August 7, 2021
If the SR-72 Succeeds, War and Flight Will Never Be the Same
The SR-72 will fly twice as fast as the SR-71—so fast that at top speed the very air entering its engines will be moving as fast as an SR-71.
by Steve Weintz
Here's What You Need To Remember: That’s what makes the SR-72 really amazing. If Lockheed Martin and its partners call pull it off, flight will never be the same. Aerojet-Rocketdyne has a long distinguished pedigree in the propulsion field, ranging from 21-foot-wide solid fuel boosters and nuclear rockets to the Saturn V and Space Shuttle main engines.
Like a bolt out of the blue, Lockheed Martin’s renown Skunk Works publicly teased one of aviation’s great snark hunts—revealing plans for a successor to the SR-71, the legendary Mach-3 reconnaissance plane designed with slide rules and retired when the millennials were born.
That 59-year old aircraft, originally developed as an uber-interceptor, still holds the record for fastest sustained supersonic flight at 2,100 miles per hour—much faster than a .50-caliber bullet.
But the new plane just announced, the SR-72, will fly twice as fast—so fast that at top speed the very air entering its engines will be moving as fast as an SR-71. Keeping combustion and thrust going under such conditions has been likened to lighting a cigar in a hurricane. The SR-72’s planned ability to go from a standing start to Mach 6 and back again is a hat trick no one has been able to pull off.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/if-sr-72-succeeds-war-and-flight-will-never-be-same-191392
