Is this the “Aurora?”
What?! Just have a 20-second flight? ... :-) ...
Looks a bit similar to the X-47B.
Outside of Amarillo the norther panhandle is pretty isolated.
From the photo it is a Delta, with the Wingtips look like they are going to a High Aspect Ratio Section, almost Blended Wing Body-ish. No center Cuspidate ( aka “Bat-Tail” ) Tail like the B-2 or the Horten 229. Which leads to the question why not the center stub tail which the R/C modeling community has found out really works...
The SR-72 is NOT an unmanned aerial vehicle.
SR-72’s are back in service, but now unmanned? Hmmm.
That would be SR-71, not SR-72.
(Actually was RS-71, but someone (LBJ?) mixed up the letters and "SR" stuck)
The next SR-72 or whatever it is called should be unmanned for multiple reasons. One drone technology has matured to the state it should be used. Speed and altitude wouldn’t be an issue like t is with a pilot. If the vehicle is shot down there won’t be a pilot to rescue. You could blow the thing up if need be.
Looks like the Boeing “Phantom Ray”
Hard to tell the size since there is no other aircraft in the images I’ve seen, but the shape seems correct.
Here it is compared to a 747:
http://www.boeing.com/Features/2010/12/bds_phantom_ray_12_10_10.html
In the mid-1990’s, a soldier in my M1A1 tank unit had a colorful past. He had actually been in an Army intelligence MOS...but he ended up a tanker. His story had something to do with Stop Loss during the ramp up to the first Gulf War...and his attempts to circumvent it failed, keeping him in the army. And, as a punishment, he was forced to change MOS to 19K (Tank Crewman).
Anyway, somehow we had this very smart ex intelligence soldier driving a tank. One day in casual conversation, he mentioned to me that he had once been tasked with measuring and photographing the camera mounts in the SR71, before it went out of service. The implication was that there was another plane in the works, to replace the SR71, that would still use the same camera.
Who knows what secrets are flying around up there.
LJB?
Hang glider.
That's a very good question, let alone why it has a subsonic profile and being hyped as something else...this is all very amusing.
It’s the drone dedicated to spying on Glenn Beck.
No, it could not.
The reason it could not is that there is no such thing as a SR-72.
Looks a lot like an F-117 to me. Service ceiling of 40k plus. Top speed of just over 600 mph. They’re not all in the boneyard.