Has Lockheed Martin finished building the unmanned SR-72

[FordGT90Concept]

Good luck outrunning lasers, though.

Only satellite-based lasers can pose a threat to it (atmosphere wrecks lasers) and, my guess is that DoD is probably designing air-to-space missiles to intercept those satellites should they ever be built. Also, only USA has laser weapons right now and that's likely to remain the case for several decades.

China appears to be in the lead with hypersonic weapons technology, at least as far as a battlefield-ready implementation is concerned. In November, the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force conducted the first flight tests of a new missile known as the DF-17.

The DF-17 is the first missile system anywhere that uses a hypersonic glide vehicle as its payload and is intended for operational deployment. While the United States and Russia have both conducted developmental tests, neither country is known to have taken concrete steps towards deploying these systems.

U.S. intelligence is expecting the DF-17 to enter service around 2020


View attachment 95761

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/introducing-the-df-17-chinas-newly-tested-ballistic-missile-armed-with-a-hypersonic-glide-vehicle.535791/

Looks like the poor man's ICBM. USA/Russia have no need for that, especially with a massive fleet of strategic bombers.

The test vehicles that lead to the SR-72 were fundamentally the same but they had research payloads instead of weaponized payloads.

Yes but Lasers are straight line of fire weapons, so avoiding being detected and identified as a target is the key, which is much more likely when the aircraft traveling at mach3+ at 80,000 ft+ altitude

It's mach 5+ (mach 6 is often estimated) at ~80,000 feet.

You can still get them with missiles too if the target is coming towards you, you then just need to improve your detection systems and intercept, far cheaper than trying to develop a missile that travels so much faster.

Except that the SR-72 is described as "agile," it can likely just tip one wing slightly to deviate from the missile path a second before impact to miss it by a dozens of feet. Flak is really the only way...and a lot of it. Hitting the SR-72 with anything is harder than shooting a bullet at another bullet in flight.

 

[jboydgolfer]

Do they really go at Warp 3 though? I googled that and it is faster than the speed of light, unless one of them is called the USS Enterprise I would have my doubts Mach 3 is 2250 mph or 1km per second.

Did I write warp three? Typo. If they did go W 3, we would have to measure their speed in parsecs. How quickly they could do the Kessel run

 

[FordGT90Concept]

if you were on the front of a train, that was traveling 1000MPH, and you fired a gun that shot a projectile at 1000MPH, that projectile would be traveling 2000MPH from any give standing body's point of reference.

Except that the drag on the projectile is exponentially stronger than the drag of it stationary on the train. You have to have exponentially more power to achieve the same velocity. In your example, the actual projectile velocity is likely to be closer to 1200-1250 MPH than 2000 MPH.

The GAU-8 is so effective because because it's aircraft velocity + round velocity + gravity - drag. When trying to engage SR-72, gravity is also a negative because very, very little can fly that high in the first place.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Still not convinced there is anything that can catch a plane accelerating away from you at a distance moving at warp 3 though

Wow. When a member of Staff chimes in to poke fun, you know what you've said is silly beyond all reason. Fricken Hilarious..

 

[jboydgolfer]

projectile velocity is likely to be closer to 1200-1250 MPH than 2000 MPH.

yes , i know lift & drag quadruple(iirc) as velocity increases, i wasnt really getting super accurate as much as explaining the point as best as i can in text. but , yes, drag (as well as lift) increase heavily as speed does (newtons law (2nd i think) cover this to some degree). but thats too technical a nut for me to crack being as lazy as i am

The GAU-8 is so effective because because it's aircraft velocity + round velocity + gravity - drag.

yup, the crafts speed most definitely figure in to the effectiveness....even though its speed in straff is so fairly low in relation to aircraft speeds.

When trying to engage SR-72, gravity is also a negative

a point i was also making, as some claim the higher speeds of the craft would be FAR too much, but i disagree, as advantage is a huge factor in successful air mission.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

When will it be introduced to warthunder?

