The race to field America's first hypersonic aircraft 

I’m half British and half American. My mums dad moved to America from the UK late 70’s to work at a place called MCAS Moffet Field. At this base there was something called the NASA Ames research centre. It was here my grandpa went to work designing the first aero shapes and scramjets for the testbed that they put on the nose of a Pegasus rocket, sling under a b52 and dropped at 50k. I think him and the team there were the grandfathers of scramjets and scramjet powered vehicles. At the time they had both the biggest and fastest wind tunnels in the world there. Mum moved there after she finished university. So I have grandpa and his cool job to thank for being half yank. He also helped design aspects of the Polaris ICBM and the satellite that intercepted Halley’s Comet. True genius of a man.

So glad that your channel exists. So hard to find good channels like yours. Great work!

You've quickly become one of the few channels I'll stop what I'm doing to watch as soon as something comes out.

The ability to put together seemingly credible information and present it is a way that ordinary people can understand continues to amaze me. Outstanding work, well done.

While hypersonic speeds may limit the ability to deploy some weapons, it opens up the possibility of deploying others. If you're deploying SCRAMJET powered missiles from a hypersonic platform, you no longer have to use boosters since they're already going hypersonic when launched.

I was a child when I was fortunate to audit a tour guide's presentation about the X20 Dyna Soar (Dynamic Soaring) vehicle. An engineer on the project; he thought it would work. I was nine, so I believed him. Still love it. When I was 12 their (Lewis') presentation was focused on first gen ion engines, zero gee testing, and the promotional film we were shown during our tour was about the A12 and the nuclear umbrella. Drive straight up at multi-mach to 100,000' and fire missiles! I remember thinking: "where did Dyna Soar go?" It made me sad. I had bought in on the dream of piloting a Mach 20 fighter. Deflated, I turned from engineering to art and have seldom looked back since. Until I watched your video. Cheers.

Anyone else think it's suspicious that the SR-72/Darkstar started to be talked about as if it had already flown, around the same time that it was revealed the NGAD had already flown?

I'm a huge SR-71 fangirl. I have a photo of myself at 10 years old standing under the nose of one on the Intrepid's deck as part of the Air Museum. I would absolutely LOVE to see an encore to the old Blackbird in the form of a hypersonic SR-72. The OG is the stuff of aviation legend. I think we have the know-how and the resources, and I'm excited to see what kind of innovation and creativity will bring such a beast to life.

I am very happy every time Sandboxx discusses hypersonic craft.

i've loved following Hermeus' journey, i cant wait to see what they can achieve this coming year!

Happy New Year Alex. I remember that there was a proposal to make the SR-71 a delivery platform for SRAM missiles, the concept was to have an SR-71 make attacks on Soviet IADS nodes with nuclear-armed SRAM missiles. The Missiles would have been carried in empty reconnaissance camera bays, I believe that 3 were specified to be carried. The abstract was in an SR-71 book I used to have.

Dude, I found a copy of Modern Combat Aircraft in my elementary school library and read the whole thing when I was 6. It was part of what got me into military and aviation history as it talked about things like the Korean War and Six Days War and the roles aircraft played.

I am really interested in the design considerations for dropping a payload at hypersonic speeds. It won’t be as simple as opening bomb bay doors in to the air flow. Even just having a cavity open would create a lot of turbulence and drag.

When you post it's like Christmas once a week., And I am sure I'm not the only person that feels this way. For aviation buffs like me who for medical reasons never got a chance to become a pilot but never lost the dream, Alex hollings air power helps keep the dream alive in a lot of us and for that I say thank you from all of us keep up the great work., And for us continuing to look up and wonder what's happening next

Always take time off to recharge! I did miss last week episode, but that's okay, just shows you how good your channel is! I worked at Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) for 25 years, all my bosses were workaholics, hardly managed to participate in watching my daughter grow up! So I have learned to appreciate stopping to smell the roses!

Another awesome video, thanks Alex!

Wonderful times to be an aerospace geek.... the reality of current fantasy is flying under cover of night, and the next unveiling is just behind the sunrise.

THANKS ALEX. SANDBOX, THANKS TO YOU, IS STILL THE PREMIER WARFIGHTING SITE ON THE INTERNET, AS A FORMER AIRCRAFT ENGINEER, I APPRECIATE BOTH THE TECH AND PRACTICALITY OF EVERY POST.

The X-15 is pretty well documented.

I’m a big believer in that if we know about it, it’s probably already in service to an extent.

