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Lockheed Martin Developing Successor To the SR-71 Blackbird

Posted by samzenpus on from the next-in-line dept.

Zothecula writes "When the last SR-71 Blackbird was grounded in 1998 it was a double blow. Not only did aviation lose one of the most advanced aircraft ever built, but also one of the most beautiful. Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works has now revealed that it is building a successor to the Blackbird: the SR-72. Using a new hypersonic engine design that combines turbines and ramjets, the company says that the unmanned SR-72 will be twice as fast as its predecessor with a cruising speed of Mach 6."

2 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Faster then a speeding dupe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/11/01/1911249/skunk-works-reveals-proposed-sr-71-successor-the-hypersonic-sr-72

    Don't worry samzenpus - you're not as bad as timothy.

  2. Re:this possibly means one of two things.. by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I agree, I wish they would just take the military budget for Air Conditioning and give it directly to NASA. it would triple our space research funding.

    As a former soldier, I don't want them to cut funding for air conditioning. Operating in climates with 120 F for months at a time is pretty hard, and the computers and equipment starts failing.

    But I get your point.

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