 

[Tatty_Two]

Wow. When a member of Staff chimes in to poke fun, you know what you've said is silly beyond all reason. Fricken Hilarious..

Poke fun? I thought you were the expert at that! I am a member too so have similar weaknesses at times, however you selected one of my posts that was not poking fun actually. Warp 3 was mentioned as a fact in post #3. The really sad thing is that I thought it was tangible until I googled it said something like 27 times the speed of light

 

[Irony]

You know, I have one simple request. To have sharks with FRICKEN LASER BEAMS attached to their heads!

Germany is getting some decent lasers now, getting close to operational. Wikipedia says China and Russia are working on some too, seems to be the cool thing to do these days. I'm sure there's more interesting things happening than average me can find, heck the soviet union was launching 1Mw lasers on satellites in 1987, I'm sure we're all far beyond that by now.

But still, no matter how fast your weapons are, its all for nought if you can't apply it to a target. Anything moving mach 6, that's more than double average bullet speed, I imagine is going to be nearly impossible to track, let alone target by any conventional means

 

[dont whant to set it"']

Too lazy as if this second so, is it the same airframe size or a scale of it .

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I think it is about the size of the F-117 but don't quote me on that. It's not very big because surface area (which leads to friction which leads to heat) is the enemy at those speeds.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

(which leads to friction which leads to heat) is the enemy at those speeds.

Its all you need to get you to the danger zone

 

[lexluthermiester]

Poke fun? I thought you were the expert at that! I am a member too so have similar weaknesses at times, however you selected one of my posts that was not poking fun actually. Warp 3 was mentioned as a fact in post #3. The really sad thing is that I thought it was tangible until I googled it said something like 27 times the speed of light

Ok, not to laugh AT you, however, the fact that you had look up the term "Warp 3" is freaken hilarious! Read your post thinking you were being a total smartass. This is even funnier! Seriously, no offense intended.

 

[64K]

Ok, not to laugh AT you, however, the fact that you had look up the term "Warp 3" is freaken hilarious! Read your post thinking you were being a total smartass. This is even funnier! Seriously, no offense intended.

He lives in the UK. They are on the Metric System there so Star Trek is different there.

 

[lexluthermiester]

He lives in the UK. They are on the Metric System there so Star Trek is different there.

What are you talking about?!? We use the metric system HERE.. ;-)

 

[Tatty_Two]

He lives in the UK. They are on the Metric System there so Star Trek is different there.

No I am old school, I still run in miles, certainly not kilometres although at Xmas I seemed to not only put on pounds in weight but Kilo's too

 

[jboydgolfer]

a good friend who worked on the SR-71 was just over dropping off a computer desk, and he mentioned some stuff about "SCRAM" jets in regards to the 72.. iirc... in regard's to this project. I asked him if he had any info on the matter, but he said that wasnt possible. hopefully when it IS finished, he will be willing to hook me up with some cool engineering pics etc. He brought over some pretty cool "insider" stuff on the F-35 years back, obviously nothing top secret, but cool none the less.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It is a SCRAM jet. In the OP, look at the cut away picture. The traditional compression engine is higher up in the body, the SCRAM jet is along the bottom. Basically...all they are is in an inlet that tightens, then an outlet that slowly expands out the back. At the beginning of the inlet, they inject jet fuel and then ignite it a little ways towards the exhaust. The expanding gases propel it forward increasing the volume of air at the inlet continuing the cycle. It's a jet engine with no moving parts that only works at hypersonic speeds where the force is so great through the inlet that the expanding gases can't back blast. The traditional jet engine has to get the SR-72 up high enough and fast enough for the SCRAM jet to work.

