

Forget robotic spy planes, drone fighter-bombers and self-landing orbital snoops saboteurs laboratories. In the world of secretive Pentagon aerospace projects, none are more sensational than the high-flying, Mach 6 Blackswift.

The hypersonic, unmanned Blackswift could become almost anything: a satellite launcher, an SR-71-style spy plane or even a super-evasive – nay, untouchable – bomber. That is, if it could just keep its funding. After many years rumored work, Blackswift stepped into the light in 2007 when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched a formal development program, aiming to build two prototypes for a total cost of around $1 billion. Two years later, Blackswift was dead, a victim of budget cuts and skeptical lawmakers.

Now Blackswift is (sorta) back, according to some stellar reporting at the Ares blog. "The U.S. Air Force is drawing up a new hypersonic development road map which, to the delight of many and the fear of some, revives the concept of a reusable flight research vehicle similar to the abandoned Blackswift," Guy Norris revealed. He called the re-born hypersonic plane, "son of Blackswift."

The revival raises some big questions: is Blackswift 2.0 at all related the Pentagon's new bomber initiative, or the military's secret battle plan for countering China? Can the new Blackswift overcome vexing technical challenges? And even if it can, do we have the billions of dollars it might take to build the Mach-6 plane in meaningful numbers?

On the technical side of things, there's reason to hope. 2010 was a banner year for U.S. hypersonics research and reusable space and near-space vehicles. The X-51 hypersonic missile had its first successful flight. The HTV-1 hypersonic robo-plane flew, too, and crashed – but Darpa quickly figured out why and readied a second prototype. The X-37B reusable spaceplane spent eight months in orbit doing God-knows-what. A bunch of space entrepreneurs convinced NASA and the Air Force to try restoring a pair of long-defunct X-34 spaceplane demonstrators. On the strength of these accomplishments, Blackswift might actually prove workable.

Which is not to say it will be easy. To launch a vehicle from a runway, boost to Mach 6, cruise around then land on the same runway requires no fewer than three separate propulsion systems: a jet for taking off, a rocket for the initial speed boost and a scramjet for sustained hypersonic flight. The whole point of Blackswift is to mix all three propulsion styles into a singe "combined-cycle" engine. It's one of the toughest technical challenges in all of aerospace.

With all of NASA's and the military's other hypersonic vehicles helping out, the new Blackswift just might stand a chance. But don't hold your breath. A reliable, reusable, hypersonic warplane is a decade away, at best. In the meantime, the Pentagon could spin off its reinvigorated hypersonics work into a new class of super-fast missiles for today's 60-year-old, decidedly subsonic, B-52 bombers. According to Norris, the first new missile could be ready by 2016.

Art: Darpa

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