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Great article - SR-71 Blackbird...
"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message news  On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:54:24 -0400, "D.Duck" wrote: "Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message . .. On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:05:19 -0000, wrote: On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:47:07 +0000, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote: There has been some speculation that the oft rumored "Aurora" is really a revamped, updated SR-71 design with a hybrid jet/scram jet engine capable of extra-atmosphere flight. It's also been rumored that the Aurora was canceled in the '90s, due to the expense. That's what they want you to think. :) There is some interesting speculation about "Aurora" in that it may not be the classic high speed fighter style airplane, but a hybrid zepplin with some very ineresting capabilities. I have a hard time believing that they would dump the whole spy plane concept due to cost. Satellites are nice, but even the most clued in speculators admit that spy satellites are limited in time and space. Real time data is paramount in times of crisis and that means spy planes. What about geosynchronous satellites. or aren't todays optics up to the job? Believe it or not, you have to move them. Everytime you move them, you have to recalculate the orbits and the remaining fuel load. You just can't move one from covering, say Moscow to St. Pertersburg without a whole bunch of work. And the constellation isn't that large - those spy sats are huge, cost a ton of money and not easy to deal with. Spy planes are better deployable assets. Secondly, humint is much more reliable than elint in this instance. Putting a crew in a cockpit and having them effectively scout, or make decision based on what they see or even what happens, is more efficient and practical. I know, you're just lobbying for a job. You could take your Hasselblad up there. 8-) |
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