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DARPA/LM Skunk Works Blackswift (HTV-3X)
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Tuomasn
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Thanks for those, flateric! The latter one looks very sharp.
And, BTW, what's this thread about an unbuilt cancelled project doing in the "Aerospace" subforum?
Edit: Many thanks for splitting and moving topics, makes this already long thread easier to digest.
And, BTW, what's this thread about an unbuilt cancelled project doing in the "Aerospace" subforum?
Edit: Many thanks for splitting and moving topics, makes this already long thread easier to digest.
Tuomasn
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While we're at it, here's the possible Boeing proposal for the HTV-3X specification: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4164.0.html.
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From Danger Room test flight of HTV-2:
The Pentagon’s far-out science arm is planning an April test flight for a prototype of a hypersonic weapon that — in theory — could cross the Pacific Ocean in under two hours.
In a solicitation issued late last week, Darpa said it was looking to charter a U.S.-flag vessel to help collect telemetry for the upcoming test of a Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 (HTV-2). According to the solicitation, an unpowered HTV-2 will be launched on a booster rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and glide to a target site in the Marshall Islands, sometime between April 20 and April 27.
It’s the first public announcement of a flight test originally scheduled for 2009.
The flight test is part of the Falcon program, a Darpa-Air Force project to develop the tech that could lead to a reusable hypersonic vehicle that could take off and land like a plane. It would carry 12,000 pounds of payload over 9,000 nautical miles in less than two hours.
Falcon is related to another effort, dubbed Blackswift, that was supposed to lead to a test aircraft that could take off from a conventional runway, cruise at Mach 6 and land back on a runway. (The video embedded above is Darpa’s computer-animated rendition of Blackswift, a.k.a. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ Falcon HTV-3X hypersonic test vehicle.) However, Congress chopped Fiscal Year 2009 funds for the project, and Darpa decided not to move ahead with plans for the reusable spaceplane.
This upcoming test is supposed to demonstrate the thermal protection systems and aerodynamic controls of the HTV-2. If all goes according to plan, an HTV-2 will be launched by a Minotaur IV Lite rocket from Vandenberg, separate from the launch vehicle, then follow a hypersonic glide trajectory to an impact area in the ocean near Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll, where the Air Force also tests ICBM reentry vehicles.
According to the Darpa solicitation, the ship will be hired to transport, deploy and retrieve a set of nine impact-scoring rafts, as well as telemetry equipment that will help track the HTV-2 in its final seconds of flight.
Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/darpa-plans-test-for-hypersonic-prototype/#more-22769#ixzz0gJex63wF
The Pentagon’s far-out science arm is planning an April test flight for a prototype of a hypersonic weapon that — in theory — could cross the Pacific Ocean in under two hours.
In a solicitation issued late last week, Darpa said it was looking to charter a U.S.-flag vessel to help collect telemetry for the upcoming test of a Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 (HTV-2). According to the solicitation, an unpowered HTV-2 will be launched on a booster rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and glide to a target site in the Marshall Islands, sometime between April 20 and April 27.
It’s the first public announcement of a flight test originally scheduled for 2009.
The flight test is part of the Falcon program, a Darpa-Air Force project to develop the tech that could lead to a reusable hypersonic vehicle that could take off and land like a plane. It would carry 12,000 pounds of payload over 9,000 nautical miles in less than two hours.
Falcon is related to another effort, dubbed Blackswift, that was supposed to lead to a test aircraft that could take off from a conventional runway, cruise at Mach 6 and land back on a runway. (The video embedded above is Darpa’s computer-animated rendition of Blackswift, a.k.a. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ Falcon HTV-3X hypersonic test vehicle.) However, Congress chopped Fiscal Year 2009 funds for the project, and Darpa decided not to move ahead with plans for the reusable spaceplane.
This upcoming test is supposed to demonstrate the thermal protection systems and aerodynamic controls of the HTV-2. If all goes according to plan, an HTV-2 will be launched by a Minotaur IV Lite rocket from Vandenberg, separate from the launch vehicle, then follow a hypersonic glide trajectory to an impact area in the ocean near Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll, where the Air Force also tests ICBM reentry vehicles.
