Blackbird pilot: can I have a lane at 60,000 feet? Air traffic: If you can get that high, you can have it. Blackbird pilot: Roger, descending to 60,000.
When I was stationed at Hill AFB, UT in the mid 80's, I was running an F-16 and was listening to the tower on radio, in comes an in-flight emergency call from an aircraft with a main generator failure on takeoff from Beale AFB. Beale? Isn't that in California I thought? A few minutes later in comes an SR and parks 2 rows over from where I was. It took that distance for the plane to slow down and burn off fuel to make an emergency landing in Utah! Crazy fast. What else was cool was when a crew from Beale came to repair it they flew in on a C-130 and out rolls this wild El Camino with a huge big block V-8 in the back of it. They use it to crank the SR over when starting. The SR leaks fuel like a sieve when on the ground too. Needed a standby firetruck the whole time it sat there. When it took off a few days later most of the base turned out. I had front row seats. The pilot did what looked like (what we call) an FCF (functional check flight) takeoff where they scream down the runway staying low after wheels up then do a high G pull up and go practically straight up. The F-16 is awesome at that, but the SR was incredibly faster. Disappeared from sight in a couple of seconds. Awesome!
You lucky dog... getting to fly an F-16 AND seeing such an amazing plane do an awesome maneuver? Seeing what has to be the most boss El Camino on the planet is just rubbing it in. I've never heard that part you said with the El Camino, btw,, but if true it will only deepen my respect and admiration for the Blackbird because that was one of the best looking cars ever made.
“The son of blackbird “, sounds like a new Sci-fi show The fact that the public is even aware about this plane is probably a good indication that it’s already in use or at least some version of it is.
Or a show to possible opponents what's in the offing. Military information "leaking" is as tactical as secret - keeping. It's strategic posturing and sabre rattling
@@ginnyjollykidd Other purpose could simply be marketing: 'Look what cool stuff we're doing here! Come work for us!'. Good personnel and knowledge is worth much more than any material.
Can you imagine being the pilot going 3 to 4x the speed of sound arriving anywhere in the world in just 1hr, then leaving work and being stuck in traffic.
Your math is way off, homeboy. Going 4X the speed of sound would not get you anywhere in the world in an hour. The country? Sure. Let’s assume 4X the speed of sound is 4,000mph. The planet is 24,000 miles around. But you’d only need to go 12,000 miles to get to the furthest point on the globe. So we’re talking 3 hours minimum.
@@McCloud91000 yep because if it were possible. If you took off at 4x light speed in any direction. When and if you got back everyone and everything you knew would be gone in just minutes. Depending on how long you were gone. You would be a time traveler in every sense of the word. Except one catch its a one way trip. Cant go back only forward. Shit I'd do it...
@@jajupa78 Not exactly how it works, take a ship and fly the speed of light one direction for one second turn around and do the same, only 2 seconds have past, time one can go back in time. Tunguska blast was a 50 megaton nuclear missile, a Naval Intelligence Experiment, i know this first hand
Having retired from Lockheed/Martin,I can say we are developing projects that will shock the world.That's all I can say,it's simply amazing! I'm proud of Lockheed/Martin!
Not really, it's just that by the time anyone needed to, the concept of a "spy plane" was outdated. Satellites did the job much more efficiently. The Soviet's MiG-31 could effectively deter the SR-71 even if the aircraft itself couldn't keep up speed-wise.
@@VigneshBalasubramaniam 💯 Manned fighter/spy/bomber jets are becoming a thing of the past. The only thing keeping them in the game is senators who want more pork projects in their state.
Nobody has really tried, and both the plane it was supposed to substitute and the plane that was built to intercept it are still in service 20 years after its retirement, so one has to wonder wether it really was that superior
I was an air traffic controller at Ft. Worth ARTCC, back in the day, and had an SR71 headed westbound declare an emergency. He went from Ft. Worth to Abiline to turn around (150Mi aprox) and land at Carswell AFB in Ft. Worth. Amazing B1RD !!!!
FYI, I knew a former Blackbird pilot and he told me on most missions you were flying at between 110,000 & 120,000ft at Mach 3.5. He also said they could hit up to Mach 4 for short periods, if too long at such speed the leading edges would melt and the plane disintegrate so they had to be very careful.
Standard NDA for hardware assets is 20 yrs, and that's not even the " top secret " stuff. New h/w using new concepts in science and technology may require signing NDA's up to death.
A cool footnote to the Blackbird is that in the early 2000s Lockheed entered there original hand drawn blue prints into their CAD software to have the computer improve the design. All of the alterations and changes that the software made were within the margin of error created by the physical width of the pencil lead the original designers used back in the 1960s. In short the plane is perfectly designed (at least it’s external aerodynamics) for its intended task.
Saw an SR-71 refueling over Fort Bliss when I was in the motor pool one morning, back in the 80s. Couldn't believe my eyes. No mistaking that shape. They sometimes used the runways at Biggs Field, which was a couple miles from the barracks. When it took off, the walls in the barracks would shake. It only happened at night as far as I can remember.
My Grandfather was highly involved with the SR71. Ive seen it up close and in person many times as a child. I even sat in the hanger while it was being prepared for its final flight (first retirement in 1990), met the pilots as they came out of their van that brought them to the aircraft (they were in full on pressure suits) and watched the flight in person. It actually failed it’s first attempt to take off due to an engine flameout and had retry a couple hours later. This aircraft is in my family’s blood. All of this took place at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California.
It was a long drive home from vacation (7 hour drive) so we decided to take a break from driving. We saw that there was an airplane museum near by so we decided to go there. Right outside the building, near the parking lot, was a Lockheed A-12. So impressive to see in person.
great video. you do realize that anything that skunkworks is talking about publicly isn't what's REALLY going on. this is something to appease the masses.
Yep, I'd guess when they showed pictures 3 prototypes had already flown test flights - albeit smaller scale models. What we'll probably find out is that only 40% of the F35 money actually went to that project... or something like that.
I'm currently involved in engineering research. The hypersonics program over at UCF in Florida is working on this sort of thing. I can say one of the biggest issues is not necessarily going fast but having a structure made out of a material that won't shake itself apart. It's easy to go fast, It's not easy to not disintegrate on the way.
I remember watching an old astronaut being interviewed 30 years ago that said the engines they have now are 50 to 70 years more advanced than we the public know now.
20 years ago there were Aurora sightings on and off for around a year. I wonder if the project was cancelled or started over from ground zero because if it was out there somebody with a Smartphone would have caught pictures of it.
@@billmcintyre3652 If the rumored Aurora existed, which would have been in the late 1980’s/early 90’s, my guess is it was cancelled because the Cold War was over so the need to constantly make planes better was no longer needed, and satellites and unmanned drones could do the same thing the SR-71 could do at a much lower cost. In fact, a plane that’s capable of Mach 5+ is going to have to withstand immense heat, making it require a lot of maintenance and a potentially short service life from the wear and tear, which may be a reason such a craft would have been cancelled at the time.
Reminds me of the “Project Aurora” rumors that had started back in the 90’s with sightings, sonic booms, budget discrepancies, and such, from 1994-2000 before quieting and then you have the Skunk Works announcement of the SR-72 project a few short years later. Seems some earlier experimentation might’ve been taking place and the black project watchers at Groom Lake and the fringe (UFO/Conspiracy) people might’ve been on to something. Remember the Aurora mock-ups from some of those programs back in the 90’s talking about ram or scram jets, funky contrails from a scram engine and the shape (though manned not unmanned) being pretty close to what you’re showing for the SR-72. All very interesting. Keep up the great work here and on SideProjects..
