I have been able to see a SR71 once. Not up close but at a military base in cali.
This spy plane started when we looked at the USSR circa 1950 and literally had no better information than the German charts created during the war. We literally didn’t know the locations of many cities. Complicating things back then were old soviet maps that were deliberately inaccurate in a paper version of what we can do with GPS today.
These days, it seems like we are “needing” this plane mostly out of habit.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
I thought they mothballed the Blackbird years ago.
Guess not.
This looks very much like the plane in Google Earth picture published this week.
I got to see an SR-71 up close at an air show in SoCal (at the now defunct Norton AFB). Near the end of the show, it did a slow pass down the runway, lit the afterburners and was GONE! An awesome sight.......
I just want to know one question, Is the son a leaker like his dad. ;-)
This historical static display is located next to the Air Force Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. Created by the USAF Museum Program, this park allows visitors close view of several aircraft and was officially dedicated on September 27th, 1991.
The remarkable stories of how these aircraft were developed are told in "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed" by Ben R. Rich.
“...Son of Blackbird...”
That would be “SOB”
In 1966 there was one sitting outside the King Hangar at Eglin for several weeks. It was within view of the highway but nearest you would get was several hundred yards.
I have a really good photo of my Daughter standing in front of one at the Armaments Museum at Eglin. Unfortunately I can no long post photos from Photobucket.
I don’t know that we need such an aircraft given our satellite technology, but it would be really cool to see what 21st Century tech could build.
As beautiful as I think both this and the SR-71 are, it can’t outrun a Laser beam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGdxpqqsHl8
The Oxcart Story-Frank Murray
A-12 Cygnus...precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird.
If so, what do we need it for? And why would we build it with Anti-Gravity technology at hand?
The first release characterized this as a "drone"--which might be cover for the problems of a classical Air Foil flying machine traveling at Mach 5--the human body might in fact withstand the G forces at that kind of speed but probably not much more--so you want people to think that you don't have any human bodies on board; which maybe this text leaves open as a possible assumption.
I will say that I have looked at their releases and what I have heard is possible cover for the fact that this machine is in fact an Anti Gravity device. I have also heard gossip for several years that Boeing has been seeking approval for design of a next-gen commercial airplane and while nothing exactly says so, the approval limitation would be for use of technology that is currently limited for National Security purposes.
The initial images posted with this story showed the device with wings that really don't look much like airfoils; with circular appendages at the end of each winglet which looked to be around four feet in diameter and they look like wicker baskets. You wouldn't see those as doing much for the flying characteristics of a traditional classical air foil machine--but they would make imminent sense as the anti-gravity field generation devices.
You know where I would love to go is one of those bone yards for old planes they have row and row of planes.
Was stationed at Beale AFB, CA 81-84. Worked in the weather station.
SR-71 flights twice a week, at least. Magnificent to watch those 4 AM takeoffs. Wake-up call for the base housing area.
Te Scramp is launched when the SR75 reaches a speed of 3,000 mph.At that ponint at about 80,000 feet it goes into near space at around mach 15 and can launch packages like sattelites.
Ever wonder why the Cape Canaveral area was discontinued its really not needed any more,with the 74 75 and TR 3B who needs antiquated take your mind off the real deal diversions anymore.
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One can only image The TR3B is a really wild ride. its basically the "airbus" from the earth to the moon to mars.In the early 90's we had just a few today we have over a dozen.ITs responsible for many sightings all over the earth.
Here's some more from the link.
The tactical reconnaissance TR-3B's first operational flight was in the early 90s. Technology assuredly developed from reverse engineering of recovered alien artifacts and programs such as the SR-74 and SR-75 was used in the TR-3B. At least three of the billion dollar plus TR-3Bs were flying by 1994.
The TR-3B vehicle's outer coating is reactive to electrical stimulation and can change color, reflectiveness, and radar absorptiveness, thus making the vehicle look like a small aircraft or a flying cylinder--or even tricking radar receivers into falsely detecting a variety of aircraft, no aircraft, or several aircraft at various locations.
A circular, plasma filled accelerator ring called the "Magnetic Field Disrupter" surrounds the rotatable crew compartment and is far ahead of any imaginable technology. Sandia and Livermore laboratories developed the reverse engineered MFD technology. The government will go to any lengths to protect this technology.
The MFD generates a magnetic vortex field that disrupts or neutralizes the effects of gravity on mass within proximity by 89 percent. This is not antigravity. Anti-gravity provides a repulsive force that can be used for propulsion. The MFD creates a disruption of the Earth's gravitational field upon the mass within the circular accelerator.
The mass of the circular accelerator, and all mass within the accelerator, such as the crew capsule and the nuclear reactor, are reduced by almost 90%. This causes the effect of making a vehicle extremely light and able to outperform and outmaneuver any craft yet constructed--except, of course, those UFOs we did not build. The TR-3 is a reconnaissance platform with an indefinite loiter time. "Indefinite" because it uses a nuclear reactor for power.
Many sightings of triangular UFOs are not alien vehicles but the ultra top secret TR-3B. The NSA, NRO, CIA, and USAF have been playing a shell game with aircraft nomenclature - creating the TR-3, modified to the TR-3A, the TR-3B, and the Teir 2, 3, and 4, with suffixes like 'Plus' or 'Minus' added on to further confuse the fact that each of these designators is a different aircraft and not the same aerospace vehicle. A TR-3B is as different from a Teir 3B as a banana is from a grape. Some of these vehicles are manned and others are unmanned.
The TR-3B's propulsion is provided by three multimode thrusters mounted at each bottom corner of the triangular platform. The TR-3 is a sub-Mach 9 vehicle until it reaches altitudes above 100,000 feet--then God knows how fast it can go!