According to the Darpa solicitation, the ship will be hired to transport, deploy and retrieve a set of nine impact-scoring rafts, as well as telemetry equipment that will help track the HTV-2 in its final seconds of flight.
Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/darpa-plans-test-for-hypersonic-prototype/#more-22769#ixzz0gJex63wF
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From Aviation Week - Prompt Global Strike and NGB news;
Long-range strike will also be assessed this year. The Pentagon’s chief technology officer, Zachary Lemnios, slipped a significant comment into his presentation at DTAR. Talking about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) forthcoming HTV-2 hypersonic glide vehicle test, set for April from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., he said that it would demonstrate the ability “to hit a target 5,000 mi. away in 23 min.”
The keywords are “hit a target” because HTV-2 was once referred to as the Common Aero Vehicle (CAV), and the first two letters of the parent program’s name, Falcon, stood for “force application.” But in 2005, a congressional group that regarded all Prompt Global Strike (PGS) projects as dangerous neo-conservative fantasies forced Darpa to rename the CAV and return Falcon to bird status.
It is now acceptable to talk about targets because PGS has been reanimated and is funded for not one, but two demonstrations beyond the two Darpa test shots. The favored solution is still USAF’s Conventional Strike Missile (CSM), comprising a payload delivery vehicle carried on a Minotaur rocket. This demonstrator is due to fly in early 2012.
However, the budget also funds testing of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, a project originally generated by the Army and Sandia National Laboratory, of which little has been heard since it briefly surfaced a few years ago (DTI May 2008, p. 25). A small test vehicle, renamed the Hypersonic Glide Body, is to fly in 2011 on a Strategic Target System rocket, also developed by Sandia. The Army-Sandia project is a backup to CSM.
As for USAF’s Next Generation Bomber, funding profiles suggest that Northrop Grumman’s secret demonstrator program survives, but any production program has been deferred, pending the outcome of studies of long-range strike “capability mixes,” including bombers, UCAVs, cruise missiles and the Prompt Global Strike effort. The debate over whether the bomber should have a nuclear role, under the current nuclear posture review, will also continue.
Long-range strike will also be assessed this year. The Pentagon’s chief technology officer, Zachary Lemnios, slipped a significant comment into his presentation at DTAR. Talking about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) forthcoming HTV-2 hypersonic glide vehicle test, set for April from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., he said that it would demonstrate the ability “to hit a target 5,000 mi. away in 23 min.”
The keywords are “hit a target” because HTV-2 was once referred to as the Common Aero Vehicle (CAV), and the first two letters of the parent program’s name, Falcon, stood for “force application.” But in 2005, a congressional group that regarded all Prompt Global Strike (PGS) projects as dangerous neo-conservative fantasies forced Darpa to rename the CAV and return Falcon to bird status.
It is now acceptable to talk about targets because PGS has been reanimated and is funded for not one, but two demonstrations beyond the two Darpa test shots. The favored solution is still USAF’s Conventional Strike Missile (CSM), comprising a payload delivery vehicle carried on a Minotaur rocket. This demonstrator is due to fly in early 2012.
However, the budget also funds testing of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, a project originally generated by the Army and Sandia National Laboratory, of which little has been heard since it briefly surfaced a few years ago (DTI May 2008, p. 25). A small test vehicle, renamed the Hypersonic Glide Body, is to fly in 2011 on a Strategic Target System rocket, also developed by Sandia. The Army-Sandia project is a backup to CSM.
As for USAF’s Next Generation Bomber, funding profiles suggest that Northrop Grumman’s secret demonstrator program survives, but any production program has been deferred, pending the outcome of studies of long-range strike “capability mixes,” including bombers, UCAVs, cruise missiles and the Prompt Global Strike effort. The debate over whether the bomber should have a nuclear role, under the current nuclear posture review, will also continue.
dannydale
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Sexay. Looks like someone took a D-21 Tagboard drone and redesigned it with these neato inward-turning scramjet things from two iterations ago. Somewhere, Kelly Johnson is smiling, because the result looks quite right this go around. Probably could use a bit more tailfin, though.flateric said:
fightingirish said: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.
