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In 2013, a feature article appeared on the website of legendary aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin that quickly had aviation buffs talking. The piece, titled “Speed is the New Stealth,” claimed that a new hypersonic aircraft was under development at the company’s famous Skunk Works facility, which would soon set a new standard for speed and stealth in American aerospace technologies. “That’s because today,” the article explained, “engineers are developing a hypersonic aircraft that will go twice the speed of the SR-71.” “It’s called the SR-72.” It was a remarkable revelation since 2013 marked nearly 23 years since the...

As far back as 2013, discussions of the SR-72 Darkstar’s various capabilities have made the rounds in the media, while the fact that supposedly using off-the-shelf materials has kept it affordable in this era of tight budget constraints. In 2017, Lockheed Martin had announced that the SR-72 would be in development by the early 2020s and could be in service by the early 2030s, but a year later it was announced that progress had been slow going based on the technological demands of the project. “Without the digital transformation the aircraft you see there could not have been made. In...

Much debate remains on whether the Lockheed Martin SR-72, affectionately known as the “Son of the Blackbird,” is actually real. It reportedly could be making an appearance in the upcoming film Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise. While there is no doubt that the aircraft may be in the production stage, whether it is ready to take to the skies is the other question. Another question is what its actual role could be in the U.S. military, but more on that in a moment.

It was over twenty years ago the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” was retired by the United States Air Force, and while surveillance satellites can provide that eye in the sky for intelligence gathering there is still a need for such high flying, ultra-fast aircraft. Such a platform would complement other manned aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), providing flexibility in how intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) is gathered. Back in 2013, Lockheed Martin proposed a follow-up to the SR-71. Fittingly, it was the SR-72, which has also become known as the “Son of the Blackbird,” and it was suggested that the...

Double sonic booms heard over secretive military base Area 51 has sparked claims the CIA is hiding alien technology at the top secret site.Footage has surfaced of two loud thumping sounds as a pair of F-22 fighter jets fly over the secretive base.Conspiracy theorists claim the sonic booms show the CIA is secretly testing alien technology or hypersonic aircraft.A clip posted to YouTube by UFO Seekers, taken in the Nevada desert near where Area 51 is based, shows the F-22 craft cut across the sky at speeds of up to 1,500 mph (2,400 kph).

first time. Aviation Week & Space Technology journalist Bill Sweetman has posted photos taken March 10 by two veteran sky watchers, Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett. In his blog post of March 28, Sweetman writes that he and two Aviation Week editors agree that the photos depict "something real." In other words, these pictures aren't easily explained away by reports of known military flights or the work of someone who got carried away with Photoshop. So what can aviation experts say about the object in the photos? "The photos tell us more about what the mysterious stranger isn't than what...

A retired Marine with nearly two decades of aviation experience has stepped forward with a compelling theory about a mysterious plane that was spotted flying over Texas last month. On March 10, photographers Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett took pictures of three puzzling aircraft flying over Amarillo, and posted them online in hopes of identifying the planes. Retired-Marine James Vineyard has submitted one of the more interesting explanations, telling the Houston Chronicle he believes they are SR-72 Blackbirds - a spy plane that can cross the U.S. in less than an hour, unmanned.

Aviation Week's Guy Norris has an exclusive article on the successor for the Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird, the legendary spy plane that may be the favorite of every airplane nerd in the world. The hypersonic SR-72 is the first aircraft that can fit perfectly in Star Wars or Galactica, a true space age ship.

-excerpt- Lockheed Martin has unveiled plans for a hypersonic spy plane that could fly at Mach 6, twice as fast as its famed SR-71 Blackbird, and said a missile demonstrating the new technology could fly as early as 2018.

Could Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ SR-72 hypersonic concept design fill the Pentagon’s need for a penetrating intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft? The answer could be yes.