Son of Blackbird?
I couldn’t believe my eyes, but there it was, in big print on the cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology (AW&ST)—Son of Blackbird!
We all remember the Blackbird, otherwise called the SR-71, by far the world’s fastest airplane. It was in many ways one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built, and the most evil looking machine I ever saw. It was built by Lockheed’s Kelly Johnson Skunk Works, and there would never be anything like it again.
The story was that no airplane faster would ever be built again. The theory was that satellites did the job of the Blackbird, so we didn’t need such a fast machine. Besides, it was way too expensive.
Yet there it is on front cover and they say it will go almost twice as fast as the Blackbird!
I’ve read that story several times, and I must admit I don’t understand half of it. One part, however, did sink in. The problem is to build an airplane—a real “air-breathing” airplane, not a rocket—that can take off by itself then accelerate up to speeds at which a ramjet can take over. Ramjets don’t work below a certain speed. Normal turbine engines have trouble pushing an airplane up to the minimum speed at which the ramjet will operate.
The Skunk Works folks—yep, they’re gonna build this one, too—think they have figured out how to do this, but it’ll take awhile.
I have seen the Blackbird. Hope I live long enough to see the Son of Blackbird.
Dang, it’s a wonderful time to be watching aviation!
