NASA breaks the world speed record - again

NASA builds an aircraft that brakes world speed record. One aircraft that is famous for being 10 years ahead of it’s time is the SR-71 Blackbird which broke the last speed record of 3 MACH. The X43 is an unmanned rocket plane. Once the jet fuel was depleted, the aircraft crashed in the Pacific Ocean like it was suppose to. The future of this would be one that could land and be reusable. The SR-71 was great because it could be used as a reconnaissance plane. It is the successor of the U2 space craft which flown in the 60s for reconnaissance pictures over Russia in the cold war. It could fly so high that Russian SAMS could not shoot it down, but effectually the SAMS did. It must have scared the heck out of the Soviets. The U2 spy plane is still in service for NASA. It is the 2nd longest airplane in service except for the B52 Bomber. The SR-71 Blackhawk was in service for a long time too. Anyways, that super sonic aircraft that broke the world speed record was the X-43 (rocket plane) at Mach 7. NASA is also building the X-43A which is supposed to go MACH 10.



More information



Above Top Secret



Here are some other strange American Aircraft and a paragraph about each



U2 Spy Plane







Famous for taking pictures of military zones in Russia. It had the ability to fly high and around the world. It’s interesting that it’s the 2nd longest commissioned plane in the world. Most facts about the plane is top secret. It does have the longest wings I’ve ever seen. It first went into service in 1951 (at the beginning of the cold war) when presently I survives to still be commissioned to this day. Upgraded of course with latest safety features and ejection seat. . It top seed is 478 miles per hour or MACH 0.58. Maximum altitude is 70,000 feet. That is the main purpose of the aircraft. Great for use in hurricane surveys. It can fly well above the hurricane to take pictures of wind speed which way it’s going. I wouldn’t doubt the United States Weather Service used this plane for this purpose. The wing span is very long 105 feet. You must have long wings to keep the plane from stalling at high altitude.



The U2 Spy Plane has one the highest mission completion rates in the U.S. Air Force despite the fact that the aircraft is the most difficult to fly due to its unusually challenging takeoff and landing characteristics. Due to its high-altitude mission, the pilot must wear a full pressure suit.



U2 II – SR71 Blackbird







Used in the 70s and 80s for the same exact purposes as U2. One interesting thing about this aircraft is it broke the world speed record in the 1980s. It could also go Mach 3 and used early stealth. The blackbird wasn’t used for any military purposes except in Operation Desert Storm in 1993. The US Government only unclassified that Stealth bombers were used in Operation Desert Storm, however, didn’t say if there was a reconnaissance plane involved or not. To some people – it remains the greatest aircraft ever made. The plane was very expensive (mostly because it had older technology that newer technology could do at a fraction of the cost.)



U2 III – Project: Aurora









A government project that is supposed to be in service presently in place of the SR71 Blackbird. There is no information that it does exist. Rumors are that it can go Mach 3 – Mach 7 or twice as fast as the Blackbird. Rest is classified. There was an article in Space and Technology Magazine which discussed Aurora in depth, but no one believed it apparently.



he name "Aurora" came about from a 1986 Pentagon Budget document and was slotted to receive a large sum of money. The project is suspected to contain two aircraft: a large SST that is the first stage of a two-stage aircraft/satellite launcher possibly developed following the Challenger explosion in 1986, and a smaller triangular HST that has been even more reported and speculated about. It is said to be the most remarkable flying machine ever built and is seen as the epitome of a century of aerospace development! I originally did this project for FS5 when I noticed an article in Popular Science in 1993 and later on bought the XR-7 Thunderdart plastic model kit (based on Aurora) by Testers Corp. Testers also made the SR-75 Penetrator model kit which is what my version is somewhat based upon. Since the true designations and confirmed existence are unknown, I used the same numbers as the kits since they make some sense, however those silly names will NOT be used. Since this is the largest project I have ever done, and all previous sims couldn't allow for the planes to be done properly it has taken several years of spare time to get to this point, therefore I have broken it down into several parts. The two main sections will deal with each aircraft: