Non-Subscriber Extract
Blackswift paves the way for US hypersonic aircraft development
By Caitlin Harrington
10 March 2008
The United States military will release a request for proposals (RfP) in the coming weeks for Blackswift: a programme that will lay the technological groundwork for a successor to the venerable SR-71 Blackbird supersonic reconnaissance aircraft.
US Air Force (USAF) Chief Scientist Mark Lewis said Blackswift, a project of the USAF and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), will pave the way for the development of a hypersonic aircraft, which he notionally dubbed the SR-72.
"Blackswift itself will not be the SR-72 but it will be the air force's first important step in seeing if we can get there," Lewis told Jane's following a 5 March briefing in Washington.
Lewis said he envisions an SR-72 conducting reconnaissance missions similar to an SR-71 but doing so at "hypersonic" speeds, which are considered to be M5 or higher.
Flying an aircraft at such high speeds will require a highly specialised hypersonic propulsion system; Blackswift aims to begin developing that technology.
Image: A proposed successor to the SR-71 is likely to be unmanned and not have a strike capability (Jane's)