SR-72 Hypersonic Stealth Concept

November 1, 2013 - Speed is the New Stealth. Meet the SR-72 -- In 1976, U.S. Air Force SR-71 Blackbird crews flew from New York to London in less than two hours, reaching speeds exceeding Mach 3 and setting world records that have held up for nearly four decades. But those world records may not stay unbroken for long. That's because today, at the birthplace of the Blackbird -- Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works® -- engineers are developing a hypersonic aircraft that will go twice the speed of the SR-71. It's called the SR-72. Son of the Blackbird -- The SR-71 was developed using 20th century technology. It was envisioned with slide rules and paper. It wasn't managed by millions of lines of software code. And it wasn't powered by computer chips. All that changes with the SR-72. Envisioned as an unmanned aircraft, the SR-72 would fly at speeds up to Mach 6, or six times the speed of sound. At this speed, the aircraft would be so fast, an adversary would have no time to react or hide.