in 1976 the SR-71 Blackbird became the fastest ever air-breathing manned aircraft a record that it still holds to this day, at a top speed of 2200 miles per hour or 3,500 kilometers per hour and flying at altitudes of over 80,000 feet it was practically untouchable by the enemy
the aircraft was used to fly over enemy territory and collect intelligence and photograph enemy locations and positions the sr-71 excelled at this task, during its operational life enemies fired more than 800 surface-to-air missiles at the craft in an attempt to shoot it down all of which missed its high speed and high altitude allowed the craft to simply outrun any threats for all, its strengths there were several faults sr-71 had that led to its retirement it was extremely expensive to operate and maintain and the rise of satellites created a faster and safer reconnaissance method
the US Air Force finally retired the sr-71 permanently in 1998 ever since its retirement rumors have spread about a possible successor to the sr-71 being built enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists alike claimed that the government was working on a top-secret hypersonic aircraft codenamed Aurora, settings have been claimed everywhere from England to area 51 while most of these sightings have been dismissed Lockheed Martin the company that built the sr-71 now confirms that they are currently developing a successor to the Blackbird the aircraft is stated to be similar in size to the sr-71 are about a hundred feet long despite the new aircraft being dubbed the SR 72 this name is likely a placeholder and will not be the final name of the craft
the craft has stated to operate at twice the speed of the sr-71 but IANS top speed at over 4,500 miles an hour or 7,000 kilometers per hour, at these speeds even modern surface-to-air missile defenses will have a hard time intercepting the aircraft allowing the SR 72 to operate in a similar matter as the sr-71 40 years ago
unlike the sr-71 the SR 72 is planned to be unmanned the sr-71 actually had a lesser-known cousin that was unmanned called the D-21,
the D-21 drone could fly just as fast and just as high as the -Blackbird and was designed to carry out the same recon missions the craft however performed poorly repeatedly crashing over enemy territory or during recovery due to technical limitations of the time
with the rise of advanced avionics and guidance systems drones have now become an integral part of the reconnaissance mission the new aircraft will allow extremely fast intelligence gathering and aerial imagery of enemy targets it is planned to be able to close a surveillance coverage gap that exists between satellites and the current slower UAVs, there's also been discussion about a possible smaller manned variant of the SR 72 along with reconnaissance the craft is also stated to carry out a strike role as well in this role it is in a way similar to the b-2 stealth bomber using its speed rather than self to protect itself while flying over and destroying a target
with the rise of advanced avionics and guidance systems drones have now become an integral part of the reconnaissance mission the new aircraft will allow extremely fast intelligence gathering and aerial imagery of enemy targets it is planned to be able to close a surveillance coverage gap that exists between satellites and the current slower UAVs, there's also been discussion about a possible smaller manned variant of the SR 72 along with reconnaissance the craft is also stated to carry out a strike role as well in this role it is in a way similar to the b-2 stealth bomber using its speed rather than self to protect itself while flying over and destroying a target
despite the recent sightings of subscale models at places like plant 42 the aircraft will not be entering service anytime soon flight testing is still not yet started and funding has reportedly also been an issue if the project is fully funded the SR-72 would still not be expected to enter operational service until at least the 2030s
