SR-71 Blackbird

[skyrex]

Great read!! :thumbsup:thumbsup

Thanks for posting. :cheers

 

[nthfinity]

After several agonizingly long seconds, we made the turn and blasted toward the Mediterranean. “You might want to pull it back”, Walt suggested. It was then that I noticed I still had the throttles full forward. The plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit. It was the fastest we would ever fly. I pulled the throttles to idle just south of Sicily , but we still overran the refueling tanker awaiting us over Gibraltar ..

somebody in the Aerospace contracting business told me some years back an interesting number

"The plane can reach anywhere in the world in 2 hours"

almost...

 

[RALPHIE]

A month ago, I met the Air Force colonel who was in charge of the maintenance of the SR-71. A very interesting man, with a number of stories that goes on forever.He is currently retired, and owns the Western Depot hobby model train store in Yuba City, CA. He hadn't seen the video compilation of Kingman's recitation, so I sent it to him. Needless to say, he e-mailed back that he enjoyed it very much....

If you ever get the time, read Ben Rich's "Skunk Works" - encompassing the development and engineering challenges of the U2, SR-71, Stealthboat, and the F-117 Stealth fighter.

 

[STORMCAT]

Great read !! Thanks for sharing.. :thumbsup I once drove my GT at night with the lights off...:biggrin

 

[Indy GT]

Ultimate Source

The topic of the SR has surfaced a number of times here on the Forum. I suspect many of us share a love for the uniqueness of this phenominal aircraft. Many of us are pilots and appreciate machines that fly (including our GT's). The details of what this aircraft did and how it did it are still to this day years after retirement from military inventory or active status shrouded in secrecy.

For example the actual top speed of the aricraft has never been released. Publications list the aircraft as a Mn 3+ aircraft. The excerpts from Kingman's post and Daniels video appear to put the aircraft Vmax at around 3.2 yet I have it on good authority it will go faster than that.

I was lucky enough to be a fledging engineer at Pratt Whitney at the tail end of the JT-11 engine program. I got to see and HEAR this engine routinely in the test facilities.

There is no other engine like it!

And none that sound like it in it's full afterburner glory. The sound pressure existing outside the sea level ambient test cell would literly force the air out of your lungs making it difficult if not impossible to venture outside for any length of time to view the engine. At night test conditions, the rear third of the engine becomes translucent as the engine is cherry-yellow hot. To simulate the extreme envelope operating conditions this engine swallowed, a "slave" jet engine was mounted in front of the JT-11 and its high temperature exhaust gasses were channeled into the INLET of the JT-11. It ran just fine thank you.

For the most informative link to the absolute marvels of this engine and Blackbird program, there is none better than Dr. Bob Abernethy. He was one of the lead designers of the engine and his stories now being told are absolutely riviting. See and listen to his "Stories Never Told" at his link below. He really is the surviving penticle of engine lore for this engine.....

http://www.bobabernethy.com/blackbirds.htm

 

[RALPHIE]

This is such a cool model!!!!

http://www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=4464984

 

[Shelby#18]

Those pants are pretty cool too! :biggrin

 

[Mad Max]

I have been near the SR-71 only in museums, I feel a lot closer to it now. :usa:usa:usa

 

[roketman]

All I can say is WOW!

 

[isaakgt]

That is so cool. The SR was a tough bird to fly in the flesh and probably not much easier in the model form. The last time I got to see the real one fly was 25 years ago at Beale AFB in Ca. Just an awesome craft that was so far ahead of it's time.

 

[Mullet]

I get goosebumps everytime I read about these planes.

 

[Fubar]

I get goosebumps everytime I read about these planes.

Me too. I just got this email from a friend:

As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question I'm most often asked is "How fast would that SR-71 fly?" I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I attend. It's an interesting question, given the aircraft's proclivity for speed, but there really isn't one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little more speed if you wanted it to. It was common to see 35 miles a minute. Because we flew a programmed Mach number on most missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run out to any limits of temperature or speed. Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own individual “high” speed that he saw at some point on some mission. I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max power was in order. Let’s just say that the plane truly loved speed and effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadn’t previously seen.


So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, “what was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird?” This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story that I had never shared before, and relayed the following.
I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England, with my back-seater, Walt Watson; we were returning from a mission over Europe and the Iron Curtain when we received a radio transmission from home base. As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 fly-past. The air cadet commander there was a former Blackbird pilot, and thought it would be a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low approach. No problem, we were happy to do it. After a quick aerial refueling over the North Sea, we proceeded to find the small airfield.


Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment in the back seat, and began to vector me toward the field. Descending to subsonic speeds, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in a slight haze. Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were close and that I should be able to see the field, but I saw nothing.


Nothing but trees as far as I could see in the haze. We got a little lower, and I pulled the throttles back from 325 knots we were at. With the gear up, anything under 275 was just uncomfortable. Walt said we were practically over the field—yet; there was nothing in my windscreen. I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver in hopes of picking up anything that looked like a field. Meanwhile, below, the cadet commander had taken the cadets up on the catwalk of the tower in order to get a prime view of the fly-past. It was a quiet, still day with no wind and partial gray overcast.


Walter continued to give me indications that the field should be below us but in the overcast and haze, I couldn't see it. The longer we continued to peer out the window and circle, the slower we got. With our power back, the awaiting cadets heard nothing. I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me I better cross-check the gauges. As I noticed the airspeed indicator slide below 160 knots, my heart stopped and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed two throttles full forward. At this point we weren't really flying, but were falling in a slight bank. Just at the moment that both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame (and what a joyous feeling that was) the aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the tower. Shattering the still quiet of that morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their face as the plane leveled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer than expected, maintaining what could only be described as some sort of ultimate knife-edge pass.
Quickly reaching the field boundary, we proceeded back to Mildenhall without incident. We didn't say a word for those next 14 minutes.
After landing, our commander greeted us, and we were both certain he was reaching for our wings. Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 fly-past he had ever seen, especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could only be described as breathtaking. He said that some of the cadet’s hats were blown off and the sight of the plan form of the plane in full afterburner dropping right in front of them was unbelievable. Walt and I both understood the concept of “breathtaking” very well that morning, and sheepishly replied that they were just excited to see our low approach.
As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight suits, we just sat there-we hadn't spoken a word since “the pass.” Finally, Walter looked at me and said, “One hundred fifty-six knots.
What did you see?” Trying to find my voice, I stammered, “One hundred fifty-two.” We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt said, “Don’t ever do that to me again!” And I never did.


A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officer’s club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 fly-past that he had seen one day. Of course, by now the story included kids falling off the tower and screaming as the heat of the jet singed their eyebrows. Noticing our HABU patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, he asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred. Walt just shook his head and said, “It was probably just a routine low approach; they're pretty impressive in that plane.” Impressive indeed.


Little did I realize after relaying this experience to my audience that day that it would become one of the most popular and most requested stories. It’s ironic that people are interested in how slow the world’s fastest jet can fly. Regardless of your speed, however, it’s always a good idea to keep that cross-check up…and keep your Mach up, too.

 

[Kingman]

I used to camp just outside the Mildenhall base while in Boy Scouts. Boy.....do I wish I saw that fly-over!:eek

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Gill Jr.]

In the 1980's while I was a student at UCR we used park on the outskirts of March AFB during the week prior to the weekend airshow that they would put on once a year. We would watch all of the airshow planes come in to March on Thursday or Friday. One year, I think it was 1986, we saw an SR-71 come in to land. There was about 50 or so of us airplane geeks standing outside of the fence along the runway watching. It appeared that the pilot noticed he had an audience and instead of landing he put on a little mini airshow for us. The SR-71 proceeded to do a couple swooping flyby's over our heads before landing. It was the coolest thing I have ever witnessed.

 

[Silverbullitt]

I went to the Oshkosh air show a few years back while the SR 71 was operational. We parked our car in a lot near the field. We heard the announcer say the blackbird was overhead. He then said that it had developed a fuel leak and was returning to base. We walked about six car lengths and the announcer stated that they were now over Milwaukee.

I have to get me one of these!!!!!

 

[nthfinity]

http://www.enginehistory.org/Convention/2005/Presentations/LawPete/SR-71Propulsion2.pdf

 

[Shadowman]

VERY cool plane

Thank you for sharing

Shadowman

 

[ObeyMyFast!]

I know a former pilot as well. The stories are amazing!

 

[AtomicGT]

Kingman, my good friend donated the funds for the Udvar-Hazy Museum and I have seen this plane up close. Awesome story, you need our congratulations!

 

[AtomicGT]

Kingman,

Didn't see an explanation of how the plane was named the "SR-71"?