# Meet the SR-72



## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Or at least what is planned for the successor to the Blackbird. The plan is for the top (public at least) speed to be Mach 6.

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_11_01_2013_p0-632731.xml


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

Wow! 50 years or so after the SR-71 we're thinking about a successor.

I worked on the B-70 bomber as a subcontractor at North American Aviation in 1959. I knew someone who worked on the Lockheed SR-71 around that time, although the designation/identification didn't appear until several years later.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

I've always like the SR71, never knew it in person but very cool plane. I read an article a few years ago written by one of the pilots, He had put together a model when he was younger and threw it out as a piece of junk, glue coming out of the seams etc. He realized it was more accurate than he realized when he saw one fueled up in the hanger.

Apparently flying it changed his mind.


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## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

Maybe they won't make the mistake of mounting guns on it this time.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

I just reread material, mach 6 is cruising speed so definitely can go faster.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

I find it interesting in that they want it to be capable of doing this "Spaceless" - without GPS and comm-sat links. Using inertial guidance - certainly possible on the NAV side. And Comms could be done using HF...

There are places where you Joe Average citizen can go oogle the SR71 - the Smithsonian annex at Dulles airport in the DC metro area, for example. (I'd like to make a trip there sometime).


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

This recently declassified CIA report (CIA and Overhead Reconnaissance (The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974)) discusses the entire background on the U-2 and how the SR-71 was developed.

http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/DOC_0000190094.pdf

EDIT: Link not showing up properly.

http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/DOC_0000190094.pdf


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

I want to go to the annex as well. The original air and space museum lost something as I got older, though I recently found that the front if the spirit of St Louis is the color it is due to a preservation technique that went wrong.


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