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.
Would anyone buy it if the top speed of the SR-71 was actually Mach 5 versus Mach 3?
Well, the specs of the plane are still classified. I could buy it. What are the specs on it's replacement? There are still things we shouldn't know
Jay Miller, aviation historian, wrote the 'Skunk Works' book and did some fabulous research. He is on the record as stating:
... I held in my hand "Kelly" Johnson's original hand-written notes on his discussions with President Johnson pertaining to the official release of information about the A-12 and YF-12A...and it was "Kelly" who proposed the use of the never-used A-11 designator as a cover for the program.
All in museums. The last NASA bird ended its days on public show after being transferred to a museum.
"You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3."Second best SR-71 quote ever:
— Paul F. Crickmore, 'Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed,' 1993.
"You know the part in 'High Flight' where it talks about putting out your hand to touch the face of God? Well, when we're at speed and altitude in the SR, we have to slow down and descend in order to do that."Both of these are taken from absolultely *THE* best internet compilation of quotes about flying, Great Aviation Quotes: Quotations on Flying.
— USAF Lt. Col. (ret.) Gil Bertelson, SR-71 RSO, in 'SR-71 Blackbird: Stories, Tales and Legends,' 2002.
I have spent hours on that site, browsing quotations and book passages which cover the range from hysterically funny to heartbreakingly beautiful to awesomely inspirational.
"But at night, over a stratus layer, all sense of the planet may disappear. You know that down below, beneath that heavenly blanket is the earth, factual and hard. But it's an intellectual knowledge; it's a knowledge tucked away in the mind; not a feeling that penetrates the body. And if at times you renounce experience and mind's heavy logic, it seems that the world has rushed along on its orbit, leaving you alone flying above a forgotten cloud bank, somewhere in the solitude of interstellar space."
— Charles A. Lindbergh, 'The Spirit of St. Louis,' 1953.
---My point was, Einstein's relativity has nothing to do with the Earth's rotation, either forwards or backwards. It has to do only with movement through dimensional space. So when you write:----
Oh, yes it does! I saw "Superman." When he went back in time to rescue Lois Lane he flew around the world and reversed the earth's rotation....you pseudo pscience types are sooo ignorant...
---sarcasm off--- ;)
Your daughter standing in front of that aircraft is far more attractive than the babes in the beer commercials. Maybe the TV types could learn something from this. If, thirty years ago, they had done an ad featuring Kelly Johnson having a Coors, I wonder how the public would have responded?
Drinking beer makes you smarter. It made Budweizer.
If you could see something that was traveling faster than the speed of light, you would see it as traveling in the opposite direction until it passed you, then you would see it traveling in two directions at once....
think about it.....
You may be right. But considering not only the initial cost, but the fact that by now almost all the bugs would have been exterminated, it would make little sense to drop it.
Unless...
They enhanced the technology and turned it into a sub-orbital bird. Which would make alot of sense.
This is a "great" story (maybe). In the fifth year of my marriage I finally met one of my wife's cousins; I didn't even know that he existed until she told me he was coming. I asked her what he did. "I don't know, something about airplanes."
I was born and raised, and served, in the Air Force. I love aircraft, now hear that I have a hidden relative, who, as it turns out, was the director of public relations for Lockheed!
When he told me what he did, then asked my wife why she hadn't told him that I was such an aircraft buff, she just said that she'd never thought of it. The laser beams from my eyes should have melted her.
At that time Lockheed was being sold, so he couldn't give me the tour that he wanted to give me, or the flight in a jet that he could have arranged. He did send me a load of books and tapes on Lockheed products, which are still treasured.
Yep, I divorced her.
When Kelly Johnson was designing the plane he demanded certain alloys and specialized metals. They called the stuff "unobtanium."
I imagine if we designed it from the ground up now, with the ceramics, composite, and fiber technology that we have, it would weigh half as much and fly five times faster.
The first Astronauts that exceeded the speed of light were talking.
The first pilot asked " How fast are we going?", The second pilot said "2.2 times the speed of light".
The first pilot said "Oh My God" , a different voice then said "YES".
Most of the birds in the museum become museum property by way of donation from the armed services
Not so. The Memphis Belle was recently reposessed by the Air Force because it wasn't taken care of properly. They may grant stewardship to the museums, but they don't own them
So is it a pre-cursor, a prototype, a trainer, or unrelated to the SR-71 family?
Seriously, the USA rocks!
Absolutely
Oooh, sexy!!
Not you, the plane.
A cool plane indeed. The B-1 would be the grandson of the XB-70, as a supersonic bomber, though not as fast-- with a bit of stealth tech added.
Well, that's the $64 Million dollar question. According to Einstein, matter equals energy at that point.
As you approach that speed, the experienced time of the traveller slows down. So to an astronaut returning to earth after a trip near light speed, everyone else would be greatly aged in comparison. If he actually made it to light speed, ???
That's what little I know about it...
And a cool photo of two guys sitting inside an XB-70 Valkyrie's intake duct:
you're up early.
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