SR-72 will be able to circle the earth in six hours

It’s fast. The SR-71 has been a piece of engineering genius that has stood the test of time. Its successor, the SR-72, will go twice as fast and could be hitting the skies in 2030.

The famous SR-71 Blackbird was put out to pasture over a decade ago – but the legendary Skunk Works aviation wizards that built it have been showing off a replacement that can travel twice as fast and it could be in the skies within a decade.

The SR-72 will be unmanned, saving a lot of the weight needed to keep the two fleshy pilots of its predecessor alive and functional, and will be able to cruise at high speeds for aerial reconnaissance. It is also being designed to have offensive capabilities that would make it the ultimate in fast bombers.