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Did the US peak with the SR-71?

J

JoeKing

Lifer
It's been almost 40 years since the Blackbird was introduced, and officially the SR-71 has been retired since '99. No plane we know of has flown even close to that envelope.

Has supersonic speed peaked with the the Blackbird?


--edit for info accuracy.
 
The blackbird was inefficient. Invaluable at the time, but terribly inefficient. It can still do a few things the satellites can't, which is why I suspect there's at least one still kicking around on flight-ready standby.
 
Dude this is my forte. There's (apparently) a new plane called the Aurora. It uses a new form of propulsion called pulse detonation wave engine. It sets off a sound wave, and then the plane rides the edge of that wave (or something like that).
 
Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
as you said...no plane we know of.

you can bet dollars to donuts there is something more advanced in the US arsenal now...
Click to expand...

say they got something going even in the late 80s (Reagan would have surely wanted a new plane) 20 years is an awfully long time to keep a secret that big especially in this day and age.
 
Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
as you said...no plane we know of.

you can bet dollars to donuts there is something more advanced in the US arsenal now...
Click to expand...
I agree. The big fallback is satellite tech, but there is still a need for rapid deployment high speed spycraft. I wouldn't be surprised if the US has a few Mach 4-5 aircraft in service right now.

But damn, the 60s produced some of the most beautiful and fastest aircraft.

The A12/SR-71, XB70 Valkyrie and B57 Hustler were freakin' gorgeous.
 
I'm sure the US could come up with a plane that can fly faster than the SR71, but how efficient would it be, and would the cost justify its use? Why have one if we don't use it, you know?
 
Originally posted by: cruiser1338
Dude this is my forte. There's (apparently) a new plane called the Aurora. It uses a new form of propulsion called pulse detonation wave engine. It sets off a sound wave, and then the plane rides the edge of that wave (or something like that).
Click to expand...

I heard about "Project Aurora" a while ago with the jet trail having rings and stuff. You'd think by now they'd have some shaky amateur footage to show for it.

I'm thinking we reached the threshold of our materials. Composites are usually incredibly brittle, along with things like the tiles on the shuttle. We probably need to develope something like titanium (quatanium? trademark me!)
 
Joe, you may or may not believe it, but the aliens are here, helping us along the way. Call me crazy, but there's someone out there, and they found us. They'll have new ways to strengthen materials, maybe even make them from nothing. We haven't run out of materials to use, and we'll never run out of new ideas.
 
wait till you see the f-22 JSF joint strike fighter....that northrop and the government is working on 😉
 
Originally posted by: pmoa
wait till you see the f-22 JSF joint strike fighter....that northrop and the government is working on 😉
Click to expand...

The F22 and the joint strike fighter (f-35) are two completely indepenent planes.
 
The other thing then in the future of our aircraft will be gravity wave manipulators. Google Bob Lazar and read some of it. Maybe that's what Aurora will run on, but I do think that the pulse detonation engine is used in Aurora.
 
duh.. ditanium is next.. the precursor to tritanium

back to op's post:
i would say the space shuttle is the peak. and that is not a compliment.

it's been ~20yrs since the space shuttles were built, and we dont even have anything on the drawing board for the next gen of aircraft.

and dont give me "but how about the Raptors?" Just how much better are the Raptors over the F15 Eagles to justify it's cost?
 
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