PDF: http://www.darpa.mil/TTO/solicit/BAA08-53/VULCAN_Industry_Day_Presentations.pdf
I've no doubt that this has been noticed before, but I just found something of small interest. In the upper left of the slide shown above, you can see top views of the Lockheed XST (length 14.4 meters), the HTV-3X and the D-21 (length, 12.8 meters). Sadly the XST and the D-21 are not shown to scale with each other, so they're useless in determining the scale of the HTV-3X.
Still, I decided to extract the image, to see what value it is. And lo and behold, the image shown is apparently *not* the image originally intended. The top view of the HTV is overlaid over the *later* version of the HTV. I'm guessing that someone included art of the then-current design, but got smacked down by security or business people.
Below are the (sadly) full-rez extracted images.
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Woody
Passionate about the advancement of technology
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/08/23/346234/afrl-reveals-astrox-designs-for-future-hypersonic-vehicles.html
It's the first I've heard about it.
Cheers, Woody
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It's baaaaaaaaaaaaack; From Aviation Week:
USAF Revives Blackswift Hypersonic-Like Plan
Jan 12, 2011
By Guy Norris guy_norris@aviationweek.com
Los Angeles
The U.S. Air Force is studying a hypersonic road map which calls for development of ambitious high-speed weapons and a high-speed reusable flight research vehicle (HSRFRV), slightly larger than the Darpa-led Blackswift Mach 6 demonstrator cancelled in 2008.
Both high-speed elements emerged from a government-industry workshop meeting in Washington DC held on Dec. 8-9, and covered development priorities designed to maintain the recent impetus in hypersonics gained with the X-51A WaveRider and to some extent the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle and HTV-2 hypersonic test.
The plan, discussed by Steven Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for science, technology and engineering, at the recent AIAA Aerospace Sciences conference in Orlando, Fla., includes parallel development paths towards both hypersonic weapons and the reusable testbed.
The weapons path would be relatively fast-track, with development of a demonstrator over five years and first flight by October 2016. Three major options for the demonstrator include an “X-51-like” vehicle that would, like the WaveRider, be air-launched from a B-52. A second option would cover development of a “tactically-compliant” high-speed version that could be carried by internally-carried by the Northrop Grumman B-2, and externally by the Lockheed Martin F-35. A third option, also involving a B-2/F-35 capable launch, would be an all-new vehicle configuration.
The more advanced element of the road map is Walker’s call for a re-usable demonstrator incorporating a turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC), as well as the ability to take-off and land on a runway. As with the Blackswift project, the HSRFRV’s TBCC will combine a high-Mach turbojet with a dual-mode ramjet/scramjet, the two sharing a common inlet and nozzle. Unlike Blackswift’s TBCC, however, which was designed to power the demonstrator from takeoff to a very short period of five-minutes at Mach 6 cruise and back, the HSRFRV appears to be aimed at more ambitious goals.
Walker says the proposed vehicle will have the capability for up to 15 minutes at Mach 4 plus. In addition it will have limited duration at higher Mach numbers. Mindful of the pitfalls that have swallowed up so many previous hypersonic goals, not the least of them the X-30 National Aerospace Plane (NASP), the plan calls for a steady development schedule towards a first flight in October 2021. Walker says “the team feels if the money is available we can get there”.
Speaking to Aviation Week, Air Force Research Laboratory X-51A program manager Charles Brink says “the Air Force, under Steve’s leadership, has been doing a good job of herding all the cats, and coming up with a more streamlined, coherent high-speed vehicle roadmap.” The completion of the X-51A, he says, will provide data that “plays into the rules and tools development” for use in the following weapons and platforms developments. Brink adds that the Air force is aiming to conduct the second attempted flight of the X-51A in late March, having abandoned a potential window this month owing to unavailability of a B-52 launch aircraft.