Yeah go nailed a few points. The only real limits to these programs are the costs. Getting a cheap, high-strength, high temp, and low heat transfer material is almost impossible. Modern material science can give us some crazy metals and composites, but they cost fortunes

There was a time when breaking the sound barrier was the aeronautical unicorn, then space travel, then the moon. It's exciting to think we'll reach an age when an aircraft flying faster than an SR71 without breaking a sweat will be as benign as it is groundbreaking.

Fantastic video Alex. It is becoming more obvious that hypersonics are going to have a large role in aviation's future which is an exciting prospect. Maybe we can take the lead for speed.

Your apology is not accepted as it is not necessary. Your videos rock and if we have to suffer a week without one so you can keep your sanity we are all happy to do it. Glad you had a good bit of time off. Keep the great videos coming.

This is a great history class nobody knew about, even me, thanks to providing so much new technology in this matter

Thanks once again!! Always grateful for your effort

Alex, no need to apologize for the wait. We’re all glad you enjoyed it!

These videos may not mean much to some people but I got to tell you Alex. For giggity Fanboy military nerds such as myself, your content is pure gold! Love it! Keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing your future content.

20:48 "if brute force ain't workin', you're not using enough of it."

It's been known for years that manufacturing limitations were the problem, not design limitations, when it came to propulsion.

Perhaps I’ve been around the military and military contractors for a bit too long, but I’m not buying any of this?! That’s not to say that Alex doesn’t know what he’s talking about, this is actually one of the most coherent videos on US hypersonics I’ve seen in quite some time. That said, I also have to assume that Alex knows that military nomenclature just doesn’t work in such a way that would present us with an aircraft whose nomenclature equals an SR-72. That, for the civilians among us, is just marketing that folks at Lockheed Martin use to impress said civilians. Even military contractors make use of marketing tools. Because contractors often find themselves interacting with civilian politicians and their staff. It also wasn’t lost on me how the Lockheed Martin exec wasted no time in comparing hypersonics to stealth as being equally disruptive, which is debatable. As Alex conveyed here, maintaining hypersonic velocities with air-breathing engines is incredibly difficult. The technical challenges associated with properly igniting a SCRAM or RAMJET engine until the point at which it generates positive thrust are numerous. Providing a platform to carry and launch munitions from, while exceeding Mach 5, is an order of magnitude more complicated than simply achieving HS flight. I still can’t even understand how such a craft would deploy weapons from an internal weapons bay? It may sound silly, but how does one present a bay door made of…..anything to airflow exceeding Mach 5 when anticipated temperatures are well over 1300° F, let alone munitions that house electronics for guidance? These challenges serve as excellent reminders as to why the likes of Russia and China have been beating their hypersonic drums so loudly. Both countries would rely upon asymmetrical weapon systems to deter the US from attacking them. They simply cannot hope to prevail against the US in open military conflict, so they make quite a bit of noise about their investments in these “asym platforms” that threaten to do serious damage to US military assets should they be deployed against these countries in future conflict. Prompting the US to develop similar weapons of their own is simply gravy, as those investments are funds not available to increase the quantity of weapons the US has successfully deployed in recent conflicts. Even so, the US requires a measured approach to developing new weapon systems based upon technology the US abandoned during the 60’s? I simply cannot see the value in HS missiles that cost so much that military commanders may be forced to use them sparingly due to high cost, low yield and questionable effectiveness against specific targets when good old traditional missiles that approach HS speeds will get the job done, especially when those same commands have the option of saturating targets with multiple fire missions that ensure the targets are destroyed. Russia and China also share a storied past of dramatically overstating the effectiveness of their weapon systems. Considering the truly astonishing demise of the Russian military in the Ukraine (I’m still SHOCKED!) and China’s inability to overcome COVID, I would encourage a measured, none-too-hasty approach at developing some very costly hypersonic weapon systems to counter Russia & China, only to discover that they never had any hypersonic capability to speak of.

Thanks for your compelling coverage !

I love this channel always something awesome thank you

Welcome back! Happy new year!

best cross over in a minute Doc Chris Combs and sandbox!

Thanks for another secrets-filled video! I promise not to tell my wife who immigrated from China 2 years ago. Really love your drops.

OT: can we get a rundown on that stack of books from your intro? There’s gold there for sure.

This video is brilliant… well put together

Alex Hollings… You are absolutely my favorite airplane geek!

Always informative and well sourced. Thanks!

