09-24-2020, 11:43 AM
The Parasitic fighter concept has been around since WW1 and the Zeppelins. US army aircorps experimented with different capture concepts but none worked satisfactory. If you remember the Space shuttle on the back of a special Boeing 747 that is the concept and the way the space Shuttle was released off the back of the 747 for glide testing.
Now that the concept is clearer think about something like the XB-70 only bigger carrying a small Mach 6 to 17 (?) parasitic fighter that goes really really fast and would leave the SR-71 so far behind the speed curve the SR is not even in the race. There has always been speculation that there was a replacement for the SR-71 but was always rebutted by the satellite spy folks.
So I will post this and get what you want out of the possible programs.. I just listen and find some things interesting about What might be made and flying.
Now that the concept is clearer think about something like the XB-70 only bigger carrying a small Mach 6 to 17 (?) parasitic fighter that goes really really fast and would leave the SR-71 so far behind the speed curve the SR is not even in the race. There has always been speculation that there was a replacement for the SR-71 but was always rebutted by the satellite spy folks.
So I will post this and get what you want out of the possible programs.. I just listen and find some things interesting about What might be made and flying.