A feat of engineering for the history books. The fact that they were able to design and build it without modern computers makes it even more inspiring.
“I loved this plane and have seen it many times.”
I think it is the Eglin AFB museum that has one outside you can get close-up to.
This was an amazing aircraft. It was designed so that it could “breathe,” or expand and contract and flex in flight, given certain outside pressures and conditions. It was simply a marvel of engineering and technology.
If I recall, much of the titanium came from the Soviet Union.
The husband of a gal that worked with Mrs rktman was an AF SR-71 jockey. He told me he once had a task to video/film the space shuttle external tank re-entry but got pulled off for another mission. He said he’d have to, do something to me if he told me what it was. LOL! He loved flying them. One landed at Patrick AFB south of Cocoa Beach once for some issue and we were near by when they departed. Friggin’ awesome.
As is said amongst fighter pilots...”Speed is life”.
What a character building experience. More responsibility than I've ever had before or since.
Why did they retire the SR-71 yet they are still flying the U-2?
The answer is right there in the headline - Mach 3
Last real flight in 1990, LA to Washington DC in one hour, four minutes. And 20 seconds.
In my opinion these are two well known stories reference SR-71 blackbird's, that you just have to hear. Warning do not have any food or drink in your mouth.
Major Brian Shul, USAF (Ret.) SR-71 Blackbird 'Speed Check' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyHH9G9et0
The SR-71 "Buzzing the tower" story you probably never heard before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTJYNq4GQAE
Better than the first movie Maverick! "Buzzing the tower."
4000 missiles fired! Wow, what they don’t tell you is far more interesting than the stuff they release.
Maybe at some point. But one crew discovered the engines flame out at Mach 3.4, after trying to "see what it could do." Interesting story from a former Pratt & Whitney engineer on this incident at the link.
Short version: the shock cones in the nose of each engine control the shock wave and air inlet by moving forward and aft. When the crew "punched it", the shock cones moved inward so far to control the shock wave, that they cut off the inlet air. Crew was able to restart both engines after a fun drop of 50,000 feet; the king of all pucker rides.
ttiuwop
That plane flew over my HS (Quartz Hill, CA) one day at low altitude and slow speed.
I thought it was gonna shake the buildings apart.
The MIG31s were able to get lockons on the SR71s. The USAF stopped the USSR overflights as a result. With the Phoenix equivalent missile the USSR developed bringing down a Blackbird was just a matter of time.
As a young Marine stationed on the ‘Rock’ for a year in the early ‘70s, I used to go over to Kadena on the weekends to watch the Habu take off and land. It never ceased to impress me watching those afterburners light off on takeoff and the slick profile of that bird was candy to the eyes. It truly is aviation artistry at its finest - a masterful piece of design.
Unofficially over mach 4. But it was more than speed that assisted the problem. It was also that it was the first of the stealth aircraft for radar (radar-absorbent iron-ferrite paint and cross section configeration) and that it could fly at incredible altitudes, as high as 85K feet. These assistance were also used by the U2’s and TR’s.
A lot of the time they also deployed electronic countermeasures to jam SAM systems. But to give the folks an idea of how fast and high this aircraft could fly, if an SR took off from our left coast, like when they were stationed at Beale, if they wanted to drop a device on Moscow, which is well into the western part of Russia, they would have to turn it loose over the Bering Sea.
As things got a lot more expensive like JP7, the use of the SR became a burden as they ate a lot of gas to feed those ponies. After take off, it took three KC135’s to refuel it to continue its sortie. And parts became limited. So it was replaced with satellites and drones along with more use of the TR and U2. Cost effectiveness.
wy69
Unofficially over mach 4. But it was more than speed that assisted the problem. It was also that it was the first of the stealth aircraft for radar (radar-absorbent iron-ferrite paint and cross section configeration) and that it could fly at incredible altitudes, as high as 85K feet. These assistance were also used by the U2’s and TR’s.
A lot of the time they also deployed electronic countermeasures to jam SAM systems. But to give the folks an idea of how fast and high this aircraft could fly, if an SR took off from our left coast, like when they were stationed at Beale, if they wanted to drop a device on Moscow, which is well into the western part of Russia, they would have to turn it loose over the Bering Sea.
As things got a lot more expensive like JP7, the use of the SR became a burden as they ate a lot of gas to feed those ponies. After take off, it took three KC135’s to refuel it to continue its sortie. And parts became limited. So it was replaced with satellites and drones along with more use of the TR and U2. Cost effectiveness.
wy69
They’re pretty in the air. Sitting in a Sacramento office in 1985, I was looking out the window when one came in for a landing. Like a skinny black pencil gliding along.