SR-72: The Son of Blackbird

oh hello there welcome to another mega projects video just before you get started are you aware that i have another channel called explored spell xplrd because apparently i hate vowels it's shorter explorations of interesting topics whatever takes my fancy not limited to mega projects or side projects the system channel of this channel not limited to anything like that just interesting explorations if you want to check it out there is a link below and let's get into it in late 1964 an aircraft took off for the first time that revolutionized aviation it was sleek sophisticated technologically cutting edge and looked more like something that might appear out of bruce wayne's bat cave than a traditional aircraft it was of course the sr-71 blackbird the sr-71 was an aircraft that set a new benchmark and one that served the united states air force faithfully for almost 35 years during its lifespan it was the world's firstest and highest flying air breathing operational manned aircraft with a fastest recorded speed of 3529.6 kilometers hour that's 2193 miles per hour and its highest recorded altitude was about 26 000 meters that's about 85 000 feet which is roughly halfway up to where the earth's stratosphere begins it goes without saying that the sr-71 was an absolutely astonishing aircraft but just wait and see what comes next the sr-72 the son of blackbird is now inching ever closer to its grand appearance though it's still perhaps a decade until it enters full service solid information regarding this new aircraft is sadly scanned at this point as almost all of it is still classified and under development but we do have enough to piece together a somewhat clear picture of what the sr-72 might look like an aircraft which if the room and speeds anything to go by should be able to reach anywhere on the planet in an hour or less [Music] when the sr-71 took its final bow in 1999 it did so without a direct successor in place while other aircraft could cover some of its roles it was clear that there was a coverage gap between surveillance satellites manned aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles for intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance isr as well as strike missions let's just quickly jump back and see what kind of aircraft the sl-71 was to better understand what might come next the sr-71 was a long-range high-altitude max-3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft which first flew in 1966 before being retired in 1999 that was actually its second retirement the first of which came in 1990 but because of how things were in the middle east and north korea the old boys were rolled out for another decade the aircraft was almost exclusively used for high altitude reconnaissance and most of its service history is shrouded in secrecy pilots who flew the aircraft have spoken of missions averaging three to four hours though on several occasions that reached well over 11 hours sr-71s were famously used during the yom kippur war in 1973 between israel and its arab neighbors president nixon was eager to see whether israeli and arab forces have pulled back to where they said they had so he ordered several black birds to take a look the sl-71's departed the east coast of the united states and delivered the damning photographic evidence directly back to nixon neither the israelis nor the arab forces were where they said they were nixon called all of the countries directly to announce his inside knowledge and shortly after forces from both sides slunk back to where they were supposed to be and the war came to a close shortly after that during its operational history an estimated 800 missiles were fired various sr-71s all of which missed that's not to say that it didn't experience its fair share of accidents especially during development but in terms of getting in and out of enemy territory quickly and efficiently it was unparalleled when the end came for the sr-71 for the second time in 1999 it was a little unclear what came next the increased use of satellites and drone technology left some questioning whether the u.s would ever again need a high-altitude high-speed reconnaissance aircraft in quite the same way but how things can change the rise of anti-satellite weapons anti-access aerial denial tactics and counter-stealth technologies have meant that the idea of a roaring aircraft flying at the edge of space that could quickly penetrate enemy territory has come back into fashion reports began creeping out in 2007 about a possible successor to the sr-71 and one which would be at least twice as fast reaching speeds of more than six times the speed of sound but it wasn't until 2013 that things appeared to be confirmed when lockheed martin official robert weiss publicly stated that the company was developing a hypersonic plane which he referred to as the sr-72 the company also released concept art depicting an aircraft that looked more like a spacecraft than a plane the aircraft is currently being developed at the lockheed martin skunk works division a semi-secretive department responsible for many of the most astonishing aircraft that have ever appeared over the last 70 years actually got a video all about that on this channel but this would be quite a step even for them the aircraft is thought to be roughly the same size as an sr-71 measuring around 30 meters in length and i'll just note here that i've seen an sr-71 in real life and i had images of it in my mind it's massive it's way bigger than you think the major difference however will be that the sr-72 will be unmanned whereas its older brother came with a crew of two the other major difference is that the sr-72 won't simply be the eyes in the skies it will also have a strike role most likely using the latest hypersonic missile technology it's thought that the sr-72 will be powered by two engines the first of which a turbine engine will power the aircraft until it reaches a speed between mach 2 and mach 3. that's between 2469 and 3704 kilometers per hour while the second a dual mode ram jet will provide power for the aircraft's hypersonic speeds after the excitement of the announcement they followed a lull of information regarding the sr-72 with some questioning whether the technology to push a plane to mach 6 even really existed the biggest obstacle seemed to be the overlap between the two engine a typical turbojet engine has a top speed of around mach 2.2 while the scramjet engine has the lowest possible operating speed of roughly mach 4. so as you can see there