Posted on 01/12/2018 11:43:02 AM PST by Red Badger
“These days, it seems like we are “needing” this plane mostly out of habit.”
Not really. Our Key Hole birds fly in a known orbit and you can pretty much set your watch to it. Because of that, places of interest can be easily spoofed. With an aircraft like the SR-71 it’s hard to do that because we can have over flights at anytime.
LOL! Well there is that!
There is an SR-71 at the Udvar Havy/Smithsonian museum in Virginia.
I almost got to touch it.
It was a big day. I almost had heart palpitations I was so excited.
I DID caress a Concorde that day, for a brief moment.
Upon reading this thread I note a recurring, near-universal theme:
Men want to touch the SR-71.
About 10% of all posts on this thread reference touching it or wanting to, my above post included.
Is it the idea of touching greatness?
It’s the other way around. The A-12 predates the SR-71.
The SR was actually bigger than the -12 being about 6ft longer, carried about 1,000 pounds more payload, and more fuel.
But the cost for bigger size and weight was reduced speed (mach .35 slower) and a 10,000ft lower service ceiling.
Definitely. It makes the Smithsonian air and space museum seem like a side show. I remember my wife and daughter laughing at me as I kept going “Ooh, ooh, that’s an ME-109! Holy s***! That’s a German 88! My God! I’m standing under a B-52!”. Greatest military museum I’ve ever seen.
Yes, I corrected that on another post.
Nah, usually about 12 hours or so.
But in that 12 hours a lot can be moved or covered up in 12 hours.
There are. It’s mostly a satellite job now. He also have drones we do that with. Then of course there’s the legendary Aurora which might or might not exist. Part of it though is that sometimes we get it right, spy planes have a relative simple concept: fly high, fly fast, carry good cameras. Once you do that well, well you’ve got it.
They have the XB-70, SR-71 and A-12 at the USAF Museum, here in Dayton.
;) My fav plane ever.
Nice!
Not true. Every leading edge of the aircraft was made of plastic, at least on the A12. The main structure was titanium. The surface was almost 1/3 lexan composite.
My fave plane ever. Next one is a P-51 and could have taken a ride in one...still kick myself for saying no. The guy owned 2. Had a hanger down the way from my cousins airplane shop.
Sadly he died in one of his P-51 at the Reno Air Show.
;)
Would love to see that up close. Used to go to Miramar Air Show all the time. Might be the only thing I miss about cali.
Wow that is a sexy plane.
That is sweet!
Thanks for link.
For me it went beyond greatness.
I had built a model of it, when I was a kid.
I’ve read or watched countless things on it.
It has become legendary.
Almost mythical.
To actually touch it was like putting an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence.
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