Even though I was in the Navy I crossed paths with the SR-71 several times. The first time was when I was stationed on Okinawa, near Kadena AFB which was home plate for SRs flying missions against North Korea, North Vietnam, the PRC and USSR. The Okinawans referred to the SR as the "Habu," an indigenous, small extremely fast and deadly snake. I think that nickname caught on for the entire force throughout the world. The SR would launch from Kadena on full afterburner, hugely loud and quickly disappear into the distance as it almost immediately would go looking for a tanker. On return it would, of course be extremely quiet and quickly be tucked away, out of sight in one of the hangers. The time I was peripherally involved in SR operations was when in 1986, my ship was tracking one flying the length of the Mediterranean, just off shore of Tarabulus (Tripoli), the speed of the thing was nearly incredible, the indicator on the tracking radar gave the speed as *CLASSIFIED*. The next fastest thing we were tracking was a Tomcat at just over a turtlelike Mach 1. When I got a close look at one in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, I was amazed at how SMALL the thing actually is. Even sitting on its landing gear it really doesn't stand all that tall. It's wide, long and has a THIN profile. The afore mentioned F-14 has a thicker profile, but both planes even when they are just sitting there on display leave one feeling that they are both still in a hurry.
The combination of an aircraft traveling well over six times the speed of sound, and a missile traveling five times faster than sound, is indeed a scary prospect, because the missile would be traveling backwards relative to the aircraft.
There's two things I really find amusing, albeit superfluous about his videos: 1.) Keeping a straight face while stating the words; 'Alien Technology' 2.) When he says "smash the 'Like' button..." All in all - I love your personality and your content, make your videos something I truly enjoy!
It's probably been in operation for 10 or so years already. By the time we all heard about any F117's was during the first Gulf war, they had already been in operation for close to 20 years.
“Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death, I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing.” - At the entrance to the old SR-71 operating base (Kadena, Japan)
SR-71 was a legend unmatched in aviation history. Looking forward to what this new SR-72 will bring, if I live that long. Blackbird, you knew no equals....
Simon, If you are looking for something to build a video around, you should look at the history, use and effects on shipping of the 20 and 40 foot standard shipping containers. For simple steel boxes (frames really, what's inside them doesn't matter) they have had a staggering effect on trade and can be seem as the cause of the demise of the unskilled dockworker. Not having to break bulk sped up load and unload operations at ports and railroad stations tremendously.
I'll try and keep this short. My wife and I were in Vegas a week after the supposed "Bum Rush" on Area 51 so I decided a junt up 375 to the 'Lil Ale' Inn would be fun just to see the sights. After lunch walking across the parking lot I could hear a faint, deep rumbling. Looking up at about a 40* angle I saw a single contrail coming off the direction of Groom Lake or so I thought. It was moving faster than anything I had ever seen in my 63 years and I remember when aircraft were allowed to fly supersonic over land. It was crossing the sky incredibly fast when I noticed another silver dot directly in the contrail of the preceding silver dot from my point of view. The first "aircraft" turned to starboard in what looked like a 5 mile U-turn and headed directly back in the direction it came from after crossing my view of the sky. That turn was so fast and tight (maybe 5 miles ?) I can't imagine the G forces involved BUT the 2nd following aircraft executed the same turn in what appeared to be in the exact same path in the preceding aircrafts contrail. I had a really good pair of 10x binoculars in my car and the rumbling was so loud at that point several patrons had walked out into the parking lot to see what was going on, I still couldn't make out any definitive shape or form because the objects were so far away, even B52's can be plainly seen at altitude with seperate contrails on a good day with a naked eye. I was timing and making notes during the observation and both aircraft traveled back out of sight, one following directly behind the other until out of sight. All this happened in just UNDER 2 minutes and all I could think of was how I loved to see my tax dollars at work.
Any plane that can use ultra high altitude to traverse the planet isn’t an airplane, it’s a space plane. In the 1990’s the US tested an aircraft that crossed over into the hypersonic speed limit, probably a space plane also, but the general public will not see this technology until its been superseded by a leap in technology that makes it obsolete.
@@matthewTaylor1990 that's like saying the space shuttle was an airplane... It most definitely was not and it really more or less just fell out of the sky it makes a 747 look like a world class glider.
I don't know if anyone had mentioned it. But in Ace Combat 7, they released a similar jet, code-named Darkstar, as such a similar jet was in the movie Maverick.
Being at Kadena AB in the 80's I saw all types of aircraft flying in and out. From F15 & 16's doing 90 vertical take-offs from the runway to Harriers seemly stop in mid air and do maneuvers which sounded like a giant vacuum cleaner in the sky. NONE however made the whole flight line just STOP in place as when the the Blackbird took off. The sound was deafening even from a good half mile away and tools would shake in my toolbox when the plane hit the afterburners going down the runway. The only thing to be seen in the distance after takeoff were two large orange bulbs slowly disappearing in the day or nighttime sky. I would say the only thing more astonishing to see take flight would be when the space shuttle launches IMO.
Cool video, here is a list for some new future videos for ya: -YF23 -Convair kingfish -Horton ho 229 -A12 avenger 2 -X20 Dyna soar -X43A (nasa hyper x program) -darpa falcon HTV
The issue with hypersonic flight within our atmosphere, ie a plane, not a spacecraft,is that the aerothermal heating caused by the friction of the air against the airframe is significant. The SR-71 that could do Mach 3.2 was titanium for this reason, with peak thermal loads of nearly 500 degC in places (the speed "limit" of the aircraft was not power based, but temperatrue based, in colder conditions the plane could go faster because the colder air removed more heat from the fuselage and critically limited the engine compessor inlet temperatures). But at hypersonic speeds (> M5.0) the aerothermal heating becomes a massive problem. The SR-71 used it's own fuel as coolant, so enable relatively long duration cruises at M3.1, but most things that exceed M5.0 either do it in space (no air) or do so for such a short time that ablative heat protection can be used, and the thermal soak to more sensitive components is limited by the short duration of heating. Famously, the X-15 program demonstrated that even short flights to hypersonic speeds would cause massive damage to structural and aerodynamic components, even when specifically designed with hypersonic flight in mind. And the X-15 flew for a mear couple of minutes at those speeds ( as do hypersonic missiles) And of course the IR heat signature from a fuselage at > 500degC is impossible to hide. So we are left realistically with doing Mach 3 and bit within the atmosphere for long durations, or getting out of the atmosphere completely, al la Boeing X-37B. If i were a betting man, then i'd put a pretty large sum on the "SR-72" being a useful cover story to cover significant funding and expendature on alternative programs, ie a spaceplane......
I remember when I was a kid and my brother who is much smarter than me said the SR71 leaked fuel on purpose on the ground as when it reached the high speeds the titanium expanded and sealed the leaks due to the very high temperatures.
If you think that thing isn’t already flying you’re kidding yourself. They don’t have miles long runways at Area 51 for nothing. They’ve been working on SCRAM jet engines since Reagan was president
The fact that it's unmanned goes to the heart of what's wrong with America's Industrial-Military Complex. When you sanitise war it becomes easier to engage in it. If they had to get up close and personal they'd be more hesitant about causing them.
"Some folks inherit star spangled eyes, oooo, they send you down to war, and when you answer how much should we give, they only answer more, more, more, more" "And it's 1,2,3 WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR? Don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam, and it's 5.6,7 open up the pearly gates, well there ain't no time to wonder why whoopee we're all gonna die" Manned or not, politicians have never had an issue using people as a liquidity...as long as some rich white man gets richer off of it, there is a war...
Don't worry, every country capable take down a satellite will be able to take down SR-72 with ease, Russians will be happy to sell a new generation of AAA to everybody scared, wealthy enough, and independent from NATO.
I was at Offutt AFB in 1990 when the SR-71 was having its first retirement. I got to see it do several fly-bys of the base showing off, before throttling up and going into warp and disappearing to the east. It was awesome!
The biggest roadblock to a sustained Mach 4+ aircraft is the dealing with the heat generated by the air on aircraft skin friction. The SR-71's cockpit life support literally had to keep the pilot alive in a the temperature range of an oven (400-600 degrees F) in order to avoid cooking the pilot. The literally tested it by putting a cockpit mock-up in a large industrial oven. Thermal expansion due to heat, especially the uneven expansion due to different materials, is also a major problem. The SR-71's fuel tanks leaked fuel until the heat from high speed caused enough thermal expansion to seal the tanks.
people don't realize how far technology has come from the start of the 1900's. we went from the first proper kinda plane to landing someone on the MOON within 60-70 YEARS
"We could take a picture of Kim Jong Un, and Xi, at 6,000 miles an hour." And, "we could take a picture of Netenyahu at 80,000 feet." "We could take all kinds of pictures."
