Two-Stage-to-Orbit 'Blackstar' System Shelved at Groom Lake?

Aviation Week & Space Technology ^ | 03/05/2006 | William B. Scott

[Southack]

"They point to nothing of the sort. "Blackstar" is fiction."

Ha! Thanks. Your above comments were good for a laugh (and not much else).

Do you not even realize that American *civilians* are using Two Stage To Space?!

Here's Rutan's SpaceShip One going sub-orbital. Heaven forbid our military do more.

[oldenuff2no]

The knowledge from the XB-70 was not lost. The flight data was used in the development of the SR-71. I also believe that there were such huge leaps forward in ability in the late 60's and early 70's that the XB-70 was obsolete rather quickly.
When did the stealth birds first go up? Does anyone here know the answer to that one? Where did the technology come from?

[WestVirginiaRebel]

So that's where Professor X got his plane! It was government surplus! :-)

[null and void]

[oldenuff2no]

The SR-71 was a Skunkworks special. It was 20 years ahead of it's time. Another interesting fact is that no SR was ever touched by any foreign nation. It was never caught by any interceptor, or touched by a SAM. No SR ever went down while overflying the other side and it was airborne over the USSR and China at our governments whim.
Most things about the SR have never been declassified.
Top speed.
Total Range.
Top altitude.
Radar signature.
A rational line of thought may take you to the conclusion that Russia and China would have put an aircraft ahead of and in the way of the SR if they could see it. The SR takes two states to turn it around. It does not turn and avoid very well at all.

[lonestar1]

> Do you not even realize that American *civilians* are using Two Stage To Space?!

> Here's Rutan's SpaceShip One going sub-orbital.

I'm well aware of SpaceShip One, thank you. I don't have to swipe photos of it off the Internet. I was standing right there, with a group of USAF test pilots, when it flew.

I also know SpaceShip One was not a capsule, and I know why it was not a capsule -- a configuration Burt Rutan considered and rejected -- because I've heard it from the man itself.

I don't rely on what I read in the funny papers.

> Heaven forbid our military do more

Just because civilians are doing something doesn't mean the military is doing more.

During the 1930's, civilian racing planes were over 100 mph than the best US military fighters. The battleship admirals and cavalry generals saw no use for aviation beyond spotter planes. Today, we're in the same situation. The carrier admirals and F-22 generals see no use for space, beyond recon satellites.

Space is still waiting for its Billy Mitchell -- UFO reports notwithstanding.

[lonestar1]

> No SR ever went down while overflying the other side and it was airborne over the USSR
> and China at our governments whim.

Direct overflights of the USSR were banned after Gary Powers's U-2 was shot down. The SR-71 didn't need to directly overfly a country. With its operating altitude, it could fly along the border and look sideways.

> Most things about the SR have never been declassified.
> Top speed.
> Total Range.
> Top altitude.

Actually, the entire pilots manual is declassified (minus a few sections describing sensor systems).