SR-71 Blackbird follow-up: A new TERRIFYING Mach 6 spy-drone bomber • The Register:"The famous SR-71 Blackbird was put out to pasture over a decade ago – but the legendary Skunk Works aviation wizards that built it have been showing off a replacement that can travel twice as fast and it could be in the skies within a decade.
The SR-72 will be unmanned, saving a lot of the weight needed to keep the two fleshy pilots of its predecessor alive and functional, and will be able to cruise at high speeds for aerial reconnaissance. It is also being designed to have offensive capabilities that would make it the ultimate in fast bombers.
The new aircraft uses two types of engine to fly; a beefed-up turbojet to take off and reach speeds of up to Mach 4, whereupon a scramjet takes over and boosts the aircraft to a cruising speed of Mach 6 - that's more than two kilometers per second. Skunk Works told Aviation Week that the craft isn't particularly stealthy, but at that speed it doesn't need to be."
No comments:
Post a Comment