Peregrin Toker wrote:
Then what about a SR-71 vs. a XB-70 or even a highly modded MiG-25?
A highly modified MiG-25 already exists, the Ye-266, later upgraded as the Ye-266M. With it the Soviets took a number of world speed and time to altitude records in the 1970's. Doing so really embraced the drag racing sprit as the engines were generally destroyed in flight with the gliding back to base. The US BTW, competed fiercely against this plane with a modified F-15 called the Streak Eagle and there was a lot of controversy of whether or not all the Soviets claims were ligament, it was suspected that they must have used rocket boost for some of the records.
The B-70 and SR-71 both could have been made better with new engines, but only to the tune of mach 3.5 at 80,000 feet. Going beyond that, even with a multi decade leap forward in technology really isn't possibul.
Then we'll dig up the Firefox.
![Twisted Evil :twisted:](./images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif)
More realistically we could strap a pod with a chimp to NASA's scramjet prototype.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956