I read Mig Pilot by Victor Belenko. I vaguely remember him saying, that the Mig 25, was clocked at Mach 3.2, I think it was somewhere in the Middle East. What they didn’t tell people, was that when the aircraft got down, they had to change out the engines, because they were essentially destroyed.
Heh, he made other claims, like SR-71s would make lazy circles to toy with MiG pilots.
Which of course, is silly considering the high-value and rarity of the aircraft. Not to mention the complicated logistics of refueling.
I once asked a KC-10 boom operator how they did it (though it was probably KC-135). He said we draw from the same tanks.
I was like, no, you’re not capable of burning JP-7. The SR-71 was about 3 years from being retired at that point.
Maybe no KC-10s were involved in refueling the SR-71?
It is an urban myth. Engines aren’t the problem, the speed limitations are mostly to prevent the overheating of the fuel and deformation of the airframe.