Finally: Here's America's Fastest Spy Jet You've Never Seen Before

the sr-91 Aurora is the most advanced American aircraft no one in the world has seen not its manufacturers not Aviation enthusiasts not observers and not even the American government still over 2 billion dollars has reportedly been spent on the aircraft and its reported capabilities are simply out of this world with a service ceiling that borders on space and a Mach 6 top speed that will make it the fastest aircraft in the world even faster than the record-setting SR-71 Blackbird this aircraft the sr-91 is our focus in this video it's history its mystery and the overall Aura around the Aurora will all come to light history of the Aurora to some the sr-91 Aurora is simply a rumor that has survived decades however observers in both the US and UK claim to have spotted it during its secret flights the U.S government has consistently denied that such an aircraft was ever built but then again the government doesn't always release information on highly Advanced American aircraft as was the case with the SR-71 and a good number of other black projects the legend of the Aurora began in March of 1990 when Aviation week and space technology magazine published that 455 million dollars was included in the 1985 U.S budget for the funding of a black project called Aurora funding for the Aurora project allegedly grew to 2.3 billion dollars in the fiscal year 1987. the timing of this also came into play by the late 1980s many Aerospace industry observers believed that the U.S had the technological capability and desire to build a successor to the Aging Hypersonic SR-71 Blackbird Europe and they may have been right about that as the U.S Air Force NASA and Lockheed have now revealed that an SR-71 successor is indeed on its way into service the question now is could the sr-91v this SR-71 successor in question the SR-71 successor the fastest and highest flying aircraft in history the SR-71 Blackbird was the result of a secret black project that ushered an American dominance via an unrivaled combination of stealth and speed the jet is 92 percent made of the strongest metal ever discovered titanium powered by two Pratt and Whitney j58 engines each producing 32 000 pounds of thrust the Blackbird has a top speed of Mach 3.2 and an altitude of 85 000 feet which forced the Blackbirds Pilots to wear pressurized suits like astronauts do because they are very nearly in space thanks to these capabilities that enable the aircraft fly faster and higher than any missile fired at it the SR-71 was the ultimate reconnaissance aircraft for the U.S Air Force and NASA for 35 years after this period the 292 million dollar aircraft retired in 1998 leaving a gap that couldn't be filled by any other aircraft after it the need for an invincible Hypersonic aircraft remained though so to some the sr-91 is the aircraft developed to satisfy this need the sr-91 would reportedly have a top speed exceeding Mach 6. that's about double the top speed of the SR-71 but while the sr-91 would no doubt magnify the might of the air faction of U.S military it can only do that if it is real so is it is the sr-91 real firstly while there have been alleged sightings of unusual aircraft and unexplained Sonic booms over the years there is still a lack of any concrete evidence that they are connected to some sr-91 Aurora secondly according to Aviation week which released the publication that birthed this world of confusion project Aurora referred to a group of exotic aircraft and not to one particular airframe and thirdly in his 1994 book Skunk Works Ben Rich the former head of Lockheed Skunk Works division wrote that Aurora was the budgetary code name for the stealth bomber fly-off that resulted in the v-2 spirit and that seems to be what Aurora was a placeholder name used during the development of the B-2 Spirit bomber before the bomber got its permanent name apparently the revered Hypersonic sr91 had no ties to Hypersonic at all however the US is in fact working on some Hypersonic aircraft today in some Hypersonic aircraft projects U.S Hypersonic aircraft projects against the Soviet Union in the 1900s and now against China in the 2000s the U.S once again needs to maintain its dominance over near pure competition and again it is looking to Hypersonic aircraft the US has at least three programs tasked with bringing such an aircraft to fruition and here they are one Project Mayhem from afrl Project Mayhem is a program by the Air Force research laboratory that's focused on developing a combined cycle turbofan scramjet propulsion system capable of propelling larger payloads for longer distances than existing propulsion systems in December 2022 the Air Force awarded virginia-based Lighthouse 334 million dollars for