SR-72

a reply to: nelloh62

We could always call it the Oh look! A nickel!

a reply to: Zaphod58

Hahaha lol, I knew that would get a response from you !!!

a reply to: Zaphod58

I don't get it? Brain going slow today. Spent too much time inhaling the fumes from the trash burn pit in sector 2.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

We'll call it the

Oh look! A nickel!


Better?

a reply to: nelloh62

OK you got me. The designation is made up of numbers and letters.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Wish I had one for all the times its been guessed wrong. Mind you, that currency is no good to me !

a reply to: nelloh62

Personally the planform for the HTV-3x looks like it would fail in one requirement that the new bird would want. But it sure has neato engines, I'd want those installed in something new/old to eliminate a certain issue with the current one and still keep it's tricks. Wonder just how much faster and insane the specs are for the new birds capabilities.

a reply to: nelloh62

Personally I prefer when you guys guess right and talk yourselves out of it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

No. Gives grumpy pout with arms crossed.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thats because I havn't got a clue what i'm talking about. So i'm always wrong !!!

a reply to: BASSPLYR

You know, that image is stuck in my head now !!! ( sigh )

a reply to: Bedlam

No I understand that but in searching some of the responses for the issue, I found some sites claiming that was the case.


I wanted to thank all members for responding .

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Then you're out of luck.

a reply to: nelloh62

I've watched so many times as you guys collectively put the clues together and figure it out, only to have someone say, "No that can't be it" and the group goes off on some tangent as I sit here yelling at my computer.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

I'm a bit jetlagged, so excuse the coming rambling...

That's been my hunch as well. I have no doubt that there have been aircraft, possibly even airbreathing ones, that flew at Mach 6 (other than the X-15). That said, I'm fairly certain that what ones flew at those speeds flew in the 70's or early 80's, and was most likely a development of the X-24C, the FDL-7, or the Isinglass/Rheinberry developments.

What it seems like they bumped up into was all of the issues that you run into when you make a craft fly at those speeds. You essentially need to air-launch it, which robs it of that precious flexibility compared to the more or less self-sufficient SR-71/A-12. Furthermore, you end up with either a huge plasma plume if you're an airbreather (since the entire flight envelope could be summed up as "continuous reentry"), which robs you of any stealth that you might have had because you have an RCS the size of a stadium and the IR signature of a tire fire. Your other option is to go the Isinglass route and do the boost-glide thing, and then you have a spy platform that has the flight profile of a shallow-trajectory ICBM and could provoke WWIII simply by overflying Soviet territory.

Speak nothing of the issues of trying to look through that plasma sheath and try to take pictures of any targets.

So my hunch is that they flew a B-52 launched demonstrator or two during the Ford or Carter years to prove that the flight envelope was indeed achievable, which it indeed was, but that they found that it didn't make much sense for an ISR platform. And so while the technology developed to allow an X-15 sized demonstrator to fly at Mach 6+ for 30+ minutes ended up being very helpful at allowing the 767-sized Space Shuttle to fly a crossrange reentry profile at Mach 18 (Does the fact that we went from phenolic ablative shields to reinforced carbon-carbon and a silica tile-based TPS in less than a decade strike anyone else here as a little, um, suspicious?)

But the SR-71 remained the best ISR platform that we had until the 90's, which is why it remained operational through the 70's and so on.

All the while we developed a pair of competing technology sets to replace it. One built on what was developed for the Shuttle and the X-24C/FDL-7/Isinglass and led to the X-30, which combined a STS-style thermal management system and a 777-sized airframe with a scramjet for single-stage-to-mach-6+ capability. But it proved far too expensive/technologically complex to implement, and the best solutions were stuff like the HOTOL/SABRE technologies, which would take years to make functional.

The other technology set was what we now refer to as stealth, which more or less negated the need for speed to stay hidden from radar, or for 60+ mile altitudes to get past treaties. The "hail mary" product of these technologies was the AARS/Quartz, a loitering ISR platform so hard to see that the Soviets would have no clue it was over them as it mapped their mobile ICBM sites for hours at a time.

So where does my hunch take me? The SR-71 WAS deactivated and so it stands to reason that SOMETHING was built to replace it. But all signs point to the SR-72-type hybrid turbine/scramjet craft still being a bit of a ways off, as as the holy grail of something that can do what AARS/Quartz was supposed to do.

So what could we have in the interim? Combine the J-58 and that ~Mach 3/90,000ft flight envelope with some improved materials and low-observable technology to mitigate the IR signature, etc. Add in an advanced TEB-based booster fuel for some extra "oomph" to get you past air defences, etc. Sound familiar?

a reply to: Zaphod58

Going out on a limb here. The new bird is called the SR- .05 Super Blackfish?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

The SR-71 3/4s.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Hypothetically, imagine what could be done if they were able to remove that turbofan speed limit.

Hypothetically of course.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Hahaha lol . Us sheeple dont have working brains !! No offence to any other member, just talking about myself here

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Hypothetically, imagine what could be done if they were able to remove that turbofan speed limit.

Hypothetically of course.

Well hypothetically then, the skys the limit. Or is it, I dont know,