Finally! US Air Force Declared SR-72 DARKSTAR Is REAL!
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- Опубліковано 14 січ 2024
- There are some planes that are out of this world, literally. These are ones that can fly on the edge of space and reach speeds that others could only dream of. Today we’re going to look at the real-life planes that inspired the Top Gun Maverick’s breathless opening scene - The retired SR-71 Blackbird and the exciting prospect that is the SR-72 Darkstar.
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In 1964 while in high school and a member of the "Air Scouts", an offshoot of the boy scouts, we took a special tour of Edwards AFB. While riding on a bus between stops at a couple of gigantic hangars, I caught a view of an SR-71, on the ground between two smaller hangars. What a sight !
Definitely recommend visiting the blackbird air park in Palmdale, or Castle air museum in Merced.
If you get a chance, go visit the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. There are two SR-71s on display there. One of them, in an annex to the museum on the air base, has a Distinguished Flying Cross painted on it. That was the one that captured and returned the absolute speed record to America. There are many beautiful airplanes housed there. It is well worth the trip.
Yeah....ya' tend to remember that kind of stuff. 🎉
Saw one take off from Miramar NAS San Diego while driving past on the freeway. It looked to be headed up at close to 45°. Unforgettable!
lots of changes since then.
The fact that SR-72 looks very much like the famous SR-71 tells a lot of how far ahead of time the SR-71 was. It even had a low radar signature!
there wasn't much room for improvement. the only three things the 71 needs to transform into the 72, is higher heat capable materials to withstand the friction heat, fix the fuel leaking problem, & replace the engines with ram jets.
@@prepareuranus8097 I’ll bet Skunk Works engineers would be rolling off their chairs laughing at your characterization of those as “only three things”. You forgot one more, capability to remote control around the world, both at top speed and the likely neccessary refueling.
The fuel leaked intentionally. @@prepareuranus8097
We have no idea what any SR-71 successor looks like (if one indeed does/has ever existed) beyond our imaginations! You do realize what you see in this video are artistic interpretations and guessing? Physics and purpose may indeed give an SR-71 some visual similarities, but who really knows beyond people with very high security clearance who would not be talking about on UA-cam!
@@dylanrobinson7830 Thank you for that. I was taken in by the clickbate headline then looked again and indeed I find nothing that says that the Air Force has Declared SR72 Real. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. i'll not come back to this channel again
The SR-71 does not “literally fly under the radar”. Nor is it in any way “similar” to the U-2.
high altitude reconnaissance I guess.
Subsonic vs Supersonic.
How about a Corvair and a Corsair?
Or literally out of this world... I think not. People use the word "literally" too loosely. 😂
@@jacqueshollands5630 The "out of this world" part was actually literal for ~5 years. We've since more accurately defined the border between "space" and high altitude - we kept finding air higher and higher back then.
Blackbird herself pushed the border between atmosphere and space up higher twice - you have to remember, Blackbird's design work was done in the "Gemini" era, and she was put into service smack dab in the middle of the "Apollo" era.
Click bait title
Unfortunately so
I knew it was but wanted to come shit on the top gun movie.
Fr 😂
you are click bait
The SR-72 (might not be its actual designation) is real. The question is whether it’s manned or unmanned. So I don’t think the title is clickbait
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird in the 80s and 90s , always put on an awesome flying display at USAFE airshows in the UK. I saw it flying at RAF Mildenhall, RAF Alconbury and Farnborough. You really can't imagine how it felt, standing right right there by the runway looking at the SR-71 getting ready to roll. Just to say the experience was completely out of this world, and when it finally did get rolling, the actual physical effect you got from the power of those huge afterburning J-79 engines, was simply mind blowing! My ears took some battering, but hey, what a great sound that sure was! The USAFE always put on some great airshows in the UK back then, they were fabulous times as I remember!
