The SR-72 will travel at six times the speed of sound—the fastest military jet ever made—and fly as high as 80,000 feet.
Harold C. Hutchison, National Interest: A New SR-71 Blackbird Is in the Works (and It Will Be Even Faster Than Ever)
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird is rightly viewed as a legend. Best known as a recon plane that nobody could hit, it even was considered as the basis for a fighter and was the second-fastest manned plane in history.
It served with the United States military from 1964-1998, and with NASA until 1999. The SR-71 had been developed from the A-12 OXCART (no relation to the A-12 Avenger), a single-seat plane capable of making high-speed recon runs as well.
It was thought satellites and drones could replace the SR-71. The problem was that satellites are predictable, and too many drones just don’t have the performance or reliability. But Lockheed’s Skunk Works, which created the A-12/YF-12/SR-71 family, is now developing a SR-72, and they promise it will be faster than the Blackbird.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: This new "spy plane" has been in the works for the past few years .... A Look At America's Next Spy-Plane The SR-72 (May 23, 2015).
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