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"Son of Blackbird": Boeing Reveals Hypersonic Concept That Could Replace SR-71
www.popularmechanics.com ^ | Jan 12, 2018 | By Jay Bennett

Posted on 01/12/2018 11:43:02 AM PST by Red Badger

Boeing showed off a scaled concept model of its hypersonic strike and reconnaissance aircraft design.

This week Boeing revealed the first design details of a demonstrator aircraft that would go faster than Mach 5. Boeing hopes to build the hypersonic concept around a combined-cycle engine that incorporates elements of a turbine and a dual ramjet/scramjet. The unveiling came at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech forum in Orlando, Florida, as reported by Aviation Week Aerospace Daily.

Boeing's model design is similar to one Lockheed Martin is working on. The aerospace industry right now is racing to produce a hypersonic strike and reconnaissance aircraft to replace the famed SR-71 Blackbird.

The design is an early concept that's not yet approved by Boeing for full-scale development. But the model, which shows a twin-tail, highly swept delta wing configuration, represents a feasible hypersonic design, Boeing's head of hypersonic research told Aviation Week Aerospace Daily:

“We asked, ‘What is the most affordable way to do a reusable hypersonic demonstrator vehicle?’ And we did our own independent research looking at this question,” says Kevin Bowcutt, Boeing chief scientist for hypersonics. If the concept is selected for full-scale development, Boeing envisions a two-step process beginning with flight tests of an F-16-sized, single-engine proof-of-concept precursor vehicle leading to a twin-engine, full-scale operational vehicle with about the same dimensions as the 107-ft.-long SR-71.

Boeing will expand on research from its past X-43 and X-51 Waverider experimental aircraft, which were tests of unmanned hypersonic planes, as the company refines a new aircraft design. The X-51 broke the record for sustained air-breathing hypersonic flight when it flew at Mach 5.1 for three and a half minutes before running out of fuel and crashing into the Pacific Ocean on May 1, 2013.

The big difference is that the X-51 was a small test vehicle dropped from a B-52 Stratofortress. It used a rocket booster to achieve Mach 4.8, then jettisoned the booster and used a scramjet to top Mach 5. A hypersonic replacement for the SR-71 would need to take off under its own power, accelerate through Mach 1 and up to above Mach 5, and then slow back down and land, a much more difficult challenge.

To tackle this problem, Boeing and Lockheed Martin are studying turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engines along with Orbital ATK and Aerojet Rocketdyne, respectively. A TBCC engine would use a conventional turbojet to achieve speeds up to about Mach 3, the limit for a turbojet, and then transition to a dual ramjet/scramjet, which must be traveling at speeds over Mach 3 to work properly, compressing air from the intake to achieve combustion without an axial compressor. The ramjet/scramjet would then carry an aircraft to speeds over Mach 5. The plane would need to transition back to to the turbojet to slow down and land.

Boeing's project for a "son-of-Blackbird" hypersonic strike and reconnaissance aircraft is in its very early days. Meanwhile, a demonstrator for Lockheed Martin's design was possibly spotted in Palmdale, California, near the Air Force plant where Lockheed's Skunk Works operates. Work on a TBCC engine, funded under DARPA's Advanced Full Range Engine (AFRE) program as well as by NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, is also still in the early stages.

It is difficult to put a timeline on the research or the potential flight tests, though Lockheed reportedly hopes to fly a single-engine scaled demonstrator known as the flight research vehicle (FRV) in the 2020s. One has to imagine Boeing wants to match Lockheed Martin's development schedule, if not surpass it.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; History; Military/Veterans; Science
KEYWORDS: aerospace; aviation; boeing; defensespending; elonmusk; falcon9; falconheavy; spacex
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To: Red Badger

http://galacticconnection.com/air-force-one-escorted-by-ufo-tr-3b-august-2016/

Air force one supported by two TR3B craft....


121 posted on 01/13/2018 3:48:37 PM PST by rodguy911 (Home of the free because of the brave! MAGA!!)
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To: rodguy911

Favorite Beatles song?


122 posted on 01/13/2018 3:57:49 PM PST by Bodleian_Girl (These rose colored glasses....)
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To: Bodleian_Girl

the entire white albums


123 posted on 01/13/2018 4:00:27 PM PST by rodguy911 (Home of the free because of the brave! MAGA!!)
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To: Bodleian_Girl

http://exopolitics.org/disclosure-of-antigravity-craft-near-macdill-afb/

Dr.Sala wrote “secret space programs”. It changes everything you thought once you read it. The second time you still can’t believe half of what you are reading.


124 posted on 01/13/2018 4:02:14 PM PST by rodguy911 (Home of the free because of the brave! MAGA!!)
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To: GingisK

Great answer ;^)


125 posted on 01/13/2018 8:53:15 PM PST by Bikkuri
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To: ReformedBeckite
Anyway I don't know if you knew, the SR-71 leaked fuel(JP-7) like crazy

Yes, fairly common knowledge around these parts........................[Eglin AFB, LOL!]...............

126 posted on 01/15/2018 6:05:03 AM PST by Red Badger (Road Rage lasts 5 minutes. Road Rash lasts 5 months!.....................)
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