DARPA/LM Skunk Works Blackswift (HTV-3X)

Great!
So it's a demonstrator proposal.
Looks like an X-33 without the tanks.
 
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3ac7c40d1a-4bb2-4653-8dd9-40b6d05de309
 
I know that at least three of forum members attended DARPATech 2007. Wonder if they have more pics. Looks impressive, at least in model form.
 
Hey, I was just going to post that. Now we need a good three view drawing and a manned version for the hell of it. ;D
 
don't know how long it will be avialable but if you go here:

http://mediafusionreview.com/TTO_Video/

you can snag the 111Mb HD video mentioned with the HTV-3X (among other things).
 
A pic of the underside of the model comes from the neighbouring exhibit of SpaceX' rocket engine:
http://spacex.com/00Graphics/Images/F9Update0807/10%20Merlin%20at%20DarpaTech.jpg

Seems to have diamond shaped inlets right in the front below the leading edge.
 
Sferrin, thank you very much. I was dreaming of some like this yesterday in the evening)
 
Images from the DARPA video...
 

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Yet more pics.
 

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My last set.
 

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The similarities to the full-scale Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle are undeniable, except for scale. Sadly, and probably intentionally, the DARPA video gives no clear scale reference for the HTV.
 

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mz said:
Seems to have diamond shaped inlets right in the front below the leading edge.
Click to expand...

The are round, although cut at a pretty oblique angle. Thesea re the relatively new "inward turning" scramjet inlets, as op[posed to the linear inlets as featured on vehicles such as the X-43. They are presumed to have soem weight and performance benefits... no "corners" in the engines where nothing much is going on.

Similar:
http://mtech.umd.edu/news/press_releases/MIPS_Astrox.html
 
Another advantage of those inlets is the only part of the lip that requires active cooling is the lower rearmost part of the lip since it's the only part that can't by highly swept; i.e., it has higher stagnation temperatures than the rest of the inlet lip.

BTW, thanks for making all the pics from the video.
 
On the WIRED website.

One of the biggest changes in DARPA's budget for the next fiscal year is the ramping up of the Blackswift project. The agency will dump $70 million (?) next year into a joint effort with the Air Force to build an aircraft that can go six times the speed of sound -- and land on a runway, just like a normal plane. The idea is to use a combination of turbines and ramjets to fly so quickly. But it won't be easy. Outside of a few demonstration projects, pretty much the only things that go that fast today are ICBMs and spaceships, taking off and returning to earth.
Click to expand...

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/02/darpas-big-buck.html

So what have they been doing at Groom Lake all this time? Or is this just another smokescreen? Anyone got any more?

I told you I like super fast planes, only real ones ;D

Cheers, Woody
 

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Flight International (I think) had an article on the a few weeks ago.
 
Blackswift = HTV-3X
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3ac7c40d1a-4bb2-4653-8dd9-40b6d05de309
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1985.msg19367.html#msg19367
 
here is some more copy - pasting
http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2007-12/hypersonic-age-near
http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2006-10/top-secret-warplanes-area-51

That image has actually been around for sometime and Flateric beat me to posting the secretprojects link ( by quite a wide margin)
 
Does anybody have this video? It seems I accidentaly deleted a folder with 2-3 years worth of videos collected. (Even tried data recovery and it pulled up stuff from years ago but nothing in the folder in question). :'(
 
Dear sferrin and folks,
just trying to load up the 111mb video animation of the Falcon/HTV-3X.
It might take 2 hours...
 
fightingirish said:
Dear sferrin and folks,
just trying to load up the 111mb video animation of the Falcon/HTV-3X.
It might take 2 hours...
Click to expand...

Any luck?
 
sferrin said:
Any luck?
Click to expand...

http://www.zshare.net/download/781180501cbcc7/
http://www.zshare.net/download/78136983f78130/
 
Blackswift program information from DARPA:

http://www.darpa.mil/tto/solicit/PS08-02.pdf
 
Would this be a related design?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MhtLWB0dJ8

Both planes look similar.
 
