Very O/T 'cept for the speed aspect - SR-71

[newsvx]

Originally posted by NikFu S.



Note on SR-71 recon:
Though it had a REALLY good camera, you didn't get many chances and if you screwed up you failed the mission.
Sat's being very slow moving, unmanned, equipped with more powerful spy equipment, and just as indetectable (if not more so) are the logical choice for low cost day-to-day operations.

The Blackbird will only be around as long as the military needs an ego.

Nik,
Sorry to be so blunt, but you are wrong. Satellites are VERY perdictable, not so a manned plane that can be diverted in-flight on a moments notice. In warfare, this is a very SIGNIFICANT advantage - I've been there, done that, and I have the tee-shirt!

As an ARMY guy for twenty some years in tactical intelligence, I know the value of this kind of intel - one can not put a price on it. BTW, taking photos was not the only mission of the SR-71. I really recommend getting the book by Buddy Rich, titled "The Skunk Works". It has a wealth of information.

Also, I don't believe there was ever a crash of a SR-71 - not a bad record for an airplane that was designed in the 1950's with a slide rule, flies over 2,000 miles per hour at an altitude of 80,000 plus feet, and expands about 18 inches in flight due to the heat buildup due to friction of the air on the shin of the aircraft. And I feel certain that the Air Force has a replacement flying today. BTW, SR-71 pilots were awarded astronault wings - I wonder why???

Regarding your comment about Air Force egos, you are partly correct. Today, a drone can be programed to do the same thing as a pilot in a plane, and the AF guys don't often admit that.

Harry

[Hocrest]

Originally posted by newsvx

Also, I don't believe there was ever a crash of a SR-71

So the planes that the pilots ejected out of are still floating around up there???

[newsvx]

Originally posted by Hocrest


So the planes that the pilots ejected out of are still floating around up there???

I know it the ejections were mentioned in this thread, but I don't think that is accurate - no ejections / no crashes..........

I may be wrong on this, but I don't think so.

Harry

[blackbolt94red]

I spoke to a pilot/RIO at a GE aviation lecture at the Air & Space Museum in D.C. about 15 years ago, he did not eject, but the airplane actually broke in two directly in front of behind him during a turn (high 'G' ?) and threw him out, for all intents and purpouses.....the other crewmember was killed, if memory serves, but is has been years.

[majeskyb]

Originally posted by Jnthn_Sctt
... Also, all of the birds on display, such as the one on the Intrepid museum in NY harbor can be brought on-line in a matter of days...

I'm not so sure about that. We just had one brought in and set up at the Eighth Air Force Museum. It was carted in on flatbeds, completly gutted and in several pieces, and then put back into one piece over a matter of about a week. I think that one will be sitting there until it falls apart like the rest of the static displays we have

[NikFu S.]

Originally posted by newsvx

Nik,
Sorry to be so blunt, but you are wrong. Satellites are VERY perdictable, not so a manned plane that can be diverted in-flight on a moments notice. In warfare, this is a very SIGNIFICANT advantage - I've been there, done that, and I have the tee-shirt!

I would be more precise to say I think they are less easily detected, granted the SR-71 is in no way easy to detect...

Originally posted by newsvx

Also, I don't believe there was ever a crash of a SR-71 - not a bad record for an airplane that was designed in the 1950's with a slide rule, flies over 2,000 miles per hour at an altitude of 80,000 plus feet, and expands about 18 inches in flight due to the heat buildup due to friction of the air on the shin of the aircraft. And I feel certain that the Air Force has a replacement flying today. BTW, SR-71 pilots were awarded astronault wings - I wonder why???

... with an operational ceiling of 90k feet, nearing the edge of flyable atmosphere.
Officially there was no crash.

Originally posted by newsvx

As an ARMY guy for twenty some years in tactical intelligence, I know the value of this kind of intel - one can not put a price on it. BTW, taking photos was not the only mission of the SR-71. I really recommend getting the book by Buddy Rich, titled "The Skunk Works". It has a wealth of information.

SR = recon
Aside from setting records and being a test vehicle (for astronauts and people who are nuts), I don't know what else it can be used for.
I'm not a book reader, so, what does it say?

- NikFu
Air Force brat

[SVXphile]

<It would seem that any listing of the Max speed for the SR-71 was an educated guess. They never had the throttles maxed out and have no true idea of just how fast it will go>

What was the old saying Harry?....."I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you." ?

I was in the Navy version of what Harry did in the Army.
Let's just say those things HONK!

Remember the MIG-25 pilot who defected to Japan with his plane?
In an article he later wrote, he said that the dream of everyone in his squadron was to bring down a SR. Now the MIG could also do Mach 3....in short bursts that usually destroyed the engines...and the rockets they carried could go even faster....but anytime their MIGs rose to intercept an SR, it would just accelerate away. That should shed some light on the tightmouthed "official" Mach 3+ claims.

My buddy Barry, who was in the Air Force, was stationed at Lakenheath in England, just north of us in London. He was going to work one morning and noticed an SR outside its hanger and they were running up one engine. At the other end of the runway was a KC-135 tanker taking off.....old turbojets with water injections....thundering to the point of shaking your fillings out.
They lit off ONE of the SR engines and ran it up.....and Barry said it DROWNED OUT the sound of the tanker! He said watching one take off was a TRIP!

The Air Force tried to be hush-hush about the arrival of the plane for missions.....which was humorous. The British "plane spotter" hobby people were always on hand.....ahead of time....for an SR arrival. When questioned about how they knew, they said it was simple. Only one kind of tanker carried SR fuel; when it arrived, the SR was usually not far behind. Duh....

I have a book on the SR somewhere, and I'm not sure if the picture is in that book or not, but somewhere there is a picture of the SR's engines being tested.....mounted inline with the exaust of an engine from a F-104 Starfighter. I guess that's what it took to test the trans-sonic characteristics of those engines. The movable naceles and the ramjet bypass around the turbojets was the ticket... according to the book. If one of those engines
flamed out in flight.....there is a term for that which I have forgotten....only a fast computer correction of the vertical stabilizers could save the plane from a catastrophe.

I may be entirely wrong Harry, but I think that book mentioned at least one loss of at least one SR.....I seem to recall it was over southeast Asia and due to a mechanical problem.

Read about the life of Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed "Skunk Works" sometime folks. An amazing man who created some amazing machines.

With a sliderule.

Don

[SVXphile]

<SR = recon
Aside from setting records and being a test vehicle (for astronauts and people who are nuts), I don't know what else it can be used for.
I'm not a book reader, so, what does it say?>

With new camera technology, it was possible to photograph deep into enemy territory without overflying it.....a political problem with some countries.

Plus there is LOTS of intelligence to be gathered of the electrical and communications variety. Those of you that are/were in the busness know the words.

NASA has one or two that they use for high altitude research.

Unlike a satellite, an SR's mission could be executed with a short turn-around time to the finished product. A satellite would have to wait until it passed over the objective....or execute an orbit change burn, of which any satellite has only a limited number available. But the SR's were very expensive to operate. I guess the bean counters simply thought the satellites were cheaper in the long run.

I wonder....

Don

[Earthworm]

Originally posted by Hocrest


So the planes that the pilots ejected out of are still floating around up there???

Unless they ejected prematurely.