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.
“These days, it seems like we are “needing” this plane mostly out of habit.”
Not really. Our Key Hole birds fly in a known orbit and you can pretty much set your watch to it. Because of that, places of interest can be easily spoofed. With an aircraft like the SR-71 it’s hard to do that because we can have over flights at anytime.
LOL! Well there is that!
There is an SR-71 at the Udvar Havy/Smithsonian museum in Virginia.
I almost got to touch it.
It was a big day. I almost had heart palpitations I was so excited.
I DID caress a Concorde that day, for a brief moment.
Upon reading this thread I note a recurring, near-universal theme:
Men want to touch the SR-71.
About 10% of all posts on this thread reference touching it or wanting to, my above post included.
Is it the idea of touching greatness?
It’s the other way around. The A-12 predates the SR-71.
The SR was actually bigger than the -12 being about 6ft longer, carried about 1,000 pounds more payload, and more fuel.
But the cost for bigger size and weight was reduced speed (mach .35 slower) and a 10,000ft lower service ceiling.
Definitely. It makes the Smithsonian air and space museum seem like a side show. I remember my wife and daughter laughing at me as I kept going “Ooh, ooh, that’s an ME-109! Holy s***! That’s a German 88! My God! I’m standing under a B-52!”. Greatest military museum I’ve ever seen.
Yes, I corrected that on another post.
Nah, usually about 12 hours or so.
But in that 12 hours a lot can be moved or covered up in 12 hours.
There are. It’s mostly a satellite job now. He also have drones we do that with. Then of course there’s the legendary Aurora which might or might not exist. Part of it though is that sometimes we get it right, spy planes have a relative simple concept: fly high, fly fast, carry good cameras. Once you do that well, well you’ve got it.
They have the XB-70, SR-71 and A-12 at the USAF Museum, here in Dayton.
;) My fav plane ever.
Nice!
Not true. Every leading edge of the aircraft was made of plastic, at least on the A12. The main structure was titanium. The surface was almost 1/3 lexan composite.
My fave plane ever. Next one is a P-51 and could have taken a ride in one...still kick myself for saying no. The guy owned 2. Had a hanger down the way from my cousins airplane shop.
Sadly he died in one of his P-51 at the Reno Air Show.
;)
Would love to see that up close. Used to go to Miramar Air Show all the time. Might be the only thing I miss about cali.
Wow that is a sexy plane.
That is sweet!
Thanks for link.
For me it went beyond greatness.
I had built a model of it, when I was a kid.
I’ve read or watched countless things on it.
It has become legendary.
Almost mythical.
To actually touch it was like putting an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.