Lockheed Martin to develop 'son of Blackbird'

Dubbed the SR-72, the unmanned aircraft, is currently being developed at the firm’s Californian Skunk Works facility: birthplace of the Blackbird, the U2, and the F-35 Lightning II (joint strike fighter) amongst others.

According to the company, the new aircraft will be able to fly at Mach 6, twice the speed of Blackbird which, despite being retired in 1998, still holds the record for the world’s fastest air breathing manned aircraft.

According to Lockheed Martin’s website, the SR-72 is likely to be powered by a form of hybrid engine that integrates an off the shelf turbine with a supersonic ramjet engine.

The approach sounds similar to that used on the SR-71, which uses a specially designed hybrid engine that exploited the advantages of a turbo-jet at lower speeds but operated as a ramjet at higher speeds. 

The aircraft will also build on Lockheed’s work on the rocket-launched Falcon hypersonic vehicle, an experimental project designed to collect data on the aerodynamics, thermal and navigational challenges of hypersonic flight.