I only saw it fly once but I cuncure completely. I drove up to Beale for one of, maybe the, last time it would fly other than the NASA plane that was in service a bit longer. He made a high speed pass over the base which I thought would be boring due to the altitude. I was wrong. That thing still looked fast even at however many 10s of thousands of feet. We could not get to the airport because of the crowds but saw a group stanging on a hill. We decided to join them and it turned out it was perhaps 100 ft to the side of the touchdown end of the runway. In many ways a lot better view than if we had gotten on base. A guy had a radio that was picking up the pilot communications so we heard him flying overhead and calling the start of his turn and slowdown to return for a couple of low level passes. Then we heard him call “over the Farallon Islands” 132 miles away. One thing it wasn’t good at is turning.on a dime. The low passes had him fly by us with the close wing low in a shallow turn lining up with the runway and very low. The pilot was clearly visible in the cockpit. What an amazingly beautiful airplane. One of the highlights of my life.
The SR-71 engine was the P&W J58, The GE J79 was used in the F-104 Star fighter and F-4 Phantom, among other planes.
I used to refuel the SR71 in the late 70's and early 80's. What people at the air shows never knew is that, often, they would fly real word missions at night at the air show bases because the permanent SR bases were monitored quite well by the Soviets. We would bring a portable fuel cart with hoses and a filter on it. One end was hooked up to a KC135Q and the other the SR71. A portable lab was also brought to test the fuel. The first air show I ever worked at none of us knew about this and we went drinking after the show. The chief showed up at the motel and said let's go. Surprise surprise. We gad to sober up quickly.
@@Skymedc If I remember correctly the SR71 was operational years before it was acknowledged to be real. If so it begs the question is the SR72 actually operational now and has it been for some time? There have been stories of sightings of an aircraft flying hypersonic speeds for a long time, and I believe those sightings even used the name Darkstar.
@@billpennock8585 I don't know. It's possible I guess. I work as a contractor on a Navy flight line and have not seen or heard of anything like that yet. Haven't seen a contrail like what I used to see when the SR71 was around. I was in the Air Force still when the F117 came out. None of us had ever seen one, but Revell came out with a model that looked exactly like it. We all thought that was pretty funny.
So because there is speculation and rumour of the SR-72 existing, that means the USAF publically stated it's in service?
Click bait title.
I guess no one should be surprised really. Still, they earned a downvote.
it will exist only when they finish it, not unitl then, not even the prototype
They usually don't admit to anything this classified. They've never admitted the Aurora existed. But that was the plane that retired the Blackbird.
@@paulmurgatroyd6372 don't even give them a down vote. It still counts as activity so they get credit for it.
I blocked this and all clickbait channels.
The SR71 Blackbird will always be my favorite aircraft of al time. She is so fast and so elegant. Such a oeaky mess on the ground but she wasn't built to be wheels down. She was built for ripping the sound barrier! We built that monster in the 50s and 60s! It really makes you wonder what they are building as we speak.
While in private pilot training at the U of I, I loved the stories about the pilot of the SR-71 asking for landing instructions in California while flying over New York.
Even in a SR that's a 90 min flight. A bit early to be requesting landing clearance. Plue Beale or Edwards already know when you will be there. Wish this posts title was real but it is just clic bait.
The SR-71 Black Bird will ALWAYS be one of my favorite aircraft of all time!
Let’s thank that UFO 🛸 Roswell Crash 💥 for the technology that skyrocketed our military aircraft afterwards… SR-71 Blackbird, B2 Stealth Bomber… U2 Spyplane… F-22 Raptor… 👽🛸🫢🤫🫡
Calling the SR-71 and U2 as "similar" is like calling a Corvette and VW Van similar.
One can make the argument that if the U2 had not been shot down, the SR-71 would have never been made.
Maybe he ment the band U2, as similar..?
Corvette and a chuckwagon might be closer.
Porsche and VW would be a more apt comparison as both the U-2 and the A-12/YF-12/SR-71 were made by the Lockheed Skunkworks under the design lead of Kelly Johnson. They were VERY different aircraft to be sure, but they were, at the very least cousins, if not sisters, just very different sisters! They both had the same dad for damn sure! Kelly Johnson was absolutely key to the existence and design of both aircraft.
Well considering the U2 is still in service today, & is definitely VW grade compared to sr71 Porsche is kinda spot on, every part is a one off for the U2 & royal PITA no 2 planes are identical. But SR71 retired because there was a replacement FYI
Saw the SR-71 in the late 1980s when it "Displayed" at Farnborough Airshow UK... It just landed and then after a short stop-over took off again..... Huge red braking parachute was used on landiing.. . and on take-off the engine note was amazing... Overwhelming powerful and crackly.