However, despite converging with national priority development goals outlined by support groups such as the U.S. Hypersonics Industry Team, some have expressed caution over the plan. AIAA president and former Air Force Chief Scientist Mark Lewis believes more emphasis should be placed on building-up experience using “weaponized” X-51s. Speaking to Aviation Week he says, “the X-51 is an important step towards a potential high-speed weapon. Four flights is too few, and we should put more funding into more flights and build-off that platform. To me the logical step is to push out to multiple minutes of flight time – 15 and 30 mins – and work towards an operational system. You don’t have to have a turbine to do this,” he adds. “Be bold, but be realistic in that reach. If not you risk going back to a NASP-like failure,” he warns.
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2021 really? This is definitely one of those "no bucks no Buck Rogers" situations.
USAF Revives Blackswift Hypersonic-Like Plan
Jan 12, 2011
By Guy Norris guy_norris@aviationweek.com
Los Angeles
The U.S. Air Force is studying a hypersonic road map which calls for development of ambitious high-speed weapons and a high-speed reusable flight research vehicle (HSRFRV), slightly larger than the Darpa-led Blackswift Mach 6 demonstrator cancelled in 2008.
Both high-speed elements emerged from a government-industry workshop meeting in Washington DC held on Dec. 8-9, and covered development priorities designed to maintain the recent impetus in hypersonics gained with the X-51A WaveRider and to some extent the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle and HTV-2 hypersonic test.
The plan, discussed by Steven Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for science, technology and engineering, at the recent AIAA Aerospace Sciences conference in Orlando, Fla., includes parallel development paths towards both hypersonic weapons and the reusable testbed.
The weapons path would be relatively fast-track, with development of a demonstrator over five years and first flight by October 2016. Three major options for the demonstrator include an “X-51-like” vehicle that would, like the WaveRider, be air-launched from a B-52. A second option would cover development of a “tactically-compliant” high-speed version that could be carried by internally-carried by the Northrop Grumman B-2, and externally by the Lockheed Martin F-35. A third option, also involving a B-2/F-35 capable launch, would be an all-new vehicle configuration.
The more advanced element of the road map is Walker’s call for a re-usable demonstrator incorporating a turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC), as well as the ability to take-off and land on a runway. As with the Blackswift project, the HSRFRV’s TBCC will combine a high-Mach turbojet with a dual-mode ramjet/scramjet, the two sharing a common inlet and nozzle. Unlike Blackswift’s TBCC, however, which was designed to power the demonstrator from takeoff to a very short period of five-minutes at Mach 6 cruise and back, the HSRFRV appears to be aimed at more ambitious goals.
Walker says the proposed vehicle will have the capability for up to 15 minutes at Mach 4 plus. In addition it will have limited duration at higher Mach numbers. Mindful of the pitfalls that have swallowed up so many previous hypersonic goals, not the least of them the X-30 National Aerospace Plane (NASP), the plan calls for a steady development schedule towards a first flight in October 2021. Walker says “the team feels if the money is available we can get there”.
Speaking to Aviation Week, Air Force Research Laboratory X-51A program manager Charles Brink says “the Air Force, under Steve’s leadership, has been doing a good job of herding all the cats, and coming up with a more streamlined, coherent high-speed vehicle roadmap.” The completion of the X-51A, he says, will provide data that “plays into the rules and tools development” for use in the following weapons and platforms developments. Brink adds that the Air force is aiming to conduct the second attempted flight of the X-51A in late March, having abandoned a potential window this month owing to unavailability of a B-52 launch aircraft.
However, despite converging with national priority development goals outlined by support groups such as the U.S. Hypersonics Industry Team, some have expressed caution over the plan. AIAA president and former Air Force Chief Scientist Mark Lewis believes more emphasis should be placed on building-up experience using “weaponized” X-51s. Speaking to Aviation Week he says, “the X-51 is an important step towards a potential high-speed weapon. Four flights is too few, and we should put more funding into more flights and build-off that platform. To me the logical step is to push out to multiple minutes of flight time – 15 and 30 mins – and work towards an operational system. You don’t have to have a turbine to do this,” he adds. “Be bold, but be realistic in that reach. If not you risk going back to a NASP-like failure,” he warns.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2021 really? This is definitely one of those "no bucks no Buck Rogers" situations.