mayhem's continued development the propulsion system would enable future aircraft take off like any other plane travel at Mach 5 plus Hypersonic speeds unlike most other planes and then land like any other plane to accomplish this Mayhem would marry two different types of engines scramjets and turbofan engines scramjets coined from supersonic ramjets have been under testing for decades but to date no country has ever managed to field one in service air moving through a scramjet Flows at supersonic speeds which makes ignition very difficult it's like keeping a match lit in a hurricane in recent years there has been increasing success in this quest for scramjet development and actually using them to power aircraft take NASA's x-43a for instance scramjets cannot work alone however they don't function effectively at lower speeds and must therefore rely on another propulsion system to take off from start and accelerate to a speed where they can operate efficiently this is why a Project Mayhem introduces turbofan engines like the one you might find in a modern fighter jet in the initial stages of flight Mayhem after a full development and completion of tests by October 2028 would work by taking off and accelerating under turbo fan power likely to speeds in excess of Mach 2. once at this speed where scramjets can function the airflow would bypass the turbo fan and feed directly into the scramjet accelerating the aircraft Beyond Mach 5 and potentially well beyond Mach 10. 2. Dark Horse from Hermes Dark Horse is a Hypersonic uncrewed remotely piloted aircraft under development by atlanta-based Aviation firm Hermes Hermes has kept some of the details about Dark Horse in the locker though we can make some assertions with a great deal of certainty based on available information fermius's Dark Horse is reportedly taking a slightly different approach to Hypersonic flight than Mayhem by leveraging a Ramjet rather than a scramjet in its 18 million dollars combined cycle engine known as Chimera ramjits and scramjets are quite similar but while scram Jets absorb and ignite supersonic air in its Chambers ramjets slow down supersonic air before igniting it operating the slower easier to ignite air a Ram Jet comes with less engineering headaches and lower costs but it also comes with limited speed the Chimera engine would therefore only be able to power the Dark Horse to Hypersonic speeds below Mach 6 which is still faster than any operation no aircraft can travel today in December 2022 hermia selected the Pratt and Whitney F-100 engine to act as the turbo fan portion of chimera this is the same family of engines leveraged by air-to-air Legends F-15 Eagle in the same year hermia successfully demonstrated its Chimera engines transition from turbofan to Ramjet power in a wind tunnel and in 2025 the engine will be tested on the Dark Horse before eventually earning operational status 1. sr-72 from Lockheed Martin it might all boil down to this the sr-72 the son of Blackbird the sr-72 is under development by the largest defense contractor in the world Lockheed Martin the company is developing the sr-72 to be everything its predecessor was and more unlike the SR-71 it could have the widest array of weapons from guns to missiles and even laser-directed energy weapons capable of reconnaissance and surveillance like its predecessor the aircraft would feature a highly sensitive intelligence gathering sensors and the sharpest cameras to take photos that are almost 100 miles wide the sr-72 will reportedly have a top speed of Mach 6 about twice the top speed of the SR-71 this High Hypersonic speed of the sr-72 like with previously discussed aircraft is made possible using a combined cycle turbofan scramjet engine developed by a team of of Lockheed Martin and aerojet Rocket die a similar engine setup was used in the Blackbird giving Lockheed Martin about 30 years of experience with this type of engine the company also has the backing of NASA which has already invested one billion dollars in the development of the sr-72 and could contribute Technologies never before seen on atmosphere-based aircraft as a result of all these advancements the sr-72 son of Blackboard will reportedly have a unit cost of 1 billion dollars these are the most likely Replacements of the SR-71 not the sr-91 Aurora although the Aurora is to an extent the definition of what the future Hypersonic unrivaled aircraft should be it is also expected to become real if you subscribe to this Channel and give this video a like so do so now and thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Military Affairs

Views: 257,302

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Id: o0cRoeTZ_Hk

Length: 10min 27sec (627 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 10 2023