I was expecting a mostly speculative assessment of hypersonic aircraft. But this program's content was FAR better than that. Thumbs up for a very well detailed cover of the U.S. efforts

Awesome video

Fascinating video. Thanks for posting this.

I knew Pete Knight, one of the the original X-15 pilots. Pretty cool when he got his astronaut's wings.

This video kept reminding me of that one 4chan post about the never ending cycle of Chinese and Russian paper tigers scaring the US into leaping 2 entire generations ahead of everyone else then realizing the paper tigers are made of paper Foxbat moment

One aspect of hypersonic (or supersonic) flight that I’ve not heard discussed, is any Doppler Weather Radar will detect the shockwave produced by above speed of sound aircraft.

I usually skip intros to accounts I subscribe too… but I’m always psyched to hear “ I’m Alex Hollings and this is Air Power” “Fox 1 fox1” Thanks for making amazing content.

America's first hypersonic aircraft was the X15 in 1959

I've never read anything that said the X-20 'Dynasoar' was supposed to be either a hypersonic test vehicle, a bomber, or was supposed to skip off the atmosphere like Sanger's Silverbird concept. I do remember reading about a concept called the RoBo (Rocket Bomber) which was similar though.

Bet!!! Stoked for a new vid 💪🏼

Great work! Wow nice to know about all this. Information is the key to be knowledgeable in everyday life.

I hope this information is in the ballpark we may need it in the next 20 years, enjoyed your presentation 😊🌏

Alex, I always enjoy your videos thanks

Love your content, Alex. Can't wait until the next one.

I'm pretty sure the SR-72 does exist, probably in lengthy testing, so the US has the ability to design and build hypersonic aircraft and weapons, the sticking point has always been controlling these machines but, as the SR-72 is probably alive and kicking, they've managed to do what the other 2 haven't.

I am skeptical that that it is physically possible to scale this technology beyond what we are seeing with the Hermeus demonstrator. My main objection relates to what I am going to call the "Veyron Problem". If someone sits in a Bugatti Veyron and floors the gas pedal, then the car will run out of fuel in about 10 minutes. The SR-71 was plagued with this same problem, even with "supercruise", it was essentially a flying gas tank. The F-111 and all the fast jet fighters in the world also suffer from this same issue - at that is just at supersonic speed! Sustained Hypersonic flight would require more fuel than the aircraft could possibly hold for the rated thrust of the engine! The logistics of the energy source (the mass of the fuel) breaks the equations of hypersonic flight! Thus, there never will be a hypersonic piloted "plane" that uses these fancy combined cycle engines! I also am cynical enough to conjecture that Kelly Johnson at the Skunk Works modelled this problem back in the 1960s!

Awesome work!!!!

Don't apologize for taking time off. Dude, it's the holidays, we get it!

Considering Lockheed built the SR-71, and conducted hypersonic X-15 and D-21 drone research 70 years ago, it's not a stretch to think they've had real viable designs on the drawing board for quite some time. The only thing holding that progress back, is funding.

Fantastic info, great channel... Top marks

I think that happened way back on June 8,1959 with the X-15....not much of a race if you ask me! Nice to see it in the video :)

3:25 Looks a lot like the X37b

O man, finally after few weeks of gap, you r back again. I belive you are doing great 👍... Well, my request to you is, do not disappear suddenly, just inform prior to that... because there are N number of people across the globe, praise your videos like crazy... and I am one of those all the way from New Delhi. Stay blessed Dear Alex!!

thanks alex for the great content as always!!

Good on ya Alex

Very interesting presentation in the UK. we had many hypersonic R&D programs in the 1960s and 1970s, one of the major efforts being the MUSTARD program at Warton, and then there was HOTOL in the 1980s and early 1990s which I did a bit of work on until it was cancelled like all the rest. We now have a chance with Reaction Engines work which I hope leads to a flying article. All the best on your articles they are all very good.

Very creative technology video review....!

I’ve seen three aircraft of some type flying information and it look like three stars, moving slowly high in our atmosphere, one broke off and flew over the top of the other two, and it showered sparks around all the aircraft, I remember reading about the antigravity ship called Manta that displays propulsion some thing like that? i’ve also seen a propulsion system that left a donut pattern in the sky and it was moving fast. I’ve read about that experimental plane to ,can you share any light on these black project aircraft or is it something we just don’t talk about” thanks Alex Holley I’ve learned a lot from from your program peace, my friend👍👍🇺🇸🇺🇸

I'm new, this was an incredible video all around

Way before the recent Russian and Chinese propaganda around their hypersonic weapons, the US was testing this technology before the other 2 had even thought of it. In my opinion, there must've been something that the US hasn't been happy about in the past because the Pentagon had pretty much walked away from (publicly) it until the noise around the other 2. Even though it sounds impressive that Russia and China have hypersonic weapons, it actually really isn't what it seems as their weapons are fired high into the atmosphere and basically glide back down at hypersonic speeds. The other thing about the hypersonic weapons of the other 2 are pretty much uncontrollable and aren't that accurate.

