But you do have to worry about............... 
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.
Last time I went to Wright Patterson (early 2000s) the B70 was crammed into a hanger with a bunch of other planes and you couldn’t see it well...first time (late 80s) it was in the big hanger and was beautiful.
The interesting thing is that the body shape of the successor is very similar to body shape used for variants of the NASP back in the early 1990's.
LS might have more insight as he wrote The Hypersonic Revolution, Case Studies in the History of Hypersonic Technology: Volume III, The Quest for the Obital Jet: The Natonal Aero-Space Plane Program (1983-1995)
“...Son of Blackbird...”
That would be “SOB”
In 1966 there was one sitting outside the King Hangar at Eglin for several weeks. It was within view of the highway but nearest you would get was several hundred yards.
I have a really good photo of my Daughter standing in front of one at the Armaments Museum at Eglin. Unfortunately I can no long post photos from Photobucket.
I don’t know that we need such an aircraft given our satellite technology, but it would be really cool to see what 21st Century tech could build.
It’s still here............
As beautiful as I think both this and the SR-71 are, it can’t outrun a Laser beam.
The problem with satellites is you have to wait for them to pass over the area of interest, which could take days.........
I think the early U2 overflights found the USSR’s Baikanor Missile Launch complex by literally following a rail line. If it weren’t for advanced technical intelligence of the Soviet Union we wouldn’t have had any intelligence worthy of the name.
Awfully low aspect ratio with little room for control surfaces. Maybe the wings aren’t bolted on yet. My guess is the blob on top is an air-inlet if this is air-breathing propulsion. Someone will be in deep doo doo for letting this out unless it is intentional disinformation...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGdxpqqsHl8
The Oxcart Story-Frank Murray
A-12 Cygnus...precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird.
“The problem with satellites is you have to wait for them to pass over the area of interest, which could take days.........”
Boeing’s X-37B has the ability to radically shift orbits and remain in space from 6 months to well overy a year. What it does is not known, but the reconnaissance potential is enormous.
You don’t have to worry about fragile scram jet engines, heat management, enemy SAM’s, etc.
But you do have to worry about...............
The Boeing Museum of Flight has a nice A-12 complete with its drone mounted on top. Look it up at their website.
Thanks for that link!
If so, what do we need it for? And why would we build it with Anti-Gravity technology at hand?
The first release characterized this as a "drone"--which might be cover for the problems of a classical Air Foil flying machine traveling at Mach 5--the human body might in fact withstand the G forces at that kind of speed but probably not much more--so you want people to think that you don't have any human bodies on board; which maybe this text leaves open as a possible assumption.
I will say that I have looked at their releases and what I have heard is possible cover for the fact that this machine is in fact an Anti Gravity device. I have also heard gossip for several years that Boeing has been seeking approval for design of a next-gen commercial airplane and while nothing exactly says so, the approval limitation would be for use of technology that is currently limited for National Security purposes.
The initial images posted with this story showed the device with wings that really don't look much like airfoils; with circular appendages at the end of each winglet which looked to be around four feet in diameter and they look like wicker baskets. You wouldn't see those as doing much for the flying characteristics of a traditional classical air foil machine--but they would make imminent sense as the anti-gravity field generation devices.
Jaw-dropping — until I saw a RB-57F takeoff...
Strange fact. The B-57, or at least everyone I worked on, EB’s and RB’s, had J-65 BUICK jet engines.
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