It's funny to think that the SR72 is a descendant of a plane which first flew 60 years ago! Especially when realizing that 60 years before the SR71, the only plane around was the Wright brothers'...
Two world wars and a cold war were a big help boosting development....
Alien tech
Funny you say that about the wright brothers. I served with the SR-71's Air refueling wing at march AFB in the late 70s. And now i live in Dayton Ohio home of the wright Bros. Lol
Some years ago I worked at Grumman Aerospace building F-14 Tomcats, A-6 Intruders, and the lunar modules. Back then Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine was only available to people in the industry, no on-line versions or newsstand copies were sold. They had nearly an entire issue dedicated to the SR-71's successor, complete with specs and photos. Rather than "Darkstar", the code name they were using at the time was "Aurora". Kelly Johnson and the whole Skunk Works team were visionaries. They did all that design work with slide rules, no CAD/CAM involved. We owe them a debt of gratitude.
While being stationed in the United States Air Force, I was stationed at Mt. Home AFB from 1969-1971 The SR-71 landed at our base, you couldn't get within 100 yards of it but it was an incredible flight when it landed and took off. before you know it was gone and the speed was so incredible it took off and went straight up in the air like a rocket and it was gone before your eyes.. I believe we as Americans should always stay ahead of the Chinese and Russian in technology... We are still doing it. today.
🔥🇺🇸🇺🇸🙌🇺🇸🇺🇸🔥
I wish I still had my Top Trumps 1976 ~ Military Planes Series 1. As a kid and a grown up SR-71 is still my fave plane ever.
The SR-72 was on the Lockeed website and in presentations until Russia announced the (now debunked) "hypersonic" Kinzhal. There is one teaser of an SR-72 prototype in a hanger in an US Air Force video. It's very dark, but if you adjust lighting settings, you see SR-72 on the aircraft. The engine has been in tests since 2013, 2017 a single engine technology demonstrator was spotted multiple times over Palmdale California. Skunkworks has promised speeds of 2-3 times of the SR-71. A Lockeed VP talks about it like it already exists = how the engine was partially 3D printed to manage cooling or that the craft is "agile" at hypersonic speeds. *Shout out to Alex Hollings for all this amazing research!
Alex Hollings is the man
It's been out since the 80's- 90's called the Aurora Mach 5 replaced the Mach 3.5 SR71. U2 was brought out of storage at that time as a cover. They have built or close to finish building a hypersonic AI drone unmanned spy plane to replace the Aurora.
I try not to talk about things I know because of where I work, but we don’t retire an aircraft unless we have something to replace its role! Non the less I can’t wait for an actual unavailing of the SR72, see what my hard work went into. Very rarely get to see finished product of what we work on.
You're wrong about the Kinzhal being debunked, there was footage of one striking its target the footage was less than 2 seconds and was calculated at just over 29,000 klm's an hour and mathematicians were astounded. The only reason why American's debunk it is they have not yet worked out how to stay in contact with a missile in its plasma state and have yet to come up with shielding materials, which Russia have overcome. The avenguard is the meanest beast of all, and that one is a nuclear-powered missile that can fly for 3 weeks straight. While I believe Lockheed has the engine, they have not figured out plasma state, which the Russian's have. Before you ask for proof, look for it yourself and for goodness sakes do not bother with Bing, Google and Yahoo as search engines, they're crap.
@@johntaylor3298 what search engine do you recommend them?
The "Darkstar" thing came from back in the early 1990s someone monitoring military communications in, I think, Nevada but could have been California, recorded communication between either Edwards AFB or Nellis AFB and 2 planes with call-signs "Darkstar Mike" and "Darkstar November" and the rumor was that these were the "Aurora" spy planes. I remember art Bell talking about it back in the '90s on Coast to Coast AM lol.
The "someone" was Steve Douglass, a longtime stealth watcher and enthusiast of black project aircraft.
@@aliensporebombthank you! I remember listening to Art Bell talking about it live one night but it was so long ago I couldn't remember the details. I miss those days and the old Coast to Coast with Art.
