Is that true?
Let’s for the moment ignore any current conflicts, and look at the speed records. I thought that the only one to have acieved mach 3 was Gillette.
According to this site the (airplane speed) record is still held by the SR-71:
If Mach1=741.4mph (as this site claims), that works out as Mach 2.96.
Beaten by a razor! 
The speed of sound isn’t a fixed number. It varies base on various factors, especially altitude. Here’s a site that can calculate it based on various factors: http://aero.stanford.edu/StdAtm.html
Eric
The speed of sound at 35,000 - 60,000 feet is about 660 miles per hour. (Speed of sound is dependent on temperature. Hence, higher altitude=lower temp=slower sound.) Calculating, we get Mach 3.23 for the world record, which is consistent with County Squire’s assertion.
In more comprehensible terms, the SR-71 the Smithsonian has set a record on its last flight by getting from Los Angeles to Washington in 64 minutes and 2 seconds.
OK, that’s faster than my razor. Point taken. Hijack over.
Now, back to the actual specs, economics and politic considerations of the OP.
Country Squire, I thought “Aurora”…aka “Darkstar” was a real plane.
It would make sense: the SR-71 and the U-2 were both
designed in the 50s and tested in the 60s, the stealth bomber and stealth fighter designed in the 70s and tested in the 80s.
What are they designing and testing today?
The Aurora/Darkstar was supposed to fly at mach3-5, using a hupersonic version of the pulse jet, first used by the Germans in WW2 in their V-1 buzz-bombs. The fuel would be some combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid methane.
Also a form of external combustion technology would be used for propulsion.
Instead of fuel being burned in a combustion chamber and blown out the jet nozzle, raw fuel would simply be squirted through the rear of the plane; the supersonic shock-wave and the plane’s fuselage becoming the rocket nozzle.
I saw some show on TV that showed video of a vapor trail left by some kind of plane. No one saw the plane but the vapor trail was very unique. Instead of just a straight line of vapor there were ‘balls’ of vapor along the line akin to a string with knots tied along its length. The show could only speculate what made those but their experts said that they would expect a pulse jet to create such a thing. Obviously not proof of anything but interesting nonetheless. I don’t know if it is real or not but it would I’d bet that they have something up their sleeve.
As an aside I didn’t think making engines to move planes quickly was a problem. I thought the real problem lied in the heat generated by flying so fast. As Johnny L.A. mentioned the SR-71 leaked like crazy while on the ground till external heat from friction sealed up the tanks. Pulse jets/RAM Jets/SCRAM jets/etc., are all well and good but you still have major friction problems unless you fly near or in space (at which point you’re probably better off with a cheaper satellite anyway).
Enola Straight - Aurora and Darkstar are most certainly NOT the same plane. But Darkstar IS most certainly a REAL plane, or rather, I guess, WAS a real plane (because the program’s been canceled). They were testing it for a while when I was at Edwards AFB. It was a stealthy UAV with a high-aspect wing with a top speed on the order of 150 knots, not Mach 3+.
There used to be a large dark spot next to the runway where it crashed on takeoff. Too bad I missed that! We started calling Darkstar “Darkspot” or “Darksplat”.
I have no information on the existence of Aurora.
There have been numerous reported sightings of futuristic aircraft that supposedly emitted a strange pulsing sound and traveled at incredible velocity.
One such sighting was from an oil rig on the North Sea sometime in the 1990s. Several workers claim to have seen something quite different from the SR-71/U2 and said it moved faster than they thought possible.
hey a Mig25R can do over Mach 3 , Eygpt used to use them to spy on Israel as it could out run any SAM system at the time
oh and the U-2 probably could be defeated by the S-300 russian SAM these days
Cite, please?
(I’ve never heard that the MiG-25 could go that fast.)
I heard that the MIG-25 can do Mach 3 once, after which it’s engines are burnt out.
I remember hearing about the MiG-25 when I was a kid, and distinctly remember hearing that it would do mach 3. But just to make sure, I entered the following into google: “mig-25” “foxbat” “performance” “mach”. I didn’t read the pages, but I could see from the search that maximum speeds quoted ranged from 2.35 to mach 3+.
From what I remember the MiG-25 was extremely fast, but very heavy and handled poorly compared to U.S. aircraft. It was designed to combat the B-70, which never saw production. I’d say it was a huge waste of money on the part of the U.S.S.R. Still, it was quite the bogeyman until a pilot defected with one to Japan.