A note on the theoretical future top speed of a scramjet at Mach 24: just for reference the speed required to achieve orbit is the equivalent of Mach 22. This hypothetical future scramjet would be able, ignoring factors other than speed, to power an SSTO, a Single Stage To Orbit craft. It would need a separate engine that can operate in vacuum of course, both to circularise, and to deorbit when you want to get home, but the vast majority of the delta-v needed to reach orbit could come from an air breathing engine, greatly reducing the amount of oxidiser you'd need to carry with you.
5:15 "It's massive. It's way bigger than you think." I guess that depends on how big you thought it was before you see it in person. If you thought it was the size of a two seat fighter like an F-15: It's bigger. If you thought it was the size of a B1 bomber: It's much smaller.
I've seen these. Between 1970 and 1972, I was stationed on Okinawa, not at Kadena, but across the bay. I saw them fly many times. Several years ago, my girfriend and I visited the Air Force museum at Wright-Patt. They had one there, and Yes, they are big!
To reach higher supersonic speeds, the fuel would need to burn at detonation velocities. That brings us to pulse detonation engines which detonates the fuel in pulses to produce a sustained pressure wave based on the average duty cycle of the pulses.
With the downing of the U2 spy plane by the Soviet Union, it was mandated that the next generation of spy plane wouldn't need to overfly enemy territory. It would use altitude to peer into enemy territory while remaining outside. Satellites covered the inner regions of enemy territory. The SR-71 was more of a "we need to look at this now" or "we don't have a Key-Hole satellite over this area... send the Blackbird" sort of thing. Speed allowed it to get to a place fast enough to be relevant (in the 60s) for information gathering.
just a little correction: the practical limit for hydrocarbon based scramjets is about Mach 9, for hydrogen based it's about Mach 11. The reason is air capture. Drag increases quadratically with speed, maximum thrust linearly. At one point, you can't add enough energy (stochiometry) to overcome drag.
So the thinking is turbo->ram->scramjet? Top Gun: Maverick got some engineers from the Skunk Works to consult on the experimental hypersonic plane Maverick flies at the beginning. I remember that they switched engines, I'm guessing between a turbojet to a scramjet. In the movie he topped out at just over mach 10, but that was Hollywood speed...
Strange, I really didn't find the SR-71 as massive as I expected (yes, I've seen the one at Duxford). Then again, I thought the same thing about Stonehenge when I first saw it. They're bigger in my imagination.
If you thought the Blackbird was huge, you need to get over to Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton OH and see it sitting in the shadow of the XB70 Valkyrie! I simply could not believe how small this plane was. Great video, crew!
This is amazing, the blackbird is the best plane the US ever built, the only weakness is the fact it has no armament. This new SR2 would be even better because it could protect itself. The tech on this plane 10 years from now would be insane. Off topic, I heard a story yesterday that scientists have designed a warp speed engine, it supposedly creates a bubble around it protecting it from any obstacles in its way, obviously it would need a lot more work before it could actually be used.
Your dreaming, SR71 was intercepted by a Russian mig fighter fox, several times over Siberia, and Israel. The real reason why it was retired. And if SR72 can outrun a S500 mach 6 or greater or Avangard missile at mach 20 - 27 then I give a crap. Facts.
@@JazzyBell2 You are right that the Mig fighter did intercept SOME SR-71’s, but interceptions were very inconsistent and it depended on a lot of conditions being favorable to even have a chance at interception
Considering how punishing those high speeds are on aircraft materials, these are going to be extremely expensive and have a low limit of flight cycles. That and lots of maintenance between sorties. Think of which countries or alliances have both engineering and money to do this.
@Rui Matos You talk around the real subject. Wunderwaffen with Wunderwaffen materials? Unless they can be produced low cost, of which the military industrial complex would put the benefits into its own pocket anyway, they will only make things even more expensive. Next such a wonder plane will have nano probes servicing all the systems from the inside. Another great "it will be"' we have been told about for for years. Reality is however much different. US procurement is full of expensive failures and becaus eof it it's potential is actually already deminishing in stead of increasing. In stead so called revolutionary model planes fly around that are bound to be low on situational awareness in the foreseable future however many screens are fitted to the game-PC at home. The so called invincible F22 does not have enough range and too few wehere built anyway. The F35 is about to follow suit. "New" F15's and F18 are bought to close the gap in manned aircraft. In the mean time "paper" studies of a 6th generation aircraft are sold as flying prototypes! Or what about the UK's Tempest, a totally different entity "paper" plane that is beig used as a lame excuse to cancel the F35B. For the time being the only discernable bounty is one of propaganda and fake news!
@Rui Matos Still you keep turning the argument around. Ever heard of Ockham's razor? Now fill in all the knowns and forget about the unsubstantited stuff or at least reduce it with a high percentage for the unaviodability of propaganda and nationalist wishfull thinking. I do totally agree on the fact that the US are, probably, still, the most knowledgable in the field. Actually starting to built the technology into effective hardware when the proverbial excrement is already hitting the fan will however be too late. At such times such a side in a conflict is simply walked over. There is enough historic and scientific evidence of that. So I am not actually doubting the technology as such but todays hypercapitalist system which wastes it's oppertunities again an again by basically holding the taxpayer for ransom. Again: The proof lies in the actual level of productivity and not in, partly assumed, potentential. Not acounting for that and thus stupidly towing the offical line is actually very unscientific. Not yet proven superplanes are like Schrodinger's cat untill hard roof surfaces. They might (still) be alive! Or they might not!
SR72- In "service" since 1997. Not officially of course. US government doesn't retire an important piece of tech without a better replacement already on deck (being used in secret).
@@grantjones522 again which replacement you talking about. like which one out of perhaps many. also Aurora wasn't an aircraft ..it's something else. wonder if people ever consider the sr71 may have lost the contest and the CIA only used it until their bird was ready, which was better.
SR 71 was designed and built in 18 months, from RFP to flight using only slide rules, log tables and drafting boards. My uncle helped develop the titanium rolling process for the skin and I saw it take off twice from Eilson AFB south of Fairbanks, Ak back in the 70's. Very very loud and impressive.
I witnessed what I believe to have been a prototype flight in the skies of North Carolina. I was looking up, toward the south, at a potential tree trimming project, and saw a very small (distant) white dot screaming across the sky, from east to west. Yet it left no con-trail or any other indication of exhaust. As I watched, approximately half way across my view the white dot turned to green. Continuing, it then changed, once again to blue, then it just became unviewable......as in I could no longer detect it with the naked eye. At 71 years old, I've watched many meteor showers and I've worked in the aircraft industry for half of my time here. It was not either of those. And the entire display lasted approximately 8-10 seconds. If you've seen something similar, let me know. Thanks!
The Blackbird is one of my top favourite military aircraft (along with the Spitfire, Harrier Jump Jet, Nighthawk, Avro Lancaster, Eurofighter Typhoon & Flying Fortress, etc). Imagine an all in one multi-purpose stealth fighter, & interceptor, recognisance, scientific research & spy air/space plane that's a (sort of) combined 'hybrid' of the F-117 Nighthawk, Boeing X-37, North American X-15, Harrier Jump Jet, Eurofighter Typhoon, SR-71 Blackbird & the SR-72..?
I was chatting with some Lockheed Martin engineers at a conference earlier this year and they were asked what type of engineers they are most urgently in need of. Their very quick answer was software engineers which implies to me that they are very much pursuing the route of AI controlled jets. James Cameron warned us what might happen but did they listen 😉
We were at twin lakes reservoir in Idaho. When paddle boarding we heard something with a dampened loud noise rip through the sky from West to East, nothing I've ever heard of before. My sister was already looking up at the sky and saw a blurred triangle object rip across the sky. She described it as holographic, like it was trying to blend in, looked like a flock of birds in a triangular flying shape but going faster than anything she has ever seen. Thought she was seeing things but my wife and I heard the same sound tear across the sky. My guess is it was one of these things.