If a bomber version of the SR72 is made, it could possibly have a bomb ejection system similar to the A-5 Vigilante from the early to mid 1960’s. Those planes were very fast, mid Mach 2+ speeds and actually quite maneuverable. The bombs were carried in the center rear of the fuselage and were ejected out of the tail in between the engines. In practice, it did not work well. The Vigilante was then converted to a reconnaissance aircraft. They were extensively used in Vietnam. However, due to the flight profiles used for their missions, and the need to fly straight at specific altitudes and course routes, they pretty much became sitting ducks for the anti aircraft gunners because they knew when they were coming and where they were going to fly, so they had high attrition rates. The navy even reopened the assembly line to build additional planes to replace losses. The A-5 Vigilante is a really very good looking airplane. In some ways, comparable to the look of the movie Dark Star SR-72.
Since they can't really open an underside bomb bay door at hypersonic speeds, I was wondering about some kind ejection system out the back. Interesting that they've tried it before! I've never heard of the A-5 before either, so that was an interesting read.
I wonder if the SR72 could have "bomb pods" of some sort sculpted into the bottom of the air craft so that smart bombs could be ejected out the back and satellite GPS guided to their target?
Or just slow down and dump it....................duh...........
We have had, for sometime now, missels that can target themselves once launched. The Darkstar would not need to do anything but get within range, slow down, and drop one. Yes, one. As they said, it would be a challenge to house these missles. But if they needed to get within serious range of a single special target, I think the Darkstar would work well for such a mission.
6:33 I loved the maintenance crew! Great history lesson, with a dash of fun!
I paused here too for a laugh!
SR 71 was a masterpiece
Most beautiful planes in existence! Only the B2 gets to share that role. But LOVE!!!! 😍😍
Love the SR-71. Can’t wait to see the 72
This is the same way they introduced the SR-71. All eyes here while they perfect what they are really working on and have been since Roswell.
@5:04. -GOSH I LOVE THAT PHOTO! I remember having it as one of my wallpapers on my laptop in like 2010-2011.
My old time favorite aircraft the SR-71!! My father was a Tool and Die Maker for General Electric Aerospace back in the 1950's and on. He built a lot of the tooling fixtures that made the SR-71's parts- how cool is that for a family heirloom?? Will be glad to see the big-brother DarkStar in the air...
It would make sense that technology has come this far since the 60's. I live near an air force base with a VERY high security scientific lab, and I've twice seen a dark triangular shaped plane flying out in a mostly uninhabited area at dusk. Wouldn't be surprised if it was something like this.
first there was the A-12 followed by the YF-12 then the SR-71, all 3 were designed by Lockheed. Also 3 A-12s were built as Yf-12s.
And two were M-21s to carry the D-21 drone. An M-21 can be seen at the Seattle Museum of Flight.
For the record there already has been a Darkstar. One can be seen at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. It flew in the 1990s, was a collaboration between L-M and Boeing. Working on it in the latter half of the 80's was very challenging.
still blown away that the SR-71 was built in the early 60s lol its just remarkable
a bomb bay might not be like our typical concept of one. it might be that bombs get ejected out the back of the plane rather than from a bottom mounted internal bombay like we see in almost every bomber
I had same thought!
Or they could just slow down to Mach 1.1 say for a few seconds to accurately target the object, release, and accelerate away, all safely from 80,000 feet.
yeah, pooping is the answer
Just because there are no windows does not mean that it’s pilotless. There are currently cameras in use that allow pilots to actually look thru their aircraft by the use of their helmets. This does seem to be the natural progression of things to come. Don’t ever be surprised by skunkworks and what they are able to achieve. The numbers given by Skunkworks are really short in comparison to the actual capabilities of that aircraft, after all why would we want to tell our adversaries the truth ?
Yeah, NASA’s new “quiet supersonic” plane doesn’t have a windshield. It uses a camera and display instead.
It’s probably pilotless because maneuvering at such high speeds would cause bodily harm to a pilot.
It's what happens when you gather every mad genius engineer in the US, throw them together in a circus tent, and paint a cartoon logo of a skunk on it. "They built a fusion reactor once to save a few bucks on power. Go America!" Lazerpig
@@reidboggs4344 one does not fly 4000 mph and pull 9 g's it would break the plane apart but rather you would make more gentle course corrections as to not destroy your aircraft, its not a fighter.
