[BenLurkin]

Ping

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

conventional liquid hydrocarbon jet fuel.

I guess they mean JP5?

Can't wait until we can put our AA, AS, and SS missiles on Scram-jet platforms. It will take some serious engineering to develop defenses against them

[KevinDavis]

[The Great RJ]

The long rumored Aurora spy plane successor to the SR-71 was thought to use similar technolgy.

[SunkenCiv]

Interesting. The late Ben Rich, longtime colleague of Clarence "Kelly" Johnson (both of Lockheed's Skunk Works) spoke cryptically of the beaded contrails of some reported black project vehicle flight tests spotted by civilians, saying only that such high velocity flights "would have to use" cryo-fuels. The SR-71 (a Skunk Works design) used (it sez here in the other window) JP-7, but A) was "only" capable of sustained flight above Mach 3, and B) used variable geometry inlets on the engines, consisting of a sort of cone that moved forward or aft as needed. The old beaded contrail sightings suggest a pulse detonation, perhaps using part of the shock wave from the hypersonic flight (along with variable geometry) to create the pulse.

[Centurion2000]

Looks like the next generation of air to air and surface to air missiles will be coming soon.

I wonder how good ones of these would be at attacking an inbound ICBM warhead? Not quite the same speed but certainly an advantage.