Move Over Blackbird

Lockheed's "Skunk Works" has regularly come up with aircraft that push the boundaries like the first operational stealth aircraft, the F-117 Nighthawk and the SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest aircraft ever built. Rumors have persisted for years that an SR-71 replacement is flying but these rumors have never been confirmed. Now they have been, although it's not flying yet. 

Lockheed has announced the SR-72 as the Blackbird's follow-on. Flying at Mach 6, the 100' unmanned aircraft can reach anywhere in the world in an hour or so and provide both realtime intelligence and offer the option to take out whatever has piqued the interest of the intelligence users. It remains to be seen if this Administration will pop for this capability, but it is a safe bet that a future President will want it to give the U.S. a real and timely alternative in the nasty world in which we live.

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