The SR-71 Blackbird's Ultra-Secret Successor May Scream Across the Sky Sooner Than Expected

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The SR-71's Ultra-Secret Successor May Scream Across the Sky Sooner Than Expected
By James Clark/ Task & Purpose/ Military & Defense/ Business Insider/ businessinsider.com

"The successor to Lockheed Martin’s SR-71 Blackbird, the Mach 3 long-range recon aircraft that once tore across the skies like a Cold-War era arrowhead before its retirement in 1999, may be inching closer toward reality.

According to Aviation Week, a handful of visitors to the SAE International Aerotech Congress and Exhibition at Fort Worth, Texas, this week reported catching glimpses of a “demonstrator vehicle” believed to be linked to the proposed replacement: the SR-72...."

The original trio of SR-71 "Blackbirds" loaned to NASA by the U.S. Air Force for high-speed, high-altitude research line the ramp at the Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. DoD

SR-71 Wikimedia Commons


Richard

 

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Rumors of Secret Warplanes Preceded SR-72 Reveal
By Kyle Mizokami/ Military/ Warrior/ scout.com

"Lockheed Martin’s 2013 announcement of a proposed SR-72 reconnaissance and strike drone comes against a backdrop of decades of rumor about a replacement for America’s high-speed SR-71 spy plane. The SR-72 reportedly appeared for the first time in plain view in July 2017.

Since the early 1990s, there have been reports of mysterious sonic booms, unidentified aircraft sightings and a mysterious aircraft on a wall chart at Lockheed Martin.

The existence of an early replacement for the SR-71—which was permanently retired in 1998—has never been verified. Aviation buffs call the apparently mythical plane Aurora. It’s the Bigfoot of the aviation world...."

SR-71 at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. (Photo: Matthew Straubmuller/Flickr photo, 247Sports)


Richard

 

[Helios]

I'll be following this story closely as a big time AvGeek.

 

[Blues]

"proposed SR-72 reconnaissance and strike drone"

Is this going to be a totally pilotless plane (i.e., drone)?

 

[Phydeaux]

I'll be following this story closely as a big time AvGeek.

My son & I had the distinct pleasure of meeting and talking with one of the pilots of the SR71 Blackbird at an EAA Airventure a fews years back in Oshkosh, WI. Major Patrick Halloran. Maj. Halloran explained that earlier in his career, he had also piloted the U2, flying missions over Cuba. My son & I hung on every word that came from this great man, and the stories he shared with us were nothing short of mind blowing.