When you think fast you might think of a sports car or even a fighter jet? For years, the SR-71 has been the symbol of supersonic flight. Lockheed martin hopes to take this a step further with plans to demonstrate in the near future hypersonic planes.
50 years after the SR-71 Blackbird flew from New York to London in less than 2 hours, Lockheed Martin announces its sequel, the SR-72. The SR-72 is a modern plane for a modern age, with expected speeds of up to Mach 6, the aircraft will be completely unmanned (at Mach 6 do you really think a person will have time to react?).
Like with most technology it develops Lockheed Martin sees the SR-72 for its military abilities. Brad Leland, programme manager for Hypersonics states that “Hypersonic aircraft, coupled with hypersonic missiles, could penetrate denied airspace and strike at nearly any location across a continent in less than an hour”.
Using lessons from the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), the SR-72 will use all the latest information regarding aerodynamics, control and aerothermal effects while travelling at Hypersonic speeds. The HTV-2 was noted to have flown at Mach 20, which is pretty impressive even for a rocket.
This is all just a dream at the moment, though, with the company working on developing the engines and designs over the past several years. The ultimate goal is to have the SR-72 operational by 2030, a not too distant future which may become true sooner than we expect.