@@Csilk You are correct if you are thinking about the materials and technology that are made public. There are things not made public for a reason.
There are lots of planes I love, and lots more than look cool, but wayyyyyy up at the top of the list, now and forever, there's the SR-71. I love it so much I'd marry it if I could.
The original rumor was called Aurora. I even met controllers who swear they caught it on radar. Honestly though, I have my doubts it really exists. For the type of recon this sort of plane does, a satellite is as good and doesn't risk an international incident if it gets shot down or has an accident.
Everybody, skip to 4:32 to get to the title of the video.
Even then, what you see is a dummy. So does it exist?
@@smacksman1 apparently its been announced by the US Air Force.
If they're letting us know, it's already flying.
We never knew of the A12, until the late 80s, while it, the SR71, YF12, and MD21 all flew in between.
@@williamvoorhees8201 im still tripping out on that nasa one they just announced, it doesnt produce a sonic boom.
We really need Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, rest his soul, now more than ever. Genius like his rarely comes along. P38, U2, SR-71...
He turned the Skunkworks over to good hands . His successor was Ben Rich, who in his book after retiring, said they had the technology to take ET home. Don't know who runs it now , but they are moving the operation to Lockheed Martin in Ga.
@@thomasblankinship98 That was a great book!
Could we at least bring back the absolutely badass color scheme for the NGAD or as an alternative coat for F-35? That black and red is aggressive as heck and needs to be revived :D
The SR-71 didn't 'literally fly under the radar', it flew incredibly high up.
A long time ago, I went to an air strip “show” if you want to call it that but one of the hangars had a long wall of model planes and it had every single plane there, I found the black bird in the case and the old man working there asked me if it was my favorite and I told him it was, he said to follow him and I kid you not, he showed me the actual documents for the sr-71 blackbird pilot records that were going to be transported to a museum
Anyone here because of the X- Men?
Awesome. I worked next to the SR71 Hanger we always watched as it came and went.
When in Quam, I watched an SR71 take off. As soon as it left the runway it just headed straight up & out of sight -- WOW!!!
that was in the 80s. I was in Quam for about 3 weeds with the air national quard. I was a sales guy in Mongtana & one of my clients had a son thee. He was an F4 fighter pilot.I was hoping to be a VIP enough to get a ride. Unfortunately that did not happen but as we (the pilot) I were leaving the tarmac, we watched the SR71 take off. I did not see them when I was at Kadena.@@geodio5646
Remember. When Skunkworks says mach 6 thev mean mach 8.
They never disclose the actuall max cruise speed and max altitude of the plane. Its highly classified. Only the pilots and the command staff know its true capabilities
The SR-71 actually DID FLY IN SPACE. A few of its pilots were awarded astronaut wings.
What is absolutely incredible is the fact that the SR71 was designed and built WITHOUT the use of computers!
Many years ago an aircraft flew over my house at about 20mph and 300 feet AGL. It was dead silent and covered a good bit of the cloudless night in the north end of Seattle. The weird thing is that it was shaped exactly like this SR-72. My son , then in college, and I observed it at 1AM while standing out in the yard; I told my wife about it the next morning and she said bulls**t. So my son and I went to opposite corners of the house and drew what we saw. The pictures matched. All three of us were impressed. I have no idea what we saw, but if it was ours I don't mind my tax money being used to develop such a machine.
20 miles an hour and 300 feet off the ground? Sounds like someones pedal bike in the sky.
@@aliensporebomb: it was way too big for that. I know the U S Navy has a stealth blimp but the shape was more aircraft. My son died so I don't have a witness.
Well at least it'll be cool in 20 years to hear pilots talk about their version of the LA speed check!
It would not be necessary for the aircraft to "open up" to release the bomb. It could be released through a tube at the back of the aircraft and could be winged, allowing it to maneuver on its own. If it was satellite controlled, or guided, it could hit with accuracy from an aircraft that was miles away from the release point. That was one of the idea floated for the yf12a. They would still be carried in the center line to avoid messing up the balance, but "jettisoned" out the tube.
Imagine that you are a radar specialist and you see what could possibly be a stealth aircraft, but it is not going near anything important, and then it disappears. Many minutes later, a bomb goes off taking out the radar control center.
