Posted on 12/05/2013 5:28:31 AM PST by C19fan
Until Lockheed Martin finally builds the SR-72 Mach-6 spy plane it announced in November, the iconic SR-71 Blackbird, capable of flying three times the speed of sound, remains the fastest warplane ever flown operationally.
So fast that no missiles fired at it had a chance of hitting.
When the U-2 spy plane was built in the 1950s, its designer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson already knew that it would be vulnerable to enemy defenses.
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
Nice list, especially considering that I had always heard an F4 was designed to turn jet fuel into noise with flight as a mere side effect.
Assuming the 3500kt figure is the plane’s top speed, then:
3500kt = mach 5.29
It might be touch and go, but I think the plane would still out run a Mach 5 missile, also assuming such missile was handy.
3500 kts. = 3500 x 1.15 = 4,025 mph!!!
kts. are knots, not kilometers
Not an SR-71 but an ex-CIA A-12 Blackbird. Single seater, allegedly *somewhat* faster ;-)
It's actually 1950's tech. The SR-71 was based on the A-11 and A-12, both of which began development in the late 1950's. One thing I didn't know is that the SR-71 had some significant radar evading stealth technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12
On a related note, the Saturn rocket booster and its F1 engine also began development in the 1950's, well before JFK's "Moon" speech.
That was apparantly done to Danny Ortega and the Sandanistas in Nicaragua during the 1980s. Reagan had SRs fly repeated passes over Managua at Mach 3+. Just to show that we could.
The other really good SR stories are the ones with the crew opening the throttles wide over Tripoli during egress from a BDA mission following the Reagan Raid, and the “How slow have you ever gone in an SR” one. THAT one is a heck of a good read ...
A lot! I don’t know if the SR-71 used water injection or not. We used to refuel those babies with our KC-135Q tanker aircraft.
At Beale AFB they would hit the afterburners on take off, lift off, go straight up till we could no longer see them.
They were quite an aircraft!
HOW DO YOU MOVE A SUPER-SECRET AIRCRAFT FROM LOS ANGELES to AREA 51 near LAS VEGAS NM! Scroll down to declassified photos here!
http://www.roadrunnersinternationale.com/transporting_the_a-12.html
***B52 yep now your loud!***
Been there done that. We test ran B-52s on the ground at Walker AFB. They also used the same engine (I believe) as the KC-135.
Chocks under the wheels, test run, inject water into the engine. The noise was deafening even with ear plugs and ear defenders. Your whole body vibrates, even your brain.
When the engine is shut down you still feel the vibration in your body for hours.
Maybe that is why I hate loud rock music.
The Tu-95 Bear, with 32 prop blades breaking the speed of sound, was louder ...
***The SR-71 did not use normal Jet Fuel. It took JP-7.***
True. Our KC-135Q aircraft were designed to keep the two fuels separate, or we could carry JP-4 for regular aircraft.
When we were going to refuel the SR-71, we had to purge the special tanks by loading with JP-7, then draining it out and disposing of the contaminated fuel.
Later a way was found to place JP-7 in the JP-4 special tanks, then while flying, dump the fuel.
Upon landing we would then take on a load of JP-7 in the refueling tanks.
We were sittin’ on a houseboat on Lake Powell, havin a cool one.....when this B1-B comes in about 500 ft off the deck....directly overhead.....OMG!
That was loud!
I remember back in 1982 I was covering the (then) yearly Fairchild AFB Open House for the college radio station I worked at. I got to be in the press area as the visiting SR-71 passed by as it taxied to the runway. I thought that was pretty loud.
After the Sled had taken off and done a couple of flybys, the PA announcer said that the final pass would be “special”. The Sled came in lower and lower. I honestly thought he was going to crash it because he was sinking so rapidly. Then, at just before crowd center, and (I swear) only 5 feet above the runway with the wheels up, the pilot lit the burners.
Oh. My. God.
He put that plane at a 45 degree angle and shot out of the area like a bat out of You-Know-Where. He continued on at that angle until he was gone out of sight....and that wasn’t a very long time.
I had a tape recorder running to catch the sound. The roar that came out of the back of that aircraft blew out the microphone on the recorder. The tape had great audio right up until the moment he lit the cans. After that...unusable distortion.
The SR-71 didn’t fly at Mach 5, it simply would have melted.
More to the point of what I’m saying is that a Cheeta doesn’t have a chance of catching you, if you are running across 100 yards of open ground (between buildings) that are 1000 yards from the Cheeta.
However, if the Cheeta has a way of predicting in advance when you’ll make your run, you’ll be dinner.
Decades ago I had to study SAC Tactical Doctrine (B-52 Nav).
The B-58 had a very interesting defensive procedure. If they detected an unknown aircraft approaching them they would perform a series of turns. if the unknown followed them those turns the B-58 pilot would advance his throttles (go into after burner?) and after a few minutes retard the throttles. If the unknown aircraft was within detection range he was to repeat the throttle advance maneuver until the unknown aircraft wasn’t detectable any more.
A very interesting defense procedure!
Loved that story.
One of my college profs was a world expert on hypersonic travel and had classified numbers. He let it slip once in class, Mach 6.1 was a number he let slip and then told us to forget about.
Backwards.
Knots figure should be lower than miles per hour.
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