is a considerable gap between the two in 2014 things took a bit of a twist when nasa became involved with the project and awarded lockheed martin an 892 000 contract to study the possibility of using a turbine-based combined cycle tbcc propulsion system which combines both the turbojet engine and the ramjet engine [Music] the turbojet was first envisioned by a frenchman by the name of maxime gillamot in 1921 though his design was never actually built the heinkel he-178 was the first aircraft to use the technology in 1939 and it's fair to say that we haven't looked back since the turbojet is an air-breathing jet engine and comes with gas turbine and a propelling nozzle inside the turbine is a compressor and combustion chamber and it is when the compressed air from the compressor is heated with the help of the burning fuel in the combustion chamber that it expands throughout the turbine the exhaust fills the propelling nozzle and is forced out of the back providing the aircraft with its thrust most engines we see today use technology similar to this but as we've seen with this type of engine it does come with a speed limit one option is to include an afterburner which is often seen in the most modern military aircraft this is an additional combustion chamber added to the turbine which can dramatically increase speed but typically uses around four times the amount of fuel that a non-afterburner mode uses now before we jump straight to a scramjet it makes sense to start with his little brother the ram jet while you might think that the ram jet with its significantly higher speeds is a modern invention well think again the concept actually dates back to 1913 and another french inventor rene laurent although it would be some time before a working model emerged the ramjet uses forward motion to compress incoming air without the aid of compressors for this reason ram jets cannot operate from a standing start and vehicles that use it often have needed assisted takeoff sometimes this even involves a rocket assist which is essentially a rocket strapped to the aircraft that powers it up to a high speed at which point the ram jet can take over these types of engines work best at supersonic speeds around mach 3 and can go all the way up to max 6. the scramjet is the upgrade of a ram jet while they share many similarities the major difference is that the scramjet involves combustion that takes place in supersonic airflow a ramjet slightly decelerates the air to subsonic speed before combustion whereas with a scramjet the entire process is carried out at supersonic speeds the result of all that is extraordinary speed this kind of technology is still being developed but the theoretical speeds that are involved are mind-blowing it's thought that scramjets may eventually be able to operate between mach 12 and mach 24 just to give you an idea that's 25 000 kilometers an hour or 16 000 miles per hour but as i said this technology is still very much in its infancy and it's very likely we have some way to go before we see speeds like that alright so let's get back to the sr-72 as i mentioned there were a few years when very little if anything was known about the development of this aircraft but in 2017 and 2018 a series of tantalizing announcements was made that pointed to some significant breakthroughs at the american institute of aeronautics and astronautics annual scitec forum in 2018 lockheed vice president jack banyan appeared to suggest that through major advances in 3d printing and computer modeling great strides had been made with the sr-72 his presentation came with a new artist's rendering of the aircraft while he went on to add without the digital transformation the aircraft you see there could not have been made in fact five years ago it could not have been made he went on to add that they could now digitally print the engine with an incredibly sophisticated cooling system integrated into the material of the engine itself as you can imagine his words were light on arrival dates or even how far along the project is but he seemed to suggest that a prototype or concept demonstrator already exists lockheed carefully skirted the issue after the speech by its vice president neither denying nor confirming any progress made on the sr-72 it's very possible that some kind of prototype of the sr-72 already exists the internet is awash with images of aircraft that may or may not be the son of blackbird lockheed has stated that they aim to have a concept demonstrator in the air sometime by the mid-2020s with a service arrival date now tentatively set for 2030. so i'm afraid we're gonna have to wait a while for this one those in the aviation industry are clear on just what a massive leap forward this would potentially be but also what enormous obstacles lie ahead in 2016 the former ceo of lockheed martin marilyn hewson suggested that it could be built for less than a billion dollars the fact that she chose that massive number to work with tells us just how dramatically expensive this project is going to be then there's the question of weaponry lockheed has said that the aircraft will be able to use hypersonic missiles most likely lockheed martin's high-speed strike weapon which is itself still in development with a rumored speed of mach 5. the combination of an aircraft traveling well over six times the speed of sound and a missile traveling five times faster than sound is certainly a scary prospect indeed the final point is how they will be controlled we already know that the sr-72 will almost certainly not be manned which leaves the question of whether they will be remotely controlled like many drones or and this is really taking a leap into the unknown will it utilize some sort of ai technology that controls some or all of the aircraft unfortunately we know painfully little about the sr-72 outside of some mouth-watering comments made by lockheed and some sci-fi looking drawings if this aircraft is really going to be capable of what we think it will be this could be one of the most significant steps forward in aviation history but don't hold your breath just yet so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did smash that like button below as i mentioned in the beginning another channel you might want to check out if you enjoy this channel is exploredxplrd i will link to that below and thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 523,274

Rating: 4.9159846 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Vdtm0teaznE

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 08 2021