Posted on 05/09/2023 5:48:49 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
No story on the SR-71 would be complete without an understanding and appreciation of just how valuable the KC-135Q model tankers and their crews were to the successful and safe completion of every mission.
“We had to refuel right after takeoff for only one reason, and it wasn’t because we leaked JP-7 fuel on the ground. Yes, the plane does leak fuel, but not enough to require refueling after takeoff.
“The JP-7 fuel reaches temperatures well over 300 degrees F. during Mach 3 cruise, making the fumes in each of the six fuel tanks very volatile and potentially explosive. The metal skin of the aircraft approaches 400 degrees F., adding to the volatility of the fuel inside the tanks. One of our aircraft limitations was a maximum speed of Mach 2.6 without an inert atmosphere inside the fuel tanks."
(Excerpt) Read more at theaviationgeekclub.com ...
TI doesn’t use RPN - that was HP.
Those Fridens were impressive machines — all mechanical. Certain models could take a square root.
I admire yesterday’s mechanical designers more than today’s software weenies (I’m both).
RPN seemed to match my math thinking at the time.
LOL, you make an excellent point. I’m going to obtain a slide rule for that very reason.
And may God continue to bless and protect the nation of Israel.
They should teach how to use an abacus, too!
If you’ve not seen this video, you’ve missed out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJrXUh0eZjw
(An engine engineer explains the SR-71 engine)
We also have a fair amount of tube-based equipment and infrastructure, for the same reason.
Even tube manufacture.
As a result of ready available parts, I took up building old school audio amplifiers as a hobby that turned into a small business where I sell serious amps to audiophiles for serious money — mainly because I love to build them — but they do, indeed, have much better sound over anything digital.
Admittedly giant, unwieldy, and persnickety, but I’ve ended up meeting people like George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and others, for whom I’ve built extremely high end systems.
Aviation Ping!..................
Little trivia, but the Mig25 and SR-71 met over Israel in 1967, both you big guys spying on us as we (allegedly) went nuclear — and during a spat with our ever-so-friendly neighbors.
The SR-71 had a serious malfunction and the pilot wanted to land at Tel-Aviv (and we were fine once we figured out who it was and promised not to touch the plane or the pilot), but tensions were high and the CIA wanted us to all die, so they ordered him to continue on.
Luckily, he made it to Europe somewhere. I assume Turkey.
It wasn’t an airplane. It was a hydraulic crane that was being used for auger cast piles on a project.
The oiler started the crane before the operator arrived. One morning I woke the oiler up where he was sleeping in his car after starting the crane.
The crane was pissing hydraulic fluid.
The oiler asked me to get in the cab and throw a switch while he was underneath looking for the leak. I looked at the control panel and said NOPE.
... because the Habu, by reputation, only comes out at night. And the SR-71s generally only launched from Okinawa after dark.
And by engineers who knew their times tables and maybe a little calculus.
Thanks for that link above.... I had never read the story of Bill Weaver and that is incredible. What are the odds of surviving such a thing?
Your account is plausible and Turkey was probably where he landed.
I would guess that he probably took off from somewhere in Turkey.
Nice to see recognition for the KC-135 TOADs. They are so mission critical yet so unappreciated.
The ultimate limit of the SR-71’s endurance was how long the nitrogen (for purging the fuel tanks) lasted. In 1971 they took one on a 15,000 mile joy ride to test that endurance.
They refueled in-flight five times and the post-flight tech inspection didn’t find and problems resulting from the 10-1/2 hour flight.
The reason the fuel tank leaked was that they couldn’t find a bladder material that JP-7 couldn’t dissolve. And even if they could, there were weight considerations, and concerns with the thermal insulation the bladder material might cause. Which means the fuel cells were going to be formed by the structure of the wings. A lot of the seams in the airframe had to be allowed to expand or contract over a YUGE range of temperature. And when the wings were cold, the seams on the fuel tanks didn’t seal perfectly.
I file it under the “CIA has been working against the interests of the USA, its military, its elected officials, and its allies” for a long time.
The lies about Hunter’s laptop are but one small example.
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