Welcome to another article from Future Tech is Now!!!
Today’s article covers the development and use of spy planes. Not long after the days of the old west fever died down and got taken over by the space-age craze, a TV show from Britain called the Thunderbirds came out. It was about a group of three flying machines, a submarine, and a manned space station used for the purpose of top-secret surveillance and rescuing people from the most dire situations.
The first one of the Thunderbirds was the legendary Thunderbird One. The purpose for this plane was to arrive at the disaster zone, perform advance surveillance of the area, and get clearance to the other craft such as Thunderbird Two to arrive and begin rescue operations.
This powerful aircraft supposedly has no peers. Capable of incredible speeds up to 25,000 miles an hour in atmospheric flight. That’s nearly 30 times the speed of sound!
Other capabilities include limited weaponry, mostly used for extraction and removal of survivors from cave ins, as well as an arsenal of high tech surveillance equipment and avionics.
So what is the closest aircraft in this present day and age has ever seen that will be close to comparing to this? The legendary spy plane SR-71 Blackbird. This was the worlds fastest operational jet in history. To date, it is only operational aircraft to effectively use the ramjet to be able to achieve Mach 3.
With a two-man crew including pilot and recon officer, it also flew at high altitude of 100,000 feet not only for the sake of taking high tech classifieds photos, but to avoid high temperature surface heating of the aircraft’s titanium hull (usually exceeding an oven’s broiling heat temperature!).
The purpose for a high-speed spyplane like this is to quickly flyover enemy territory, take photographs, and get out before detection.
Satellites can do most of the work, with the rise of anti-satellite technology, the need for spy planes has stayed consistent yet their existence is often disavowed.
Right around the same time, Lockheed Skunk Works began development of a high speed, unmanned drone called the D-21. It, like an SR-71, could go Mach 3.
A D-21 was developed to be used in conjunction with an SR-71. In this photo, you will see the spar on the top back left of the SR-71. This is where the drone would be attached and launched. The idea was to have the drone fly over enemy territory, take photographs, fly back to a pre-specified spot, jettison the photo equipment and then self-destruct in the air.
That was an impressive concept, unfortunately this launch arrangement did not fare well for either carrier craft or the drone. A tragic accident with one of the carrier craft during a drone launch led to ending this spy plane launch concept.
Ultimately, the drones were flown from the underside of B-52s, which showed much safer and more efficient. In the early 1970’s, the D-21 program was canceled.
The Blackbird went on to serve in the US Air Force for 35 years. In 1998, the great spy plane was retired with honors . . . but left a major gap in high speed recon aircraft.
The latest answer comes from the afore mentioned Lockheed Martin Skunk Works . . . the same entity that designed the Blackbird and the newer stealth fighters F-22 and F-35. It is the SR-72, the “Son of Blackbird”. Destined to be faster and more powerful than the original Blackbird, and equipped with a modern suite of avionics and control systems surpassing many current aircraft.
The SR-72 would be able to fly twice as fast as the Blackbird with a unique propulsion system The graphic above shows a unique split engine system. At lower speeds, a standard fighter’s turbojet provides the thrust needed for flight, but at speeds of Mach 3 and higher is where the ramjet takes over. The thrust comes from air compression and fuel mixing / combusting which propels the aircraft to higher speeds approaching Mach 6 . . . the hypersonic range!
Both the SR-71 and the new SR-72 are comparable size wise, but the new craft utilizes many composite material components. At the speeds that the SR-72 is traveling, air friction would be intense enough to overheat standard metal components and melt them. Newer composite materials will help to move past this obstacle, as well as flying it nearly 100,000 feet where the air density is much less and that would lead to less air friction on the aircraft.
Beyond just speed, the SR-72 could be used for limited strategic strike purposes. Also, it could serve either as a manned or unmanned aircraft, conveniently utilized to take out military opponent satellites, or make a surgical strike for the CIA neutralizing a top secret threat to our country.
It truly is an exciting time for aerospace. New technologies that allow our aircraft to be able to achieve faster speeds and greater capabilities is quite the undertaking, but one well worth it. Military operations with craft such as this could literally fly from a base in the homeland to a battlefield on the other side of the country, perform its mission, and fly back all within a few hours. For conventional aerospace spaceflight, the ramifications involve a tremendous amount of travel time being saved.
So once again, the Future Tech is Now! It definitely would be a welcome sight to see more than just the SR-72 become common place, but perhaps an increasing pantheon of super planes that can abbreviate the time and efficiency needed, giving military and commercial pilots / flyers the experience and the tools needed to do greater things in the world of aerospace.
For The Great Galactic Space Gimmick, I’m Gimmick Commander Ben Faltinowski! ? ?
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