I am a former Navy Fighter Pilot. Once, many years ago, I was flying over Nevada, (think Groom lake) I kept getting an intermittent return from my APG-65 Radar that showed fantastic numbers, like Mach 3 at over 80,000 feet. When I reported to ATC I had this contact they literally said: “No you don’t” ... Hmmm.....
You should do a mega project about the raising of the battleships at Pearl Harbor. A little lesser known since WWII was underway, but definitely qualifies as a megaproject
"The combination of an aircraft travelling well over six times the speed of sound and a missile 5x faster than sound is certainly a scary prospect indeed" Yes right, imagine slamming with the speed of sound into a missile you just fired. Scary indeed. Initially the fissile might run Mach 11, but air friction will slow it down to Mach 5 quickly enough.
I have long had an interest in science and engineering and there have been several scientists in my family and I also went into the sciences myself. The sr-72 will be flying before 2023 and will be an inventory before 2025 great strides have been made in technology to build such an aircraft and the demonstrator is already flying !!!
"The SR-72 Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 2022. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. SR-72 begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug."
Linking propulsion tech with becoming “self aware” shows you’re very ignorant and living a fantasy 😂🤦🏻♂️ id say do some actual black budget propulsion research but who knows what your mind will believe.
This plane still easily has another few years of development, likely even over a decade. There are many limiting factors that currently prevent us from reaching hypersonic flight. Here are the three that I often hear from my aerospace professors. First is the material of the aircraft. Currently the fastest plane to have ever flown was the NASA X-15, a rocket powered plane dropped by a modified B-52 that would fly exceptionally high and then land with the purpose of testing the feasibility of landing on a runway from reentry from orbit. It reached speeds twice that of the SR-71, and had the power to go much faster, but the fuselage would literally melt off the aircraft if it tried. The SR-71 itself would measure several hundred degrees Celsius on its surface while cruising at mach 3.2 due to friction from air drag. Air drag increases in proportion to velocity squared, meaning the SR-72 will have to deal with temperatures ranging in the several thousands of degrees unless they design it such that the structure can disperse the heat accumulating due to drag. The second issue is engine coolant. Scramjet engine development is at a point where the coolants they try to use to mitigate the massive amounts of heat that would damage the engine cause a residue buildup inside the engine which renders it useless. More development is needed to design and synthesize a coolant that will be able to be used in such engines. The third problem spells potential doom for the concept of the scramjet engine. The scramjet concept confines and combusts a supersonic flow of air, but the air is going so fast through the engine that the combustion reaction might not happen fast enough. No combustion, no thrust. Hypersonic flight via air breathing engines is definitely feasible, but still several years out at this point.
Isn't Lockheed Martin just a corporate wellfare queen at this point? What are the odds any release dates they promise are even within 2 decades of the final delivery?
Historically speaking, the Skunkworks team would deliver early and under budget... WHEN they were given final design parameters that remain static until the first prototype is built and tested.
Fictional Air Force: We want to put Air to Air missiles on the SR-71... Lockheed Martin: So basically explosive banana peels we can drop for the enemies chasing?
They did put missiles on the SR 71. While that didn't work out due to the SR 71 overtaking the missiles it did provide knowledge of how to put missiles inside a plane and lower then through a door to allow them to launch.
Soooo, my brother was in the USAF in 1979 - 1984 he did landing gear on the SR71. All the pilots had a patch that said 100,000 plus club and Mach 3 plus club.
Blackbird pilot: can I have a lane at 60,000 feet?
Air traffic: If you can get that high, you can have it.
Blackbird pilot: Roger, descending to 60,000.
That would be as epic as the 'speed check' story
@@crazyeyez1502 what speed check story?
@@ignaciomartin7044 LA Speed Story
@@PO55UM95 Really enlightening
i like that
When I was stationed at Hill AFB, UT in the mid 80's, I was running an F-16 and was listening to the tower on radio, in comes an in-flight emergency call from an aircraft with a main generator failure on takeoff from Beale AFB. Beale? Isn't that in California I thought? A few minutes later in comes an SR and parks 2 rows over from where I was. It took that distance for the plane to slow down and burn off fuel to make an emergency landing in Utah! Crazy fast. What else was cool was when a crew from Beale came to repair it they flew in on a C-130 and out rolls this wild El Camino with a huge big block V-8 in the back of it. They use it to crank the SR over when starting. The SR leaks fuel like a sieve when on the ground too. Needed a standby firetruck the whole time it sat there. When it took off a few days later most of the base turned out. I had front row seats. The pilot did what looked like (what we call) an FCF (functional check flight) takeoff where they scream down the runway staying low after wheels up then do a high G pull up and go practically straight up. The F-16 is awesome at that, but the SR was incredibly faster. Disappeared from sight in a couple of seconds. Awesome!
You lucky dog... getting to fly an F-16 AND seeing such an amazing plane do an awesome maneuver? Seeing what has to be the most boss El Camino on the planet is just rubbing it in. I've never heard that part you said with the El Camino, btw,, but if true it will only deepen my respect and admiration for the Blackbird because that was one of the best looking cars ever made.
“The son of blackbird “, sounds like a new Sci-fi show
The fact that the public is even aware about this plane is probably a good indication that it’s already in use or at least some version of it is.
It honestly reminds me of "Son of Whyachi" from Battlebots
Or a show to possible opponents what's in the offing. Military information "leaking" is as tactical as secret - keeping. It's strategic posturing and sabre rattling
@@ginnyjollykidd that’s was my first thought as well
@@ginnyjollykidd Other purpose could simply be marketing: 'Look what cool stuff we're doing here! Come work for us!'. Good personnel and knowledge is worth much more than any material.
It's already retired by the time they let us know about it.
Can you imagine being the pilot going 3 to 4x the speed of sound arriving anywhere in the world in just 1hr, then leaving work and being stuck in traffic.
lol How about 3xto 4x the speed of light,now that gets interesting
Your math is way off, homeboy. Going 4X the speed of sound would not get you anywhere in the world in an hour. The country? Sure. Let’s assume 4X the speed of sound is 4,000mph. The planet is 24,000 miles around. But you’d only need to go 12,000 miles to get to the furthest point on the globe. So we’re talking 3 hours minimum.
@@McCloud91000 yep because if it were possible. If you took off at 4x light speed in any direction. When and if you got back everyone and everything you knew would be gone in just minutes. Depending on how long you were gone. You would be a time traveler in every sense of the word. Except one catch its a one way trip. Cant go back only forward. Shit I'd do it...
@@jajupa78 Not exactly how it works, take a ship and fly the speed of light one direction for one second turn around and do the same, only 2 seconds have past, time one can go back in time. Tunguska blast was a 50 megaton nuclear missile, a Naval Intelligence Experiment, i know this first hand
@@chuckd5877 this plane is supposed to go mach 6 which is abt 4000 mph so mach 4 would be abt 2800mph
Having retired from Lockheed/Martin,I can say we are developing projects that will shock the world.That's all I can say,it's simply amazing!
I'm proud of Lockheed/Martin!
Is the tr3b real
My son has dreams of being a skunk. Once he saw the sr-71 he began to idolize Kelly Johnson.
Eddie, that knock on the door will be the Secret Service, and you’re not going to enjoy your holiday (that is, of course if you’re telling the truth!)
Last year I met an American with former German roots. He worked for Lokheed/Martin for over 20 years. He confirmed the same thing to me and much more.
Ai-driven fighter
Can we get a megaprojects video on Simon's RUclips business model cause the amount of channels he runs is as mega of a project as they come I swear 😂
^This, lol. Tell us your secrets you legend. :P
He'll be setting up a franchise program soon
I have asked for months!!!
Well he's not alone, he has a big team behind him
The man doesn't sleep.
Simon: Release the videos!
Editors: Which ones?
Simon: ALL OF THEM!
lol😂🤣😂🤣
Two vid in two minutes. They're cranking 'em out.
Spoken like Gary Oldman in Leon.
That's what I like about being subbed to the million channels of Simon, there's always something to watch lol.
@@carston101 Too much :D
The fact that almost no nation has been able to build a plane that out classes sr71 till this day shows how good it was
Yup. 😁
Not really, it's just that by the time anyone needed to, the concept of a "spy plane" was outdated. Satellites did the job much more efficiently.
