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Lockheed Martin hails 'hypersonic revolution' amid claims it has begun secret tests of Mach 6 SR-72 update to Blackbird spy plane
SR-72 will be a strike and reconnaissance aircraft that tops Mach 6
Believed the first prototype craft has already been tested

By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com
29 September 2017

Lockheed Martin's secretive Skunk Works unit is already testing a radical hypersonic update of the long-retired Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, it has been claimed.

According to Aviation Week, a technology demonstrator, believed to be an unmanned subscale aircraft, was observed flying into the U.S. Air Force's Plant 42 at Palmdale, where Skunk Works is headquartered, in July.

The SR-72 hypersonic plane will be a strike and reconnaissance aircraft that tops Mach 6, and the firm has been working on the project since the early 2000s.



Lockheed Martin posted an artist's impression of the craft to its website, with the caption 'The Skunk Works hypersonic design ¿ an aircraft developed to execute Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and strike missions at speeds up to Mach 6.'

'Although I can't go into specifics, let us just say the Skunk Works team in Palmdale, California, is doubling down on our commitment to speed,' Orlando Carvalho, executive vice president of aeronautics at Lockheed Martin, told the SAE International Aerotech Congress and Exhibition.

'Simply put, I believe the United States is on the verge of a hypersonics revolution.'

Hypersonic technologies, including a combined cycle propulsion system that blends a rocket engine and a supersonic jet engine, are now sufficiently advanced to allow the planned SR-72 project to begin, it is believed.

'We've been saying hypersonics is two years away for the last 20 years, but all I can say is the technology is mature and we, along with Darpa and the services, are working hard to get that capability into the hands of our warfighters as soon as possible,' Rob Weiss, Lockheed Martin's executive vice president and general manager for Advanced Development Programs, previously told Aviation Week.

'I can't give you any timelines or any specifics on the capabilities,' he said.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4934896/Lockheed-Martin-tests-Mach-6-SR-72-update-Blackbird.html#ixzz4uI160irY
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