SR-71 simulator exit ends Blackbird era in Valley

Valley Press on ^ | Monday, August 21, 2006 | ALLISON GATLIN

[par4]

There's an SR71/YF11 on static display at Lackland AFB also, along with a whole bunch of other AF aircraft. It's visible from Military Highway if you're no able to visit the base.

[martin_fierro]

It was damn cheery.

[Ready4Freddy]

Yes they did!, thanks for the pics.

Lessee, #14 looks like impulse power, but the test bed engine in #15 has obviously been cranked to Warp Drive! ;>)

What did I read about these engines? That they were the only engines designed to operate in afterburner mode all the time?

They did a pretty good job on the engines also.

[SunkenCiv]

I think they did a pretty good job considering it was built in the late 50's/early 60's with slide rules.

:') And not just the simulator. The plane itself wasn't built with CAD/CAM either.

[bpjam]

I'd pay to fly an SR-71 simulator. This was arguably the coolest plane ever created.

[HawaiianGecko]

You laugh. Until three years ago, I programmed military flight simulators in FORTRAN/74.

in 1987 I was tapped by IBM to convert a garment company from an IBM 407 Unit Record Machine to a System/38. Programs were coded on plug boards like the following. I had to read these boards and convert them to RPGIII, the language of the S/38.  IBM didn't even have an old Systems Engineer around to do this so they tapped me because of my B.S.E.E. and stupidity.  It had dawned on them, but apparently not me, how difficult a client still living in medieval times would be to work with.

Reading these boards was a nightmare and over 30 odd years their documentation sucked, so you didn't drop a payroll board on the floor.

This is where the term spaghetti code originated!  Fortran IV with WatFor/WatFiv on the old IBM Stretch computer was my first HLL.

 

[Tiny]

Its a shame to see Blackbirds run come to an end. One of the best pieces of machinery ever made. They were ahead of their time and exceeded anyone's expectations.BR>
I saw one at Oshkosh EAA many years ago, I was in awe of it. Many planes are loud and hurt the ears, but the Blackbird just envelopes you with its sound and shakes you from the inside out. Just a spectacular aircraft. Need I say it was fast too? :)

[driftdiver]

"I think they did a pretty good job considering it was built in the late 50's/early 60's with slide rules." I think they did awesome considering the tools and technologies they had to work with.

[JoeGar]

Ahhh, I recognize the old 402 Accounting Machine board.

In 1963, I taught myself to program the IBM 1401 in SPS. My first assignment, as a college co-op student at White Sands Missile Range, was to write a program to multiply two N-by-N matrices on a 4096-character 1401 with two tape drives. It's rare for kids today to get opportunities like that.

[fso301]

One of the most beautiful aircraft ever.

[Professional Engineer]

, has been shipped to an aviation museum in Dallas.

We'll get pictures. I promise.

[Tiny]

And people tell me I'm ancient when I tell them I learned to program on punch cards.

A tip of the hat to those of you who were the true trail blaizers in the computer industry.

[oxcart]

Richard Helms of the CIA called the Blackbird's mighty engines the "Hammers of Hell."

[MJRitter]

They are Pratt & Whit J58-1s, built in 1955. It is a duel cycle design. Once up to speed it would bypass the compressor and become ramjet. The fuel is so stable they use another substance (I forget what it is) to inject on start up to get it to light. They also use it to fire off the burners. They only had something like 15 "shots" of the stuff.

[Mike-o-Matic]

Speaking as database applications programmer in my mid 30s, I salute you sir!

[oxcart]

That substance was TEB (triethel borene). When injected it turned the exhaust gasses green when it lit things up.

There use to be a engine start video on one of the BB's sites...the sound of 2 racing engines starting up, then you heard the J-58 spool up and then boom! the TEB kicked in and wow!

[Rannug]

sure would like to know what they replaced the Blackbird with

[chaosagent]

Aurora!

[Rightly Biased]

There is a SR71 On display IN the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space center in Hutchinson Kansas the building had to be built "just in case we want it back" said the Airforce.

http://www.cosmo.org/museum/

[freedumb2003]

I hereby hand my "you have no idea how bad it was in the old days" belt to you.

I thought Tape In/Tape out, 80 colum cards and COBOL68 (and Fortran IV) were "roughing it." At least BAL gave me some macros to help.

But I had a colleague whose 1st job was to run around 2 feet tall replacing blown vacuum tubes in an old monstrosity.