I’m sure you guys have seen this already, but in case you haven’t yet, our friends at Aviation Week ran an interesting piece the other day on the development of a hypersonic demonstrator.
My question is whether this is the first time (at least in a high-ish profile) that Boeing has teamed with Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works (I assume Boeing’s Phantom Works crew is involved) for a project that could be a large-scale deal?
I think it’s kind of cool to think that all those 10-pound brains could be getting together to come up with a new plane like this.
This article first appeared at Aerospace Daily & Defense Report.
Boeing and ATK have joined the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works team bidding to build the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Blackswift hypersonic technology demonstrator.
Northrop Grumman is understood not to have bid, making it likely a contract will be awarded to Lockheed by September. The unmanned, reusable turbojet/scramjet-powered Blackswift is planned to fly in 2012.
Under DARPA’s Falcon program, Lockheed has completed conceptual design of a demonstrator, the HTV-3X, that forms the basis for the Blackswift. The goal of the demonstration is to take-off conventionally, accelerate to beyond Mach 6, maneuver and return to a runway landing.
Skunk Works also is performing subscale tests of the combined-cycle propulsion system, which comprises a high-Mach turbojet and dual-mode ram/scramjet. The turbine is used for take-off and landing, and to accelerate the vehicle to Mach 4, where the ramjet takes over.
Lockheed has ground-tested inlets and nozzles that are shared by the two engines, says Stephen Walker, deputy director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. The challenge is in combining both flowpaths over the Mach range during which both the turbine and ramjet are operating, he says.
Be sure to read the rest of this story, a piece on more “war bots” for Joes and a bulkhead-by-bulkhead look at the death of a frigate from our Aviation Week friends at Military.com.
– Christian
No, this isn’t quite the first time. Back in the early 90s, they teamed together for the A/F-X program.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/a-x.htm
Flight had a good article on it back in ’94.
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1994/1994%20-%200212.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1994/1994%20-%200213.html
Maybe it’s just me but is this just X-33 ‘II’
The X-33 was to have rocket engines & it was to take off and land the same as the space shuttle does today.
as for the article, Part of me thinks its cool…the other part of me think…What Took So Long?!
this thing sounds like its going to operate the SAME way as the BlackBird, except it can go mach 6 instead of mach 3.3.
“Blackswift hyperplane hits trouble in Washington“
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/blackswift_dash_for_cash_slashed/
“DARPA Lifts the Covers on Vulcan Engine“
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread364974/pg1
Let me go into my “Generation Kill” Captain America “Spazz Attack” mode:
Great,just great!!!! Didn’t it occur that there are Chinese cyber spies running around & we just tipped them off to a new weapon system which is supposed to be TOP SECRET????!!!!! People could die here,you know!!!!! I’m very sure that Chinese cyber spies read blogs like this trying to find out new secrets & we just handed it to them on a silver platter. Let’s just give them more secrets why don’t we. Everytime we discuss a weapon system,we’re leaking information to the enemy. We need to DENY the enemy,not help them at every corner!!!!
Captain America spazz over.By the way,I’m being sarcastic as hell.
Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to just upgrade and produce more b-1b’s and b-2’s? At the rate we are going we will end up with just 2 of these hypersonic bombers. It seems that in the 90’s we decided we don’t want to upgrade aircraft anymore just replace them. b-1b with an upgraded engines say the engines from the raptor, and upgraded generators for a cruise missile launch pad and b-2’s with whatever necessary upgrades for penetration makes a whole lot more sense. Do they have no confidence in their current bombers that were just produced a relative short time ago?
Its a very great news we are now in 21 century, its time for a new kind of plane to run. Skunk works and Phantom works is the dream team to produce the Blackswift. Its time to go hypersonic, its the futur for aeronuatics, subsonic is the past. This two firm will make a very big plane good luck Blackswift.
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