The Soviet's MiG-31 could effectively deter the SR-71 even if the aircraft itself couldn't keep up speed-wise.
@@VigneshBalasubramaniam 💯
Manned fighter/spy/bomber jets are becoming a thing of the past. The only thing keeping them in the game is senators who want more pork projects in their state.
Nobody has really tried, and both the plane it was supposed to substitute and the plane that was built to intercept it are still in service 20 years after its retirement, so one has to wonder wether it really was that superior
Not really spy satellites have made it obsolete and small drones that can also take action have replaced the mission
I was an air traffic controller at Ft. Worth ARTCC, back in the day, and had an SR71 headed westbound declare an emergency. He went from Ft. Worth to Abiline to turn around (150Mi aprox) and land at Carswell AFB in Ft. Worth. Amazing B1RD !!!!
FYI, I knew a former Blackbird pilot and he told me on most missions you were flying at between 110,000 & 120,000ft at Mach 3.5. He also said they could hit up to Mach 4 for short periods, if too long at such speed the leading edges would melt and the plane disintegrate so they had to be very careful.
If we're talking about it, they've had it for at least a decade already.
You mean you don’t read popular science lol
Standard NDA for hardware assets is 20 yrs, and that's not even the " top secret " stuff. New h/w using new concepts in science and technology may require signing NDA's up to death.
Zzxxz zb
Or longer🤷♂️
F117 was officially prototyping in 1969. We were told about it in 1990.
A cool footnote to the Blackbird is that in the early 2000s Lockheed entered there original hand drawn blue prints into their CAD software to have the computer improve the design. All of the alterations and changes that the software made were within the margin of error created by the physical width of the pencil lead the original designers used back in the 1960s. In short the plane is perfectly designed (at least it’s external aerodynamics) for its intended task.
@@none--other Materials may be able to be improved, but aerodynamic performance potential is always the same
@@aerodynamicist4 True statement.
And to think that the SR-71 was built using slide rules and computers with the capacity of a modern simple calculator!
One word. Kelly Johnson.
@@trespire That two actually
From what I've seen, if Big Brother admits they are working on something, it means they have already had it for five or ten years.
Double that.
Maybe so, but I doubt they could keep a hypersonic aircraft secret unless they don't use it
Saw an SR-71 refueling over Fort Bliss when I was in the motor pool one morning, back in the 80s. Couldn't believe my eyes. No mistaking that shape. They sometimes used the runways at Biggs Field, which was a couple miles from the barracks. When it took off, the walls in the barracks would shake. It only happened at night as far as I can remember.
My Grandfather was highly involved with the SR71. Ive seen it up close and in person many times as a child. I even sat in the hanger while it was being prepared for its final flight (first retirement in 1990), met the pilots as they came out of their van that brought them to the aircraft (they were in full on pressure suits) and watched the flight in person. It actually failed it’s first attempt to take off due to an engine flameout and had retry a couple hours later. This aircraft is in my family’s blood. All of this took place at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California.
proof?
Still waiting for the day Google rebrands RUclips to "Simon's playground".
I have heard rumors that when Simon logs into his RUclips account the name changes to "YourTube" on the site for him!
He’s everywhere lol
It was a long drive home from vacation (7 hour drive) so we decided to take a break from driving. We saw that there was an airplane museum near by so we decided to go there. Right outside the building, near the parking lot, was a Lockheed A-12. So impressive to see in person.
A-12 the king of kings!!
So Simon. How many RUclips channels do you have?
Simon : Yes
great video. you do realize that anything that skunkworks is talking about publicly isn't what's REALLY going on. this is something to appease the masses.
Yep, I'd guess when they showed pictures 3 prototypes had already flown test flights - albeit smaller scale models. What we'll probably find out is that only 40% of the F35 money actually went to that project... or something like that.
YF-12A was openly revealed back in the early 1960s in Aviation Week & Space Technology.
Yet I built the Revell (rather inaccurate) model kit of the SR-71 in 1968.
@@maraudercatt8564 ooh. Or it's actually a successor to the black bird AND the f-35
Or so they would have you believe? Ah, the intrigue of it all.
I'm currently involved in engineering research. The hypersonics program over at UCF in Florida is working on this sort of thing. I can say one of the biggest issues is not necessarily going fast but having a structure made out of a material that won't shake itself apart. It's easy to go fast, It's not easy to not disintegrate on the way.
use plywood
2:00 - Chapter 1 - A coverage gap
4:25 - Chapter 2 - SR72 (Early Development)
6:45 - Chapter 3 - The two engines
9:15 - Chapter 4 - A breakthrought
10:20 - Chapter 5 - What we know today
Thanks
I remember watching an old astronaut being interviewed 30 years ago that said the engines they have now are 50 to 70 years more advanced than we the public know now.
That's a straight lie since all rockets are public, unless that astronaut was involved in the development of rocket engines
@@ASlickNamedPimpback he was referring to (I think) jet engines or new propulsion systems.
@@pablojose4890 oh, well thats just common knowledge. Obviously the government is going to keep whatever they have under development a secret
I read a popular mechanics article stating the same 25 years or so ago.
The technological foundation to all this was probably The Aurora Project.
Yup its called the SR-72 Aurora Project.
20 years ago there were Aurora sightings on and off for around a year. I wonder if the project was cancelled or started over from ground zero because if it was out there somebody with a Smartphone would have caught pictures of it.
@@billmcintyre3652 If the rumored Aurora existed, which would have been in the late 1980’s/early 90’s, my guess is it was cancelled because the Cold War was over so the need to constantly make planes better was no longer needed, and satellites and unmanned drones could do the same thing the SR-71 could do at a much lower cost. In fact, a plane that’s capable of Mach 5+ is going to have to withstand immense heat, making it require a lot of maintenance and a potentially short service life from the wear and tear, which may be a reason such a craft would have been cancelled at the time.
The Aurora does not exist. (Just agree, dude! They're watching us from up there!)
Exactly. Aurora - Test Pilot = SR 72
Reminds me of the “Project Aurora” rumors that had started back in the 90’s with sightings, sonic booms, budget discrepancies, and such, from 1994-2000 before quieting and then you have the Skunk Works announcement of the SR-72 project a few short years later.
Seems some earlier experimentation might’ve been taking place and the black project watchers at Groom Lake and the fringe (UFO/Conspiracy) people might’ve been on to something.
Remember the Aurora mock-ups from some of those programs back in the 90’s talking about ram or scram jets, funky contrails from a scram engine and the shape (though manned not unmanned) being pretty close to what you’re showing for the SR-72.
All very interesting. Keep up the great work here and on SideProjects..
Even though I was in the Navy I crossed paths with the SR-71 several times. The first time was when I was stationed on Okinawa, near Kadena AFB which was home plate for SRs flying missions against North Korea, North Vietnam, the PRC and USSR. The Okinawans referred to the SR as the "Habu," an indigenous, small extremely fast and deadly snake. I think that nickname caught on for the entire force throughout the world.
The SR would launch from Kadena on full afterburner, hugely loud and quickly disappear into the distance as it almost immediately would go looking for a tanker. On return it would, of course be extremely quiet and quickly be tucked away, out of sight in one of the hangers.
The time I was peripherally involved in SR operations was when in 1986, my ship was tracking one flying the length of the Mediterranean, just off shore of Tarabulus (Tripoli), the speed of the thing was nearly incredible, the indicator on the tracking radar gave the speed as *CLASSIFIED*. The next fastest thing we were tracking was a Tomcat at just over a turtlelike Mach 1.
When I got a close look at one in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, I was amazed at how SMALL the thing actually is. Even sitting on its landing gear it really doesn't stand all that tall. It's wide, long and has a THIN profile. The afore mentioned F-14 has a thicker profile, but both planes even when they are just sitting there on display leave one feeling that they are both still in a hurry.
Top Gun Maverick will give Simon's channel a well deserved boom in views and subscriptions
This man keeps creating new channels like the mad lad he is and I'm all for it.
