Posted on 08/09/2021 9:12:21 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
...From 80,000 feet, it could survey 100,000 square miles of Earth’s surface per hour. Piloting the Blackbird was an unforgiving endeavor, demanding total concentration. But pilots were giddy with their complex, adrenaline-fueled responsibilities. “At 85,000 feet and Mach 3, it was almost a religious experience,” said Air Force Colonel Jim Wadkins. “Nothing had prepared me to fly that fast… My God, even now, I get goose bumps remembering.”
The ANS was the 1960’s version of GPS, but instead of using satellites to locate itself, the ANS used the stars. This is because before the invention of the modern satnav networks there wasn’t a way to navigate the SR-71 in the areas where it operated. The SR-71 needed to be able to fix its position within 1,885 feet (575 m) and within 300 ft (91 m) of the center of its flight path while traveling at high speeds for up to ten hours in the air.’
‘The ANS works by tracking at least two stars at a time listed in an onboard catalog, and with the aid of a chronometer, calculates a fix of the SR-71 over the ground. It was programmed before each flight and the aircraft’s primary alignment and the flight plan was recorded on a punched tape that told the aircraft where to go, when to turn, and when to turn the sensors on and off. The stars were sighted through a special quartz window (located behind the RSO cockpit) and there was a special star tracker that could see the stars even in daylight.’
(Excerpt) Read more at theaviationgeekclub.com ...
Beat me to it. The MD-1 system was an astro tracker system there.
Early ICBMs used astro trackers and the Hound Dog did too. For the record, current ICBMs use inertial guidance systems, no more stars per se in flight.
When I was doing Minuteman II and III, the primary guidance reference point for the missile, to tell it where it is geographically before launch, was to align the guidance gyro stabilized platform (GSP) to a collimator beam indexed off of Polaris.
Excellent point.
There’s a book by Ben Rich who worked at Lockheed during the development of the SR-71 and the F-117. I believe the title is: Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir Of My Years At Lockheed.
It is an absolute must read for any aviation geek.
Back in my research years, cards and tape were the bane of my existence...
Some sites, like this one, support a “reader view” for browsers like Safari. This presents a simplified text and graphic layout, sans ads!!
—” eyes were so
good that they could see stars during the day time.”
Easy peasy during an eclipse!
A coworker had a homemade Dobsonian 10” Telescope, could pull them in nicely on a clear day.
In my bible study, we call the presence of the holy spirit — the sixth sense. An invisible means of support as well.
It had propellers, I can say that for certain!
I have spent some time with a sextant and cannot imagine much success using one from an airplane, over uneven ground or at night?
Now I’m going to have to read around, guessing they needed an artificial horizon over land???
Sailors have used Sextants for centuries from the pitching and rolling deck of sailing ships. I'm sure using one in an aircraft isn't that much more difficult.
(He says, having never used a Sextant...)
Must have gotten stuck in traffic......
Noooo. Thus one ≠ This one
Sorry for that. Boring days compel me to find something to nit pick.
Everybody has to do something.
My world seems like one big unreasonable and outrageous autocorrect right now!
The collimator was long gone when I became a Missile Maintenance Officer at Grand Forks. Had the collimator in my Titan II system when I first enlisted and was on crew. We had the old AC Sparkplug MGS/IMU until they replaced it with the Universal Space Guidance System.
Yes, there are at least 5 Youtube interviews with SR71 pilots, long ones which includes qualifications etc and training. They also touched on the advanced navigation systems but you have to pass a few tests just to sit at the back of the cockpit, and you wont sit there unless you go at least a yEAR of training.
The best interview in the middle of the 3 hour interview was when the pilot stated at Yokohama base back in the 70’s, “ MEN IN BLACK” would ALWAYS visit the pilots before ANY FLIGHT and gave them 2 “pills” (not for headaches obviously but for you knw what) ..
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