It surprises me that a lot of people know absolutely nothing about the rest of Neil Armstrong's career apart from the little job of bouncing around on the moon. Not only is one of the most famous men in human history, he was also an exceptional pilot, USAF test pilot, X-15 pilot, NASA test pilot, Gemini pilot and owner of a beautiful Corvette Stingray.

I have an old copy of Compton's Encyclopedia. Old enough with Eisenhower, still as President. It has a section on the X-20, with pictures, in its space article.

Haven't seen an update on weaponized lasers lately. I am sure they have gotten smaller and more powerful!

Great report Alex!

I have said over the years, the military does NOT retire a superior air platform without having a better replacement hiding somewhere in the wings. We may not know about it for a period of time like when the SR-71 was first operational, but its replacement was already in development when talks of retiring the blackbird happened. Wouldn't it frost the Chinese to find that Darkstar is real (beyond the movie prop) after all? :^)

Excellent!

Great job! Thanks!

Glad to see the higher quality contents, upload rates aren’t that important.

Great video! As usual. 👍

I've always thought the idea of building a hypersonic weapon is a bit strange, mostly due to cost. Do we REALLY want the expensive $100m missile, or do we want a $250m aircraft that deploys cheaper weapons and returns to base? Have that hypersonic aircraft sling a cheaper glide vehicle from high altitude, then have the expensive bits actually return to base and be used. Certainly more complex, but it sounds like the approach that would facilitate the affordable use of hypersonic tech. If you're spending the equivalent of a whole F-35 on just one missile, you won't be able to shoot that many missiles before it comes unaffordable. Reusable hypersonic platforms that deploy cheaper glide weapons seems like the best compromise.

Very nice, like always!

I feel the need!

I love to collect the Hobby Master 1:72 die-cast models. They are highly detailed.

Outstanding Alex

I am a hypersonic skeptic. I am not sure if the added capabilities are worth the extra cost to build, maintain, and the complexity of combat operations. If i were the DoD tho I would totally hype our hypersonic missile and plane programs so that China and Russia spend tons of money to match them only to realize they are not worth the costs (like Star Wars during the Cold War)

Shouldn't we be more worried about fielding the NGAD to replace the F-22 instead? Sure the air force says they have it up and running, but it's not in service or in great enough numbers to be any kind of deterrence...

Awesome channel content! No need to apologize for taking time off. Everyone NEEDS time off to recharge.

To me it makes more sense to build multi use plane over a single use hypersonic missile!!

Great coverage and although I did really miss last weeks video, You should take the brakes you need brother !!

Talking about the cooling system on the engine of the SR-72 makes me think of the SABRE engine being developed by Reaction Engines inc. in the UK. It's a combined air-breathing/rocket engine which uses a precooler to cool the intake air at high speeds for low altitude operation, then switch to an onboard oxidizer for operation above altitudes of 28.5 km. REI are known to have had some investment and interest from the US DOD.

Is it just me or does that Skunk Works symbol on the tail of that SR72 look totally COOL?

Of course they're in development, it was in the Top Gun Maverick film

No need to apologize friend. Cost us exactly nothing for you to take a well deserved break from YT. Great vid btw.

The space shuttle reentered the atmosphere at Mach 25.

really missed my air power over the holidays however if it gave you some time with your Family and a break from the trolls then all is good Best in the new year Alex cheers from Canada !

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.

its gunna be wild to get a hyper jet Gig super nova factory in #Cambodia #Superjetz woooooiw

On Sunday mornings in California, some very unusual aircraft contrails could be momentarily seen. The planes moved exceptional fast and left a contrail of knots and hyphens. There was no sound or sonic boom. This started approx. 2004.

My speculation is that the HTV-3X Blackswift vehicle was cancelled in 2008 and Lockheed, with a sitting hypersonic fighter, sold it as SR-72 to NASA in 2014 to get funding. To be clear, my opinion is not an informed one, just a guess. I could be completely wrong, but it is fun to think about!

Excellent video!