The combination of an aircraft traveling well over six times the speed of sound, and a missile traveling five times faster than sound, is indeed a scary prospect, because the missile would be traveling backwards relative to the aircraft.
That would mean that the missle would be travelling at 7+5=12 mach
Or something close to this number
There's two things I really find amusing, albeit superfluous about his videos:
1.) Keeping a straight face while stating the words; 'Alien Technology'
2.) When he says "smash the 'Like' button..."
All in all - I love your personality and your content, make your videos something I truly enjoy!
@Tony Terry Who - me? What'd I say?
It's probably been in operation for 10 or so years already. By the time we all heard about any F117's was during the first Gulf war, they had already been in operation for close to 20 years.
“Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death, I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing.” - At the entrance to the old SR-71 operating base (Kadena, Japan)
Mate, that is bloody funny!
Habu!
SR-71 was a legend unmatched in aviation history. Looking forward to what this new SR-72 will bring, if I live that long.
Blackbird, you knew no equals....
SR-71: "this is my son who is also my brother, totally does not sound wrong at all"
You're clones are very impressive, you must be very proud.
Not weird if you’re from Alabama
Simon, If you are looking for something to build a video around, you should look at the history, use and effects on shipping of the 20 and 40 foot standard shipping containers. For simple steel boxes (frames really, what's inside them doesn't matter) they have had a staggering effect on trade and can be seem as the cause of the demise of the unskilled dockworker. Not having to break bulk sped up load and unload operations at ports and railroad stations tremendously.
I'll try and keep this short. My wife and I were in Vegas a week after the supposed "Bum Rush" on Area 51 so I decided a junt up 375 to the 'Lil Ale' Inn would be fun just to see the sights. After lunch walking across the parking lot I could hear a faint, deep rumbling. Looking up at about a 40* angle I saw a single contrail coming off the direction of Groom Lake or so I thought. It was moving faster than anything I had ever seen in my 63 years and I remember when aircraft were allowed to fly supersonic over land. It was crossing the sky incredibly fast when I noticed another silver dot directly in the contrail of the preceding silver dot from my point of view. The first "aircraft" turned to starboard in what looked like a 5 mile U-turn and headed directly back in the direction it came from after crossing my view of the sky. That turn was so fast and tight (maybe 5 miles ?) I can't imagine the G forces involved BUT the 2nd following aircraft executed the same turn in what appeared to be in the exact same path in the preceding aircrafts contrail. I had a really good pair of 10x binoculars in my car and the rumbling was so loud at that point several patrons had walked out into the parking lot to see what was going on, I still couldn't make out any definitive shape or form because the objects were so far away, even B52's can be plainly seen at altitude with seperate contrails on a good day with a naked eye. I was timing and making notes during the observation and both aircraft traveled back out of sight, one following directly behind the other until out of sight. All this happened in just UNDER 2 minutes and all I could think of was how I loved to see my tax dollars at work.
Thank you for your service Maverick!
Any plane that can use ultra high altitude to traverse the planet isn’t an airplane, it’s a space plane.
In the 1990’s the US tested an aircraft that crossed over into the hypersonic speed limit, probably a space plane also, but the general public will not see this technology until its been superseded by a leap in technology that makes it obsolete.
If it uses wings then it's an aeroplane, a space plane has no need of wings as it operates outside of the atmosphere
@@matthewTaylor1990 the name space plane refers to its ability to use the atmosphere to reach space.
So yes it needs wings.
@@matthewTaylor1990 that's like saying the space shuttle was an airplane... It most definitely was not and it really more or less just fell out of the sky it makes a 747 look like a world class glider.
wrong unless its flying above the Karman Line or 327,000 foot altitude. Its still in the atmosphere.
@@davidshoyt1979 actually NASA gives out astronaut wings to some SR71 Pilots.
The altitude to qualify for space flight is 100 klm 330,000 feet.
I don't know if anyone had mentioned it. But in Ace Combat 7, they released a similar jet, code-named Darkstar, as such a similar jet was in the movie Maverick.
This is it
Being at Kadena AB in the 80's I saw all types of aircraft flying in and out. From F15 & 16's doing 90 vertical take-offs from the runway to Harriers seemly stop in mid air and do maneuvers which sounded like a giant vacuum cleaner in the sky. NONE however made the whole flight line just STOP in place as when the the Blackbird took off. The sound was deafening even from a good half mile away and tools would shake in my toolbox when the plane hit the afterburners going down the runway. The only thing to be seen in the distance after takeoff were two large orange bulbs slowly disappearing in the day or nighttime sky. I would say the only thing more astonishing to see take flight would be when the space shuttle launches IMO.
Cool video, here is a list for some new future videos for ya:
-YF23
-Convair kingfish
-Horton ho 229
-A12 avenger 2
-X20 Dyna soar
-X43A (nasa hyper x program)
-darpa falcon HTV
Simon, you have more channels than I have pairs of pants.
He gets paid to promote pants 🤷
@@whiskeyinthejar24 Yeah dude, check out Mack Weldon ;D
The issue with hypersonic flight within our atmosphere, ie a plane, not a spacecraft,is that the aerothermal heating caused by the friction of the air against the airframe is significant. The SR-71 that could do Mach 3.2 was titanium for this reason, with peak thermal loads of nearly 500 degC in places (the speed "limit" of the aircraft was not power based, but temperatrue based, in colder conditions the plane could go faster because the colder air removed more heat from the fuselage and critically limited the engine compessor inlet temperatures). But at hypersonic speeds (> M5.0) the aerothermal heating becomes a massive problem. The SR-71 used it's own fuel as coolant, so enable relatively long duration cruises at M3.1, but most things that exceed M5.0 either do it in space (no air) or do so for such a short time that ablative heat protection can be used, and the thermal soak to more sensitive components is limited by the short duration of heating. Famously, the X-15 program demonstrated that even short flights to hypersonic speeds would cause massive damage to structural and aerodynamic components, even when specifically designed with hypersonic flight in mind. And the X-15 flew for a mear couple of minutes at those speeds ( as do hypersonic missiles)
And of course the IR heat signature from a fuselage at > 500degC is impossible to hide. So we are left realistically with doing Mach 3 and bit within the atmosphere for long durations, or getting out of the atmosphere completely, al la Boeing X-37B.
If i were a betting man, then i'd put a pretty large sum on the "SR-72" being a useful cover story to cover significant funding and expendature on alternative programs, ie a spaceplane......
I remember when I was a kid and my brother who is much smarter than me said the SR71 leaked fuel on purpose on the ground as when it reached the high speeds the titanium expanded and sealed the leaks due to the very high temperatures.
If you think that thing isn’t already flying you’re kidding yourself. They don’t have miles long runways at Area 51 for nothing. They’ve been working on SCRAM jet engines since Reagan was president
Someone has refurbished a very long runway in Scotland.
No Doubt!! Mr Chillin
I kind of wonder what the landing speed of a RAMor SRAM jet is
@@jackboyer1280 if it’s a hybrid engine or has a secondary engines then the same as a normal plane.
The fact that it's unmanned goes to the heart of what's wrong with America's Industrial-Military Complex. When you sanitise war it becomes easier to engage in it. If they had to get up close and personal they'd be more hesitant about causing them.
"Some folks inherit star spangled eyes, oooo, they send you down to war, and when you answer how much should we give, they only answer more, more, more, more"
"And it's 1,2,3 WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR? Don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam, and it's 5.6,7 open up the pearly gates, well there ain't no time to wonder why whoopee we're all gonna die"
Manned or not, politicians have never had an issue using people as a liquidity...as long as some rich white man gets richer off of it, there is a war...
Don't worry, every country capable take down a satellite will be able to take down SR-72 with ease, Russians will be happy to sell a new generation of AAA to everybody scared, wealthy enough, and independent from NATO.
I was at Offutt AFB in 1990 when the SR-71 was having its first retirement. I got to see it do several fly-bys of the base showing off, before throttling up and going into warp and disappearing to the east. It was awesome!
I still have the t-shirt that my recruiter gave me when I enlisted back in 89'😂😂😂😂
"It can travel between...well...fast and really fukcing fast."
I don't think that we've had a US Interstate System Megaprojects. LA's Freeways alone might merit a video.