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Thread crosslink: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,191.msg133984.html#msg133984
jjnodice
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I was looking at this report from LM Aeronautics which had some interesting discussion on A-12, NASP, and HTV-3:
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a535843.pdf
Phase II of LM's work with hypersonic structural analysis:
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a564268.pdf
It mentions Phase III (I love a trilogy!).
Attached is a picture of the conceptual design.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a535843.pdf
Phase II of LM's work with hypersonic structural analysis:
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a564268.pdf
It mentions Phase III (I love a trilogy!).
Attached is a picture of the conceptual design.
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antigravite
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dark sidius
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May be this program is still alive?
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program is dead, but has offspring in form High-Speed Reusable Flight Research Vehicle (HSRFRV)
dark sidius
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May be this study can help to devellop a new bomber, or Isr aircraft, many people in 2008 says HTV-3X going to black. Flying faster and higher is the futur of aerospace wars, when we look the 6th gen preliminary concept the speed is very important may be more than stealth.
dark sidius
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May be its a sign that the Falcon program is still alive or another similary program is in the projects of Air force, there is a big question with the long range strike familly, what kind of platforms ares in this family?
Vahe Demirjian
I really should change my personal text
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dark sidius said:
The Blackswift project was axed long ago ---- probably the big reason that the USAF stopped funding Blackswift was because it was skeptical that a hypersonic combat aircraft would be feasible without a series of airborne flight demonstrations to test the feasibility of sustained hypersonic air-breathing flight. The X-51 program has been completed anyway after two successes and two failures, so the question is whether the USAF and DARPA will decide to commission a fighter-sized hypersonic technology demonstrator to capitalize on the achievements of the X-51. Too bad the Blackswift project was axed even the USAF saw the X-51 as a stepping stone to Blackswift.
As for the rest of the Falcon program, the status of the Falcon program after the completion of the HTV-2 flight test program remains unknown, but the USAF, after being aware of the mixed results of the HTV-2 flight test program, has probably decided that Mach 20 air-breathing flight is not feasible at the moment.
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it already did - check recent pdfs postedSundog said:Nice find. I really like the way the final design looks. Now if Lockheed would be so kind as to post some nice three views for us with cross sections....
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Vahe Demirjian said:
Not really. HTV-3X was roadmapped as being TBCC. X-51 was not really a stepping stone to HTV-3X.
Vahe Demirjian said:
The program has a successor.
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=16562.0
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flateric said:
While I liked the first design as well, it didn't seem very realistic to me. It seemed volumetrically inefficient. It had a lot of surface area with very little volume for payload and fuel, IMHO.
dark sidius
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The Facet engine testing on the ground was a success, and there is no news about this engine, Htv-2 morph in Integrated hypersonic, Darpa want a demonstrator for end year 2016, it look like in reality than Falcon program is still alive in another concept, and little step made year after year get more closer to a real full size hypersonic demonstrator, and the success of the last flight of X-51 will make a turn in aerospace technology and start to open the door of reusable hypersonic aircraft/spacecraft.
I
Ian33
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DSE said:
I wonder if this is what they had read? http://www.parabolicarc.com/2009/05/17/tests-conducted-darpa-ramscramjet-hypersonic-engine/
dark sidius
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Yes its that Ian33, the test finish a success with mach 6 conditions, this news was on the net years ago. There is a video on you tube about Facet mach 6 you can watch minute of the test its interesting.
I
Ian33
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http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/pratt-whitney-rocketdyne-tests-dual-mode-ramjet-for-darpa-hypersonic-falcon-216870/
Tested from 2 to 6 Mach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v5Nqgxbh_s
Mach 6 FaCET test. This is the video you were searching for I hope.
Tested from 2 to 6 Mach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v5Nqgxbh_s
Mach 6 FaCET test. This is the video you were searching for I hope.
dark sidius
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Great video, we see how the temperature could be a problem for this type of engine. Since that there is no news on this engine.
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"Rubber engine"? And not to be a downer but $900k is about enough to get the challenge coins and models for the managers made. Maybe squeeze in a few Powerpoints if they really have the Eye of Sauron looking down at them. :'(
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Removed a bunch of political posts. Stick to aviation please
dark sidius
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Is it mean that SR-72 is near to be a demonstrator ?
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