I agree. However, the U-2 maintained high altitudes through efficiency on the ragged edge of its operating envelope. Relative to interceptors and SAMs, the U-2 was barely moving. It is still not known what brought down Gary Powers' U-2 but he did recall seeing another parachute on the way down.
On the other hand, the SR-71 employed the elegant, brute-force method. Short wings and gigantic afterburning turbojets employing ram recovery allowed for a much higher speed and altitude.
The satellites and other methods were not anywhere near as good as getting intel as the SR-71. Re-positioning assets in orbit takes a long time and is very expensive. It is also known when most of these satellites are overhead. The SR-71, on the other hand, could get intel into the hands of the brass and elected officials in under 10 hours after the sortie is ordered. The SR-71 was inordinately expensive for an Airforce program but against the context of swarms of drones or satellites, it probably wasn't that expensive. Also, the amount of research that was conducted with the aircraft was invaluable.
Read the book "Skunk Works" By Ben Rich.
It's not that I don't like new weapons technology, but who is this intended to be used against?
According to Wiki it was a Russian SAM S-75 that brought it down, it has a maximum range of 82K feet, enough to get to the U2.
It's not that I don't like new weapons technology, but who is this intended to be used against?
Make it multi purpose will cripple the primary missions.
Reconnaissance requires stealth or speed. Adding in ordance increases weight, reducing speed and sensor packages
Are these types of planes even needed now with all the satellites we now have monitoring every square inch of the earth.
If nothing else, this will be cool just as a demonstrator of hypersonic flight. Air technology seemed to have stalled in the last few decades.
I agree it will be cool. We've had hypersonic flight capabilites for a while now. scram jet sightings over white sands have been common for the past decade. I don't think the programs stalled so much as it was just not needed. Pilot survivability was/is also a question. With the rise of semi-autonomous systems the timing for a sr71 replacement is good. Human pilots need not apply.
It still is not 'confirmed"!!Interesting, the last time I read up on the subject, it wasn't confirmed. I just sifted through some documents released under FOI and it confirms that his U-2 was brought down by the concussion of one of the 14 SA-2s (NATO codename for the V-75) fired at Powers. Very interesting stuff.
Lockheed is probably trying to drum up some support for this. From what I hear, spy planes were made obsolete by satellites. Why risk planes when you can just take pictures from space. Not sure what this design would bring to the table that would be worthwhile for reconnaissance.