Greatly recommendation 👍
Take a look at the freeway on the west side of Houston. It's the largest and most expensive highway ever built.
Ramjet always brings a smile. Remembering the sixties cartoon show. Roger Ramjet. Look it up.
And Tom Slick in his thunderbolt grease slapper I don't have to look it up😀
I have the box set of Roger Ramjet DVDs. They're sure funny once but watching 12 in a row gets pretty painful 😛
The biggest roadblock to a sustained Mach 4+ aircraft is the dealing with the heat generated by the air on aircraft skin friction.
The SR-71's cockpit life support literally had to keep the pilot alive in a the temperature range of an oven (400-600 degrees F) in order to avoid cooking the pilot. The literally tested it by putting a cockpit mock-up in a large industrial oven.
Thermal expansion due to heat, especially the uneven expansion due to different materials, is also a major problem. The SR-71's fuel tanks leaked fuel until the heat from high speed caused enough thermal expansion to seal the tanks.
people don't realize how far technology has come from the start of the 1900's. we went from the first proper kinda plane to landing someone on the MOON within 60-70 YEARS
Me: How many (channels) are there?
Simon: 36, counted them m'self
Eh what? He runs 36 channels!! Impressive.
@@marksapollo not really tho, I was making a harry potter joke, sorry If I confused you. Dude still has a lot of channel.
@@kingpachacuti9536 i read HP again 4 days ago, and thought "waitaminit, that sounds familiar..."
Not gonna lie, I saw “SR” and black bird so I clicked
"We could take a picture of Kim Jong Un, and Xi, at 6,000 miles an hour." And, "we could take a picture of Netenyahu at 80,000 feet." "We could take all kinds of pictures."
Simon Whistler, Guinness World Records holder for the most amount of RUclips channels.
A note on the theoretical future top speed of a scramjet at Mach 24: just for reference the speed required to achieve orbit is the equivalent of Mach 22. This hypothetical future scramjet would be able, ignoring factors other than speed, to power an SSTO, a Single Stage To Orbit craft. It would need a separate engine that can operate in vacuum of course, both to circularise, and to deorbit when you want to get home, but the vast majority of the delta-v needed to reach orbit could come from an air breathing engine, greatly reducing the amount of oxidiser you'd need to carry with you.
Some say that Simon is capable of making infinite channels to provide all the information in the world to everyone.
He's probably some animated AI, just reading Wikipedia pages. lol
5:15 "It's massive. It's way bigger than you think." I guess that depends on how big you thought it was before you see it in person. If you thought it was the size of a two seat fighter like an F-15: It's bigger. If you thought it was the size of a B1 bomber: It's much smaller.
Oh hey it's the plane we've all knew existed for the last 30 years.
I've seen these. Between 1970 and 1972, I was stationed on Okinawa, not at Kadena, but across the bay. I saw them fly many times. Several years ago, my girfriend and I visited the Air Force museum at Wright-Patt. They had one there, and Yes, they are big!
To reach higher supersonic speeds, the fuel would need to burn at detonation velocities. That brings us to pulse detonation engines which detonates the fuel in pulses to produce a sustained pressure wave based on the average duty cycle of the pulses.
*"are you aware that i have another channel?"* the understatement of the day!
With the downing of the U2 spy plane by the Soviet Union, it was mandated that the next generation of spy plane wouldn't need to overfly enemy territory. It would use altitude to peer into enemy territory while remaining outside. Satellites covered the inner regions of enemy territory. The SR-71 was more of a "we need to look at this now" or "we don't have a Key-Hole satellite over this area... send the Blackbird" sort of thing. Speed allowed it to get to a place fast enough to be relevant (in the 60s) for information gathering.
I live not far from the Airforce Armament Museum in northwest Florida..they have an Sr-71 and that thing is massive!!!
just a little correction: the practical limit for hydrocarbon based scramjets is about Mach 9, for hydrogen based it's about Mach 11. The reason is air capture. Drag increases quadratically with speed, maximum thrust linearly. At one point, you can't add enough energy (stochiometry) to overcome drag.
I thought that was a bit high, at mach 24 wouldn't you be pretty close to escape velocity?
So the thinking is turbo->ram->scramjet?
Top Gun: Maverick got some engineers from the Skunk Works to consult on the experimental hypersonic plane Maverick flies at the beginning. I remember that they switched engines, I'm guessing between a turbojet to a scramjet. In the movie he topped out at just over mach 10, but that was Hollywood speed...
It looks like SR-71 and Concorde had one hell of a one night stand.
Dirty bird :)
Strange, I really didn't find the SR-71 as massive as I expected (yes, I've seen the one at Duxford). Then again, I thought the same thing about Stonehenge when I first saw it. They're bigger in my imagination.
I agree. I had the same reaction to the pyramids at Giza. They were much smaller in person than I saw them in my mind before going there.
Jesus Simon how many clones do you have now for all of these channels? You're going to need a bigger basement to chain them all up in soon.
If you thought the Blackbird was huge, you need to get over to Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton OH and see it sitting in the shadow of the XB70 Valkyrie!
I simply could not believe how small this plane was.
Great video, crew!
This is amazing, the blackbird is the best plane the US ever built, the only weakness is the fact it has no armament. This new SR2 would be even better because it could protect itself. The tech on this plane 10 years from now would be insane. Off topic, I heard a story yesterday that scientists have designed a warp speed engine, it supposedly creates a bubble around it protecting it from any obstacles in its way, obviously it would need a lot more work before it could actually be used.
Your dreaming, SR71 was intercepted by a Russian mig fighter fox, several times over Siberia, and Israel. The real reason why it was retired. And if SR72 can outrun a S500 mach 6 or greater or Avangard missile at mach 20 - 27 then I give a crap. Facts.
@@JazzyBell2 You are right that the Mig fighter did intercept SOME SR-71’s, but interceptions were very inconsistent and it depended on a lot of conditions being favorable to even have a chance at interception
Considering how punishing those high speeds are on aircraft materials, these are going to be extremely expensive and have a low limit of flight cycles. That and lots of maintenance between sorties. Think of which countries or alliances have both engineering and money to do this.
NONE!
@Rui Matos You talk around the real subject. Wunderwaffen with Wunderwaffen materials? Unless they can be produced low cost, of which the military industrial complex would put the benefits into its own pocket anyway, they will only make things even more expensive. Next such a wonder plane will have nano probes servicing all the systems from the inside. Another great "it will be"' we have been told about for for years. Reality is however much different. US procurement is full of expensive failures and becaus eof it it's potential is actually already deminishing in stead of increasing. In stead so called revolutionary model planes fly around that are bound to be low on situational awareness in the foreseable future however many screens are fitted to the game-PC at home. The so called invincible F22 does not have enough range and too few wehere built anyway. The F35 is about to follow suit. "New" F15's and F18 are bought to close the gap in manned aircraft. In the mean time "paper" studies of a 6th generation aircraft are sold as flying prototypes! Or what about the UK's Tempest, a totally different entity "paper" plane that is beig used as a lame excuse to cancel the F35B. For the time being the only discernable bounty is one of propaganda and fake news!
@Rui Matos Still you keep turning the argument around. Ever heard of Ockham's razor? Now fill in all the knowns and forget about the unsubstantited stuff or at least reduce it with a high percentage for the unaviodability of propaganda and nationalist wishfull thinking. I do totally agree on the fact that the US are, probably, still, the most knowledgable in the field. Actually starting to built the technology into effective hardware when the proverbial excrement is already hitting the fan will however be too late. At such times such a side in a conflict is simply walked over. There is enough historic and scientific evidence of that. So I am not actually doubting the technology as such but todays hypercapitalist system which wastes it's oppertunities again an again by basically holding the taxpayer for ransom. Again: The proof lies in the actual level of productivity and not in, partly assumed, potentential. Not acounting for that and thus stupidly towing the offical line is actually very unscientific. Not yet proven superplanes are like Schrodinger's cat untill hard roof surfaces. They might (still) be alive! Or they might not!
SR72- In "service" since 1997. Not officially of course.
