers

Robbie

I spoke to an extremely reliable source who told me that the huge new hangar at Groom Lake is for a Mach 6 hypersonic UCAV that has spun off from the hypersonic Falcon project.

The source told me that this is to be a system that will have both ISR and attack versions and it is being made at Lockheed's Skunk Works. Support equipment has already arrived at Groom Lake along with operator flight sim workstations, etc.

Ooooo I hadn't read this thread till now..

The FALCON project, as I understand it, really involved 4 stages:
1) Turbo Jet
2) Ram Jet
3) Scramjet76 (oops where'd the 76 come from? )
4) Rocketry

This "SR-72" is essentially cutting out the last two stages of FALCON as a Ramjet will work fine for speeds up to mach 5-6. The biggest problem with flying so fast is the heating.



That certainly looks about as aerodynamic as they come! That might resolve alot of heating issues. However those wings hardly look capable of generating much lift. Without the need for an oxidizer or a human, perhaps they'll save enough weight to add features such as retractable wings (used for slower flight, retracted for high speed movement) and weapons payloads??

13 years ago they did wind tunnel tests on loflyte. 13 years. Then it did air tests at low speed two years later.

..... and just look at that shape ! beautiful. Could it actually be that this was developed and brought forward and is what is being 'hangered' at groom lake ?

Could dark swift be the flying final development of this craft ? 13 years is one hell of a long time though to develope some thing (unless of course it went very very deep black.



in the tunnel



flying a scale test model



and back on the ground.




Thanks for allowing me to add to this thread, its just i have been reading this and wondering has the project been spread out over many different firms so as to make more chances of a break through in terms of useable technology ?


......and MEGA applause for intelgurl as i re-read this whole thread front to back and found these pics she posted.





Could it be that this is a slow 'leak' of an already operational or nearly operational craft ? as to me it looks like low speed was taken care of over a decade ago ! (in my humble opinion any how) and that loflyte just evolved into a very nice sleek looking bit of hypersonic kit almost ready for roll out ?? The similarities are eerie !




[edit on 2-6-2008 by Dan Tanna]