 

[jboydgolfer]

It is a SCRAM jet. In the OP, look at the cut away picture. The traditional compression engine is higher up in the body, the SCRAM jet is along the bottom. Basically...all they are is in an inlet that tightens, then an outlet that slowly expands out the back. At the beginning of the inlet, they inject jet fuel and then ignite it a little ways towards the exhaust. The expanding gases propel it forward increasing the volume of air at the inlet continuing the cycle. It's a jet engine with no moving parts that only works at hypersonic speeds where the force is so great through the inlet that the expanding gases can't back blast.

Yeah my friend explained it ,I just wasnt sure of the name of it, scram didnt seem right, & I assumed i had remembered it wrong. He builds the engines that go into jets & other cool stuff for P&W. I could see his eyes light up the second I asked a question about the 72. Then he began rambling on and on about technical stuff, & lost me.I just wanted to get my new computer desk into place

 

[agent_x007]

I like in SR-72 that there never be a casualty* (ie. pilot), if ever one was down.
*I assume they don't want human on board, because of environment (and We need few things to live).

 

[eidairaman1]

Only satellite-based lasers can pose a threat to it (atmosphere wrecks lasers) and, my guess is that DoD is probably designing air-to-space missiles to intercept those satellites should they ever be built. Also, only USA has laser weapons right now and that's likely to remain the case for several decades.


Looks like the poor man's ICBM. USA/Russia have no need for that, especially with a massive fleet of strategic bombers.

The test vehicles that lead to the SR-72 were fundamentally the same but they had research payloads instead of weaponized payloads.


It's mach 5+ (mach 6 is often estimated) at ~80,000 feet.




Except that the SR-72 is described as "agile," it can likely just tip one wing slightly to deviate from the missile path a second before impact to miss it by a dozens of feet. Flak is really the only way...and a lot of it. Hitting the SR-72 with anything is harder than shooting a bullet at another bullet in flight.

Sr-71 could just outrun the projectiles.

Who called the SR-72 a bomber before @CAPSLOCKSTUCK posted this article is mistaken

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I like in SR-72 that there never be a casualty* (ie. pilot), if ever one was down.
*I assume they don't want human on board, because of environment (and We need few things to live).

Cockpits are structurally compromising and the requirements to keep the environment safe for humans (air, cooling) means adding a lot of wasteful systems that aren't necessary in this day and age where aircraft can generally fly themselves.

Sr-71 could just outrun the projectiles.

Who called the SR-72 a bomber before @CAPSLOCKSTUCK posted this article is mistaken

Took me a while to figure out what you meant but, yes, for clarity, SR-72 is strictly a reconnaissance aircraft.

 

[eidairaman1]

Cockpits are structurally compromising and the requirements to keep the environment safe for humans (air, cooling) means adding a lot of wasteful systems that aren't necessary in this day and age where aircraft can generally fly themselves.


Took me a while to figure out what you meant but, yes, for clarity, SR-72 is strictly a reconnaissance aircraft.

Theres a reason my avatar is what it is and my screen name too

 

[jboydgolfer]

Theres a reason my avatar is what it is and my screen name too

i thought you were going for EclairMan1

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Boeing has finally unveiled a concept for the potential successor to the legendary Blackbird SR-71 spy plane - and it is set to travel at more than five times the speed of sound.

It is designed to carry out spy missions in the same way as the Blackbird SR-71, which was the world's fastest and highest-flying operational manned aircraft throughout its career.

In 1976 it set an absolute speed record of 2,193.2mph (3,529kmh) - a record it still holds today.

The concept was unveiled at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech forum and is the direct competitor to Lockheed Martin's design which could be in the skies late in the 2020s.

The speed of sound, Mach 1, is around 767mph (1,235kmh). Hitting Mach 5 would mean the new craft would travel at 3,836mph (6,174kmh).

The company is planning a two-step process. First it plans to being test flights with an F-16, single-engine design and then test flights with a twin-engine, full-scale operational vehicle that would be around 107 foot long (33 metres).


http://www.popularmechanics.com/mil...g-hypersonic-concept-replace-sr-71-blackbird/

 

[droopyRO]

"Son of Blackbird" ? reminds me of this