Posted on 02/05/2005 3:15:15 PM PST by Indy Pendance
Edited on 02/05/2005 3:17:49 PM PST by Lead Moderator. [history]
The coolest spy plane ever built, SR-71. I was watching Modern Marvels on the History channel last night. This aircraft broke all kinds of international speed and altitude records which still have not been beaten today. It was nothing for them to fly at 80,000 feet and it was a piece of cake to fly at about mach 3, or about 2100 mph. For those of you old enough, remember the sonic boom days? About 750 miles would create a sonic boom, or a doppler effect.
Here's the question, this plane was so fast, it was faster than the earth's rotation. What would happen with time over a long sustainable period of flying time? If it goes faster than the earth's rotation long enough, will it be ahead of time when it lands, or likewise in the opposite direction, will it go back in time. Do you think Einstein has an answer? Saturday night ponderings.
We sure didn't want the Communists to get hold of one or the plans for one
That's not my intension, as wanting to acheive an agenda, in other words, I was saving the speed of sound for when someone brought it up. Honestly, I thought more Freepers would have jumped on it. It's still an interesting discussion, agree?
Throughout the seventies and into (?) the eighties "they" were determined that you could do it all with satellites. I saw some official editorializing by ex-almost-spooks I'd worked with that swore up and down that we needed nothing but orbital cameras to stay safe and comfy.
Didn't need humint, didn't need manned recon, didn't need to bribe or grab anyone and sure as hell couldn't ask a citizen or traveller what they were up to.
Too bad its all been proven wrong and we are now back into building up both intelligence capabilities and a means to exploit them.
(brief though it was, I liked my other job better)
I was privileged to see one at Oshkosh do a flyby. After it came from Edwards in under an hour, refueled over Lake Michigan, then flew in formation over the field with a KC-135 and an FA-18. I have no idea why the fighter was there since it couldn't keep up with the SR-71 either in speed or altitude.:-)
The SR-71 was orignially designed as a Mach 3 interceptor, the YF-12A.
What an orgasm it would have been to have entire Wings of F-12 interceptors and B-70 bombers.
The plane museum at Hill AFB in Ogden, Utah is wonderful. I live near the new Smithsonian air museum and the one in Utah was as interesting to me though it clearly doesn't have the money the one here does. Both have this plane.
I've been around long enough to not worry about those games.
Nothing. The rotation of the Earth and the duration of a day is just an arbitrary designation of reference by observers. If the plane left on Saturday at noon and flew approximately 4X the speed of the Earths rotation in the rotational direction it would arrive back at it's starting point at about 6 in the evening, same as if it stayed there...
Take it from a fellow Texan. LBJ was beyond pathetic.
Did you ever read the book "A Texan looks at Lyndon"?
(Gawd! I still hate having to admin that LBJ was a Texan.)
ROFL
You're just having fun at our expense.
Put down the bottle and step away from the bar. :)
Damn, I'm 46, I'm looking for a new get rich quick scheme, where I can really take 20 years off my life.
And coming back a little hotter and a little longer to boot.
We did alot of playing catch up with the Russians in regard to aerospace.
They built the largest plane in existence. Their country crosses 11 time zones, you don't exactly take a bus to Siberia.
It's fair to say they were highly accomplished in that area, but our marine tech was always much better.
If I understand it correctly, they are actually in worse shape due to bone loss - so a mili-second of 'youth' would have a heavy price.
I like Utah. Good conservative country. There is an SR-71 in the Museum of Flight in Seattle. They also have a Concorde. I need to take my grandson to see the Golden Spike, some mountains, the Great Salt Lake...
I think he meant it as "directing a question..."
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