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I first saw that picture here in a post from you maybe a year ago.
Always figured (if that illustration was of an actual aircraft as claimed) if it was
some kind of product of ISINGLASS. Looks like it has conventional engines mounted underneath and a rocket on the back.
The XB-70 style intake is interesting too, especially now that Boeing shows their SR-72 entry/concept with the same intake.
The ‘90s is a huge gap in aircraft awesomeness, I’m hoping Aurora gets declassified soon
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I'm lead to believe that it is a ISINGLASS product from McDonald Douglass. The image is of a painting seen at McDonald Douglass St Louis by an Aviation Week & Space Technology, which is where a lot of ISINGLASS work went on.
You got the engine placement reversed, however. The upper engines are the conventional engines, likely GE-J79-17s as used on F-4E Phantoms, since the upper intakes are definitely F-4 Phantom intakes. There is a slight possibility the engines are PW-F100-200s from the F-15A/B Eagle, since the image shows an F-15B was one of the chase aircraft by the tail section shown that appears in the image.
The lower intake would be for the ramjet engine. It's placement is similar to the SR-72 to take advantage of airflow compression from the airframe and wings. In the image there is flame coming from the ramjet, indicating that this would be an image of the start of a test run for the aircraft.
I tend to think the painting was of the first ramjet-powered flight of this aircraft, likely some time in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I 'd love to get the facts on what exactly is shown, but without any concrete information it's all speculation. But there was a photo taken from the ground out in the California desert that many believe was the aircraft in this image, under the name BRIGHT STAR.