Blackswift Unveiled
AIR FORCE Magazine 22 / April 2008
The Department of Defense in February unveiled a project—named Blackswift— to mature technologies that would
enable aircraft to cruise at many times the speed of sound.
Blackswift is an outgrowth of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Falcon initiative under which the agency is developing hypersonic technologies applicable to future Air Force long-range strike and space-access systems.
Under Blackswift, engineers are creating a reusable flight vehicle, about the size of an F-16 fighter, that is known as of tactics for a hypersonic airplane that includes a runway takeoff, Mach 6 cruise, and runway landing.”
HTV-3X will be powered by a combined- cycle propulsion system comprising a high-speed turbine engine for the lower echelons of speed and a supersonic combustion ramjet to achieve the hypersonic rates.
Click to expand...

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Documents/2008/April%202008/0408world.pdf
 
To work, a decoy would have to be exactly the same size, shape, weight, weight distribution, appearance, thermal characteristics and thermal distribution as a real warhead
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How would a person be able to identify it's weight and weight distribution from a distance?

Regarding the The Nike-Zeus/Spartan, it must have had some incredible altitude, range and speed if it could hit the bus before it unloaded its warheads.


Kendra Lesnick
 
Recently released by Lockheed Martin ADP HTV-3X images.
 

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KJ_Lesnick said:
Regarding the The Nike-Zeus/Spartan, it must have had some incredible altitude, range and speed if it could hit the bus before it unloaded its warheads.


Kendra Lesnick
Click to expand...



Where has it ever been said it could do that?
 
sferrin said:
Where has it ever been said it could do that?
Click to expand...

There was a thread awhile back about ABMs and such. And the Nike-Zeus / Spartan were said to be able to hit the bus before it unloaded its warheads from what I remember.


Kendra
 
KJ_Lesnick said:
sferrin said:
Where has it ever been said it could do that?
Click to expand...

There was a thread awhile back about ABMs and such. And the Nike-Zeus / Spartan were said to be able to hit the bus before it unloaded its warheads from what I remember.


Kendra
Click to expand...

Fairly certain that's wrong. Spartan's range was only about 450 miles and Zeus a little over half that.
 
Some more graphics to add. Note that those are not official, but first one is pretty cool, while artist didn't get those complicated inlet shape quite right.
 

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okay, LM seems to have released a new drawing

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3ae4fcfe09-0dab-4c70-8440-edc2255e61ba
 

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...almost a month ago. Previous iteration was much more *attractive*
 
Sorry, I'm a bit uncertain regarding the differences between FALCON and the HATV/Blackswift, so I'll post this here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWaiWtH2CuI&NR=1
A video from fall 2007 shows the Lockheed FALCON hypersonic cruiser going to Mach 9. Huh?
 
FALCON HCV-OS = B-52-sized CAV-carrier strike Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (O)perational (S)ystem
Blackswift program (previously known as HTV-3X) = scaled down, HCV-OS technology demonstrator
Early HTV-3X closely resembled 'big' HCV-OS,

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tM_XTwtfSgo

and now it ...resembles *that*

f77ffea8-5ff3-4cd4-926a-53ab5326acbb.Large.jpg
 
If like me you are intrigued by DARPA's new Vulcan program to demonstrate a "constant volume combustion" (CVC) engine capable of powering a hypersonic vehicle from rest to Mach 4-plus, a few more details are now available at the research agency's website.

The industry day briefing begins with a review of the problem - how to accelerate a hypersonic vehicle from zero airspeed to the Mach numbers needed to fire up a supersonic-combustion ramjet. It includes a couple of interesting slides on the HTV-3X flight demonstrator conceived by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works under DARPA's Falcon program.
Click to expand...
See also a new B-3 picture in the PDF!
eb6b86b2-a2b6-4b34-8a05-ac9ce0675d3b.Large.jpg
Click to expand...
Source: Ares - A Defense Technology Blog - DARPA Lifts the Covers on Vulcan Engine - Posted by Graham Warwick at 6/20/2008 8:58 AM CDT
PDF: http://www.darpa.mil/TTO/solicit/BAA08-53/VULCAN_Industry_Day_Presentations.pdf
 
Hi,

may be unmanned SR-72.
http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/srre2007.htm
 

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