In 2007, DARPA committed to funding the development of a prototype unmanned aircraft called "Blackswift" that would be able to take off from a runway unassisted and be anywhere in the world within a few hours. The program was canceled just a year later, but now, it's back.
Technically, this new development project being worked on by the U.S. Air Force won't be Blackswift: it'll be "the son of Blackswift," whatever that means. The original idea behind the Falcon hypersonic vehicle program (of which Blackswift was a part) was to create an aircraft that could fly fast enough to make it anywhere it needed to be in an hour or two, a valuable capability for either a reconnaissance aircraft or a bomber.
The trickiest part about Blackswift and the Falcon program has always has been the engines. What Blackswift is supposed to be able to do is utilize one single "combined-cycle" engine that can make it all the way from takeoff to Mach 6 and above (and back) without relying on a carrier aircraft or booster rockets or anything like that. This means combining turbojets (like the Concorde used) with ramjets (like the SR-71 used) with scramjets (like the X-51 used), all in one package. It's not going to be easy, but it's certainly possible, and we might see it within a decade.
Below, check out a concept video of the original Falcon/Blackswift aircraft.
0 comments:
Post a Comment