Boeing Son of BlackBird Concept....

Thanks to Super Rhino for the link!

via Fox News.

Boeing has finally unveiled a successor to the legendary Blackbird SR-71 spy plane, capable of travelling at five times the speed of sound.

The new 'Son of Blackbird' was revealed at an event in Orlando, Florida, but it's only a concept design for now.

The new aircraft will be a direct competitor to Lockheed martin's upcoming SR-72.

These rival firms are racing to create a hypersonic aircraft that's capable of stealthy recon assignments – and strike missions, too.

Speaking to Aviation Week Aerospace Daily, Boeing's hypersonics chief described how Boeing was planning a two-step development process for the new war plane.

The first stage would involve flight tests of an "F16-sized, single-engine" precursor vehicle that acts as a "proof of concept".

The second stage is the creation of a "twin-engine, full-scale operational vehicle" that has roughly similar dimensions to the 107-foot-long SR-71.

Boeing's end goal is an aircraft that can travel at speeds beyond Mach 5 – that's five times the speed of sound.

The speed of sound – or Mach 1 – is around 1235km/h. So hitting Mach 5 would mean the Son of Blackbird would have to travel at an incredible 6,174km/h.

For comparison, a Boeing 747 passenger jet typically reaches cruising speeds of just 885km/h.

The tricky part is that the SR-71 replacement needs to to be able to take off, accelerate, slow down and land all on its own – just like the original 1964 model.

Boeing is looking at using a conventional turbojet to hit Mach 3, then switching to a different configuration to boost beyond Mach 5.

Story here. 

Wow.  Ambitious.  Makes you wonder about how our defense industry is setup doesn't it.

Can we expect corporations that are investing private funds to research stuff like this and then to sell it only to the US govt?  Kinda goes against "free market capitalism" doesn't it?

The answer in my mind is that we need a bit of socialism thrown into the mix huh?

We fund the different corporations to develop the tech and because of our investment we own the outcomes.  Then since we own the tech we can allow different corporations to bid on building the final product whether that's manned/unmanned airplanes or rockets/missiles.

It's really the only way but many flag waving Americans would hate it with a passion.  What do you guys think?