Junior is already flying.
I worked on initial scramjet tek in 1967.
Ive always loved the SR-71 since i was a kid. I already love the SR-72 sight unseen.😊
Sorry to pop bubbles here, but this aerotech is several decades old... the ONLY time they show us any "advanced" technology - it's already *seriously* outdated.
You can believe that or not, but you can take it to the bank, I promise you.
I knew 2 lifetime USAF pilots who years ago both said: we have weapons no one will ever see unless WW 3 happens. And then some foolish enemy country is going to get wasted.
@@nickcasto8009
That's what I'm talking about brother.
@@nickcasto8009Yes, it is called USA NAVY SOLAR WARDEN, RADIAN GUARDIAN AND RADIANT GLORY SPACE BATTLE FLEETS now Called USSF Thanks to POTUS Trump and USAF TR-3 B-H Models and TR/6/7/10/11 made by the Interplanetary Corporate Conglomerates aka Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower talked about before he left office in his last HISTORIC SPEECH! He said "BEWARE THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!" These Anti Gravity Spaceships began to be designed in 1953 and were helped by Pleiadian and Nordic ET Races of the Galactic Federation but was hidden from Humanity by the Rockefeller/Bush CIA to keep this tech out of humanity hands so they could keep their GREEDY Monopoly on the various "Energy Industries" that have all been made OBSOLETE by Free Energy Devices and Torsion Field Drives powered Anti Matter Chambers using Crystals shown in Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Kahn when Spock fixes the anti matter chamber but dies in it from radiation poisoning. THIS TECH IS ABOUT TO DECLOAK IN THE SKY and then EVERYONE WITH EYES TO SEE WILL SEE THEM plus the Millions Loving Galactic Federation of Worlds many different designs and sized Motherships in our skies, under and above the Firmament that are in the Higher Dimension at least 4D/5D which is black bottom clouds with no rain smell is THEM!
@@nickcasto8009 cringe
SR-71… that long ago! Just imagine what they are working on now in secret…
There's an SR-71 on display at the Ellsworth AFB Museum in Rapid City. I can't tell you what will run through your mind when standing next to one of those birds, I can just say I'll never feel the same about military aircraft again. It's intimidating and exciting at the same time.
two beautiful birds
Art Bell lives.
Midnight in the desert
The only airplane in the world that could intercept the SR-71 was the MIG-25 foxbat, now called the mig-31. However, the window from detection was only 13 minutes due to the SR's speed.
Personally I am looking forward to the SR-91 being declassified.
The SR-71's sonic boom was used as a weapon against a meeting of the Communist worlds heads in Pyongyang, North Korea. It oveflew the city, and rattled the windows, then turned around and did it again. The message; "Plt all you want, you can't touch us".
The SR 71 was an engineering marvel! Just think about it was developed at a time when CAD and such were just getting started.
It's astounding that Johnson and the team at Lockheed had to INVENT the tools to even make the plane!! Back in the 60's no less! Unbelievable...
The sole purpose of the SR-72 is to request to buzz the tower. Failing that, Dominoes will at least be able to get your pizza delivered in less than 30 minutes.
SR-71 and SR-72...WOW!
Great technical skill to show the reality of what does look like a Tic Tac - very interesting
I would be surprised is a darkstar exists since satellites made aerial reconnaissance completely obsolete overnight. Cloud cover was the only limiting factor, but high altitude aircraft suffered the same issue anyway, so low altitude drone surveillance became the norm. A hypersonic fighter or bomber craft however.....
Lockheed tested pulse engines for the plane too. But they were not usable above a certain altitude.
Its hard to believe that the plans to build the SR-71 were done in the late 1950s so in like 65 years we all knew that more advanced Tech would be on its way , but then one can only wonder what else is out there.....
I had a pretty bright bro-in-law when they retired the SR-71. He traveled internationally & spoke several languages working for Motorola & was very knowledgeable about the military. He said it's retired because they can use satelites. I said it's retired because they have something faster. 1 of our other bro-in-laws later stated that the 1st was really CIA, so why would he tell the truth? LOL
There some interesting data that strongly suggests that the real DarkStar is referred to as the SR-91 which has a ceiling of 130,000 feet and in capable of March 15. The combined-cycle engines incorporate a turbo jet, a turbo ramjet, a liquid methane fueled pulsed detonation scramjet and a rocket. Given the altitudes it can reach odds are that the manned SR-91 has attitude control thrusters in the front and rear of the craft as well as on the edges of the blended-body wings. If this type aircraft experiences inertial decoupling it would be torn apart and the crew would not survive, e.g. Tom Cruise would not have survived.
