Who's Ready for Hypersonic Airplanes?

Was reading about the SR71 and the engine concept this week itself. To think that in the late 60's early 70's, 40 YEARS ago they already innovated sufficiently to get such a craft flying........

What an ugly design.

That's almost as ugly as the Boeing X-32.

"What an ugly design."

I could say the same for most modern 'aerodynamic' sedans and compact cars out on the road today. They all have that same 'mutant potato' look about them.

But if that's the shape that gets hypersonic speed, them that's the shape it is. Nobody's going to tank your business deal just because you flew into town on an 'ugly plane.'

Hyper or even super sonic mass transit does not make financial sense to me. If I'm a wealthy individual that must get myself, somebody else or something half way around the world in a few hours the logistics getting to the airport with a scheduled high speed plane will consume a majority of the time. It will be far faster to hire a private sub-sonic plane and leave immediately. However, telecommunications will always be even faster.

Instead of Lockheed's SR-72 Blackbird II, the effort should be toward a commercial hypersonic aircraft. There are ways this can be done and still protect the technology as the aircraft hops around the globe from airport to airport.

We don't need it just like Redfred said. Telecommunications is much faster. Save the grip and grin for later after the job is well along and you have the benefit of time.

I ran the civilian SR-72 concept by a globe trotting high roller client a few months ago. He is ready to do Dubai and Shanghai for $20k round trip at a one way time of 3-4 hours...and knows quite a few other folks of similar persuasion who only do business with face time.

I'm sure your globe trotting friend would agree to those prices. $20,000 round trip would probably not even cover the cost of fuel, let alone the $33,000,000 it cost to build one SR-71, let alone the proposed SR-72. The engine feasibility study for the SR-72 is over 40 times your suggested airfare. A cost benefit feasibility guess would be more like $1,000,000 cost one way for a passenger load. This gets back to the paradox of mass transit of the elite 0.001% of the population.

Without delving into your cost data, I would be surprised if the SR-72 three stage engine feasibility study cost less $1,000,000. With respect to fuel, most of the fuel for hypersonic is punching it to near low orbit, whereas for supersonic, it is both achieving height and pushing through a substantial amount of atmosphere. Maybe it should (and will) come down to the lifetime ROI for an SR-72 versus a commercial hypersonic craft several times larger.

At hypersonic speed only goods could be transported,live beings may need special dress and training like astronaught with breathing equipment .

I believe the Condorde did an admirable job of keeping the passengers safe and sane DESPITE the shared 'life support system' that all commercial passenger planes use.