Mysterious SR-72 DarkStar .. Is “Manned” Hypersonic Flight Here?

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

Maverick may have flashed across the screen accelerating in a as-of-yet unseen high-speed stealth fighter jet, capturing the attention and imagination of millions of fans. 

Yet, was Tom Cruise appearing to travel in his Lockheed DarkStar SR-72 “Son of Blackbird” at unprecedented “hypersonic” speeds? The hollywood portrayal ignited massive amounts of speculation and enthusiasm for the future of manned stealth fighter attack, but how much of what Maverick displayed was, is, or could soon be real? 

Is manned hypersonic flight already upon us? Can a human being actually survive in a hypersonic stealth jet traveling more than 6-times the speed of sound?  Perhaps fiction is imitating reality? Or maybe reality will at some point soon replicate fiction? 

Many reports an public essays say Lockheed’s stealthy, mysterious sleek-looking SR-72 is both real and acknowledged by the Air Force. Lockheed distributed poster images of the “conceptual” aircraft at the premier of the movie Maverick.  What is the concept and what has Lockheed’s famous Skunk Works already engineered? Such questions likely continue to find a lasting resting place in the minds of fans and weapons enthusiasts. 

At this point, there may not be a clear or definitive answer.  In recent years, Warrior has talked to many  US military scientists and innovators in regarding progress and the “realm” of possibility when it comes to hypersonic flight. 

 Army & Air Force Research Laboratories … a History of Possibility

Years ago, a former Air Force Chief Scientist talked to Warrior about the maturation of hypersonic technology in terms of what he called a “stairstep” approach, wherein each successful breakthrough would be separated by many years of experimentation and development.  This conversation with Warrior and former Air Force Chief Scientist Gregory Zacharias took place more than ten years ago, and at the time Zacharias said he anticipated operational hypersonic weapons to be here by the early 2020s, and that hypersonic “drones” will likely be here by 2030. As for manned hypersonic flight, he did not dismiss the possibility but said that did not appear feasible at that time given the massive “heat” at which an aircraft would need to travel.  When it comes to thermal management, Zacharias explained that the temperatures at hypersonic speeds are simply too high for a human being to survive. As an innovator and scientist, whose specialty was autonomy and unmanned systems, Zacharias did not fully deny that manned hypersonic flight could be possible at some point, but he did indicate it did not appear to be on the horizon.