US government doesn't retire an important piece of tech without a better replacement already on deck (being used in secret).
y’all realize the SR-71’s replacement has been flying for years now it’s just classified lmao
which one?
@@davidshoyt1979 look up the aurora
@@grantjones522 again which replacement you talking about. like which one out of perhaps many. also Aurora wasn't an aircraft ..it's something else. wonder if people ever consider the sr71 may have lost the contest and the CIA only used it until their bird was ready, which was better.
SR 71 was designed and built in 18 months, from RFP to flight using only slide rules, log tables and drafting boards. My uncle helped develop the titanium rolling process for the skin and I saw it take off twice from Eilson AFB south of Fairbanks, Ak back in the 70's. Very very loud and impressive.
I witnessed what I believe to have been a prototype flight in the skies of North Carolina. I was looking up, toward the south, at a potential tree trimming project, and saw a very small (distant) white dot screaming across the sky, from east to west. Yet it left no con-trail or any other indication of exhaust. As I watched, approximately half way across my view the white dot turned to green. Continuing, it then changed, once again to blue, then it just became unviewable......as in I could no longer detect it with the naked eye. At 71 years old, I've watched many meteor showers and I've worked in the aircraft industry for half of my time here. It was not either of those. And the entire display lasted approximately 8-10 seconds. If you've seen something similar, let me know. Thanks!
Suggestion: Skylon and more importantly S.A.B.R.E.
SABRE
What is that?
lockheed martin bought the company a few years ago.......
@@AcidEric01 that doesn't correspond with the information I have. Could you provide a link?
@@jacobbaumgardner3406 to be fair it may just be the precooler they had developed and no no links
You should make a special mega project video called: *Simon Whistler and his numerous RUclips channels*
Simon: Mentions new channel.
Me: Pauses current video, subs to new channel. Resumes video.
The Blackbird is one of my top favourite military aircraft (along with the Spitfire, Harrier Jump Jet, Nighthawk, Avro Lancaster, Eurofighter Typhoon & Flying Fortress, etc). Imagine an all in one multi-purpose stealth fighter, & interceptor, recognisance, scientific research & spy air/space plane that's a (sort of) combined 'hybrid' of the F-117 Nighthawk, Boeing X-37, North American X-15, Harrier Jump Jet, Eurofighter Typhoon, SR-71 Blackbird & the SR-72..?
Soviets: There's the SR-71 on the radar! Fire the missiles!
SR-71:Hold my Mach 3.5
I was chatting with some Lockheed Martin engineers at a conference earlier this year and they were asked what type of engineers they are most urgently in need of. Their very quick answer was software engineers which implies to me that they are very much pursuing the route of AI controlled jets. James Cameron warned us what might happen but did they listen 😉
We were at twin lakes reservoir in Idaho. When paddle boarding we heard something with a dampened loud noise rip through the sky from West to East, nothing I've ever heard of before. My sister was already looking up at the sky and saw a blurred triangle object rip across the sky. She described it as holographic, like it was trying to blend in, looked like a flock of birds in a triangular flying shape but going faster than anything she has ever seen. Thought she was seeing things but my wife and I heard the same sound tear across the sky. My guess is it was one of these things.
It was cloaked.
Klingon technology
SR-72, delivering your US Air Force bombs in 60 minutes or the next one is Free!
The new Amazon drone.
60min or less, or your money back guarantee.
I am a former Navy Fighter Pilot. Once, many years ago, I was flying over Nevada, (think Groom lake) I kept getting an intermittent return from my APG-65 Radar that showed fantastic numbers, like Mach 3 at over 80,000 feet. When I reported to ATC I had this contact they literally said: “No you don’t” ... Hmmm.....
How many channels do you guys have? I’m subbed to like 3 or 4 of them. It’s like your filling the void of the History Channel and A&E of the 1990s.
You should do a mega project about the raising of the battleships at Pearl Harbor. A little lesser known since WWII was underway, but definitely qualifies as a megaproject
Also, raising the Costa Concordia was pretty big too. Raising ships in general, really!
"The combination of an aircraft travelling well over six times the speed of sound and a missile 5x faster than sound is certainly a scary prospect indeed" Yes right, imagine slamming with the speed of sound into a missile you just fired. Scary indeed. Initially the fissile might run Mach 11, but air friction will slow it down to Mach 5 quickly enough.
Have you done a video on the Aurora? It's never been declassified, but I'd assume the SR-72 is being based on it.
Your channel is so much more entertaining than those that use "synthetic" computer generated narrators.
The Hypersonic Darkstar from TOP GUN: Maverick that came out this year (2022) recreates the concept of the SR-72 quite well.
I have long had an interest in science and engineering and there have been several scientists in my family and I also went into the sciences myself. The sr-72 will be flying before 2023 and will be an inventory before 2025 great strides have been made in technology to build such an aircraft and the demonstrator is already flying !!!
"The SR-72 Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 2022. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. SR-72 begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug."
Fiction is wonderful.
@@stephenconnell Until it stops being fiction! ;) (Plenty of examples of this if you look back over the last fifty years).
Linking propulsion tech with becoming “self aware” shows you’re very ignorant and living a fantasy 😂🤦🏻♂️ id say do some actual black budget propulsion research but who knows what your mind will believe.
@@mew9345 I think he mean't the AI coupled with the propulsion system but still a bit of a stretch regardless of how its framed.
@@mew9345 And your comment shows you've got no sense of humour! No worries! ;)
The US Interstate System! How has that not happened yet?
the most extraordinary fact about the blackbird, is how old it actually is. Its hard to fathom it entered service in the 60s
This plane still easily has another few years of development, likely even over a decade. There are many limiting factors that currently prevent us from reaching hypersonic flight. Here are the three that I often hear from my aerospace professors. First is the material of the aircraft. Currently the fastest plane to have ever flown was the NASA X-15, a rocket powered plane dropped by a modified B-52 that would fly exceptionally high and then land with the purpose of testing the feasibility of landing on a runway from reentry from orbit. It reached speeds twice that of the SR-71, and had the power to go much faster, but the fuselage would literally melt off the aircraft if it tried. The SR-71 itself would measure several hundred degrees Celsius on its surface while cruising at mach 3.2 due to friction from air drag. Air drag increases in proportion to velocity squared, meaning the SR-72 will have to deal with temperatures ranging in the several thousands of degrees unless they design it such that the structure can disperse the heat accumulating due to drag. The second issue is engine coolant. Scramjet engine development is at a point where the coolants they try to use to mitigate the massive amounts of heat that would damage the engine cause a residue buildup inside the engine which renders it useless. More development is needed to design and synthesize a coolant that will be able to be used in such engines. The third problem spells potential doom for the concept of the scramjet engine. The scramjet concept confines and combusts a supersonic flow of air, but the air is going so fast through the engine that the combustion reaction might not happen fast enough. No combustion, no thrust. Hypersonic flight via air breathing engines is definitely feasible, but still several years out at this point.
Isn't Lockheed Martin just a corporate wellfare queen at this point? What are the odds any release dates they promise are even within 2 decades of the final delivery?
No complaints about the F-35 Lightning, very capable aircraft
,
As
a taxpayer I’m satisfied, that’s their most expensive project
.
Skunk Works are absolute legends. They make the impossible possible.
Historically speaking, the Skunkworks team would deliver early and under budget... WHEN they were given final design parameters that remain static until the first prototype is built and tested.
@@Primus54 My argument is that Lockheed Martin from the last 2-3 decades is not the same company anymore as it was 3+ decades ago.
9:00 "but really, how fast is Mach 24?"
It's just an inch under Orbital speed
If only _somebody_ had invented a
_Synergistic Air Breathing Rocket Engine!!_
Fictional Air Force: We want to put Air to Air missiles on the SR-71...
Lockheed Martin: So basically explosive banana peels we can drop for the enemies chasing?
They did put missiles on the SR 71. While that didn't work out due to the SR 71 overtaking the missiles it did provide knowledge of how to put missiles inside a plane and lower then through a door to allow them to launch.
Soooo, my brother was in the USAF in 1979 - 1984 he did landing gear on the SR71. All the pilots had a patch that said 100,000 plus club and Mach 3 plus club.