National Defense

NASA Won’t Say What Its Mystery Aircraft Is, But It Wants To Fly ‘Higher, Farther, And Faster’

(Gzzz via Wikimedia Commons)

NASA is staying tight-lipped about a mysterious Blackbird-like aircraft teased by Administrator Jared Isaacman as the agency pushes to develop experimental planes capable of flying higher and faster than they have in decades.

Isaacman displayed the dark, unidentified aircraft during his recent All-In Summit presentation on a slide titled “Rebuilding our X-plane portfolio.” When one of the hosts later referred to the image as a Blackbird, Isaacman responded, “You sure that’s a Blackbird?” before adding that NASA is “getting back in the business of flying high and fast again.”

NASA declined to identify the aircraft or say whether the image depicts an actual program, but the agency strongly suggested more experimental aircraft are coming.

“NASA has a long history of building and flying experimental aircraft that push the boundaries of what is possible,” a NASA spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “As Administrator Isaacman has said, we want to see more X-planes flying in the years ahead, developing the technologies that will allow us to fly higher, farther, and faster than we have in decades. We look forward to sharing more as those efforts progress.”

Isaacman has already ordered the agency to redirect its aviation research toward more ambitious experimental programs. A May directive instructed officials to pursue additional X-planes and focus on “radical airframe and engine propulsion design” that could support future civilian, commercial or national security requirements, according to NASA.

NASA’s most prominent current X-plane is the Lockheed Martin-built X-59, which is intended to test whether supersonic aircraft can replace the disruptive sonic boom with a quieter sound that could eventually help enable commercial supersonic travel over land. The aircraft made its first supersonic flight June 5, reaching roughly Mach 1.1 at 43,400 feet, according to NASA.

The mysterious aircraft shown by Isaacman appears considerably different from the X-59 and bears a visual resemblance to the legendary SR-71 Blackbird, though the limited image offers little basis for determining what the aircraft actually is.

“[It] does look like a SR-71 profile,” R. John Hansman, the T. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the DCNF. Hansman cautioned that the image itself does not reveal meaningful information about the aircraft’s possible design, speed, propulsion or mission.

Hansman said a new high-speed X-plane would likely have limited civilian applications but could potentially prove useful for military or space-launch purposes if NASA is pursuing hypersonic technology. Developing such an aircraft would primarily require advances in propulsion and materials capable of surviving the extreme temperatures generated during high-speed flight, Hansman told the DCNF.

The Blackbird itself was designed to cruise at roughly Mach 3.2 and operate above 80,000 feet, according to NASA. NASA previously used aircraft from the Blackbird family for research into high-speed flight, while the Air Force operated the SR-71 as a reconnaissance platform.

NASA’s history with extreme-speed experimental aircraft extends well beyond the Blackbird. The X-15 reached Mach 6.7 and an altitude of 354,200 feet during a research program that produced data later used in the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs, according to NASA.

Isaacman has made clear he wants NASA to return to that tradition, criticizing investments in incremental improvements to mature technology while calling for more aggressive experimentation with aircraft and propulsion. Whether the shadowy aircraft shown behind him represents one of those programs, however, remains something NASA is not yet willing to say.