Opening a bomb bay door at those speeds would be an incredible strain on the airframe but deploying the ordinance aft like the A-5 Vigilante might work for this design. Either way seeing how the engineers overcome those stresses would be quite interesting.
Whatever it is has been in service for at least5 years, going by history.😊
Great video, thanks! I am very interested in the SkunkWorks programme, could you recommend a book to me that could give me some sort of overview of this?
You'd release the bomb out the back and also you don't need to drop it accurately, the bomb has TONS of energy to correct.
For bomb use. A rear deployed bomb is logical. Computer, gps linked fins w/small chute as needed. With 80k feet the bomb could be steered to target. So smooth torpedo rear eject Mach speed by small chute to slow, get orientation down. We have had deployable fins for decades, self guiding as well.
I remember a case when allegedly the SR71 was targeted by 2 missiles and its counter measures system allowed the pilot to create two false radar images of itself, and the two missiles locked onto and went after the those instead, just like a human seeing a marage in the desert.
You are talking about DRFM jamming, that isn't limited to two false targets but as many as wanted. The technology creates a identical radar return signal (echo/reflection) that will be delayed or advanced stronger than real signal. This is what a frequency hopping technique try to avoid by altering frequency that predictive signal can't be generated so easily as jammer doesn't know what frequency is the future signal to be, and as post signal the stronger echo can be ignored.
Thats awesome! I remember a story about a flight where the pilot used it and evaded but it was so long ago I can't remember the source.@@paristo
Windows... these days I would have thought a few mini cameras fed to internal monitors would give lower radar signature, maybe with an emergency backup for landings if that fails.
The aircraft was actually designated the RS-71 with a host of blue-prints labeled as such that all ordered to be destroyed subsequent to President Johnson having publicly referred to it as the SR-71 and re-designated as such on all blue-prints. Equally interesting is the fact that the titanium grades needed to withstand the temps and that were available to the US at the time were deemed too brittle to be used at which point the Agency sets up shell companies that bought and imported the necessary titanium from of all places....Russia.
Yes, had they known it would have been virtually impossible to get the metal. The Russians have the world’s largest titanium ore deposits.
@@geodio5646 Had not heard that before. I assume that the titanium was somehow incompatible with human body chemistry. Sounds sort of alien-like, doesn’t it?
@@geodio5646 Spend any time at Groom Lake?
I would thoroughly recommend getting hold of 'Skunk Works', by Ben Rich; he was Kelly Johnson's right-hand man and it's a fascinating account of the creation of many iconic planes, including the SR-71 and F-117.
Ben Rich led the Advanced Development Projects (aka, The Skunk Works) after Johnson retired. 60 Minutes did an interview with Rich not long before he passed away.
even Mach 6 is hard on pilots, so needs to be unmanned, specially now that GE has a new RAM jet that they say will do Mach 10
To date the SR72 Dark Star has made successful flights.
Omg, this is the NGAD. Look at the top view of the Darkstar taxing down the runway... that's the Lockheed press release outline of the NGAD. They built an American Firefox.
I worked on Habu back in the early 80's. Took me back to watching a night time launch from Beale :) The SR-72? ..........................
They could carry a small payload internal bay nuke with GPS guidance...get to the target and slow down just enough to release it and then gun it back. Depending on how small you could make them , it could possibly carry multiple tactical nukes for one massive attack run
It really makes me wonder how much more technologically advanced we are 60 years later.
Amazing how much like a scaled down refined shape SR-71 it appears.
Any ordinance would have to be external and blended so it could just detach. It would have to be drone like to hit a target.
I remember the sonic booms rattling our house windows back in the day.
If it exsist, that's great. Anyway, by the time it's obsolete, John Travolta would've bought one.
The SR-71 is “holy ground” for aircraft aficionados worldwide. You need to watch for errors. The YF-12 was developed in the 1960s as a high-altitude, Mach 3 interceptor to defend AGAINST supersonic bombers. Based on the A-12 reconnaissance aircraft, the YF-12A became the FORERUNNER of the highly-sophisticated SR-71 strategic reconnaissance aircraft. THE YF-12 WAS NOT A BOMBER! Straight out of the Museum of the USAF’s information. Walked around the touched this aircraft MANY times. Still brings a tear to my eyes regarding the program and people that gave life to these amazing aircraft.
The only time the SR71 was spotted on radar, was by Iraq. Iraq fired a couple of ground to air missiles at it but they couldn't catch it. The missiles had to get up to 85,000 feet, then catch up to it, which they could not do.
Absolutely exciting possibilities are on the horizon with these advanced technologies with corresponding progressions in AI super computing and Nanotechnologies also being achieved as well! It's important to understand too that the faster these birds fly the more likely they will do so without humans actually being involved in their operation however! The conditions they would have to endure is beyond human ability!
when we were kids in the 80s. my cousin and I were at the pool one hot summer day. we heard a very loud sonic boom and looked up at the sky and saw a blackbird. although it came and went quick, we were able to see the black delta wing shape from the ground. it was the coolest day ever. we went to the pool to go swimming and saw a blackbird zip by. at the time, I had a fastest military planes book, so I knew as soon as we looked up at the sky.
Back in the early 90s ,I was working on my Neighbor's Farm putting hay up into the hayloft . I was working with one of my Brothers at the time and we had just finished up a wagon load. We were waiting for another load when We heard a very deep jet engine sound . We looked up and both saw an SR71 as it was just below and behind another aircraft. It was refueling and taking on fuel from a KC135 Stratotanker ( basically looks a Boeing 707 with some differences) . It was so cool seeing that ! After what seemed to be like 10-15 seconds ,the SR71 dropped back to clear the KC135 , sped up ,and then roared upward and was GONE in a mighty roar . That KC135 seemed so slow as it lumbered along but that thing was probably going a good 500 or so miles per hour .
@@MichaelTheoret Yeah, apparently the KC135s had to fly near their maximum speed and the SR71s were barely above their stall speed to get the job done.
The SR71 should never have been retired from the inventory, yeah I understand about the cost per hour to fly it, but the real time intel it provided was invaluable to the CIA, and the armed forces. Satellites are not as easy to send to a different orbit as some seem to think they are.
REAL NAME : As in Blackbird, it's The Black Manta ! Dark Star is it's call sign !
I feel like I'm seeing 2 different planes in top gun 2 like one shot the plane looks square, thick, and straight but the other it's rounder, skinnier, and has camber
The troubles of using such things as bombers can be solved, you'll just have to think a bit outside the box. No bay door needs to be opened if you just specialize and adapt. Think guided glide bombs that act as an extension of the fuselage until released. They could make up a tail, for example and having their own wings they can just follow their "tow boat" until time is ripe to find the target.
If it's proven they have SR72, they are developing SR88 something now😅
I’m very impressed with the SR-72 . I just hope that eventually they will be able to increase the engine output to make it go faster , when you consider that everyone is also trying to make make missiles go faster than Mach 6 !
If the SR72 is a bomber it will just slow to open a hatch & release its missile or glide vehicle. Then it'll be back to warp drive.
4:32 begins the video actually mentioned in the title. You're welcome.
Our CGI Air Force is undefeated!
The SR 72 will hence be known as that SOB (Son of Blackbird)
In the 60s, I built a plastic model of an early version, I guess. I thought it looked really boss! Did a good job on it, too. After a while, that "Super Tape" gave way on the ceiling, and it crashed on the floor. Probably in the middle of the night, scaring the sonic boom outa me! On shelves, my planes got all dusty, and I was growing, so I chucked'em all but the model B-17G that kept Pop alive to see the 21st Century (and help make me).
What Pop liked better, 20 years after, was the poster I put up. A silhouette of kids on a jungle gym, and it read:
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"It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber"
(a quote by Robert Fulghum, author from Waco, TX)
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With Flag, Faith, and Friendship, I remain adamant
We can neither deny nor confirm the existence of any hypersonic aircraft.
Unbelievable speedy😮