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.
*burp*:
I guess it wasn't warmed up yet
Up late, actually. I'm heading to bed in five minutes. ;-)
I have no idea. Einstein's formula breaks down, since faster-than-light speed forces taking the square root of a negative number (v=velocity, c=speed of light).
Just getting close to light speed increases mass, such that at light speed, mass is infinite. It's real hard to accelerate infinite mass.
I saw it recently. It is in the new aviation museum at Dulles.
Yes I saw this page before. Personally I put my money on the sweetman configuration, but who knows? Here is an interesting quote for you. It came from an ex-area 51 operative on a special I watched on Discovery Wings awhile back - his face was blacked out and voice altered, of course. "Whatever aircraft you see publicly - the Stealth, B2, etc., understand that the most advanced, secret aircraft the U.S. has are, on average, 50 years ahead of them." Thats wild!! Based on that we can only imagine whats being flown today....
**They forget that they would need to keep a dedicated 'Q tanker' type fleet for the fuel.***
The KC-135 can be used to refuel other aircraft without any changes. We refueled B-52s and fighters in SE Asia with JP-4 fuel. Upon return to the US we would purge the tanks and refill with JP-7 for the SR-71.
WE used to have to hand purge by draining the spare tanks of JP-4 and put in and drain a small amount of JP-7 to wash out any JP-4 left. The tanks were then considered purged.
The "Q" designation came because later a smaller spare tank was added for an inflight purge. This tank was filled with JP-7 and while inflight this fuel was transfered to the empty storage tanks to wash out the remaining JP-4. It was then dumped inflight. It saved us a lot of time and trouble.
You can still refuel other aircraft with the KC-135Q with no changes other than the jet propellant.
Hello Rightly Biased!
I saw your post after I piped up! Much, much better than my feeble attempt. The Cosmosphere is a true jewel for SC Kansas!
I was working in Hutch when the SR addition to the Cosmosphere was added! So cool!
Take Care,
MFO
Closer to Mach 6. The problem is crew members who become crisppy-critters when the dang thing gets too hot and crew-cooling gets over-whelmed.
Oh, now look whatcha did.
You hurt my wittle feelings.
< |:)~
Yes, in the early models. Later on the SR-71 was fitted with a pneumatic start.
SR-71
The plane "grew" 11 inches in length when at operational altitudes...heat expansion
It leaked like a sieve: no fuel bladders...it only got tight when it got hot.
A one degree climb angle resulted in 3000f/m increase in altitude.
It regularly flew over the Kamchatcha Peninsula and Sakhalin
Island and would be chased by a series of Russian fighters doing ballistic climbs trying to get close enough to fire on it.
The offical top speed was just over 2,400 mph, ceiling at 80k.
Unoffical speed closer to 3k mph
Unoffical altitude closer to 120k feet
Most of the above from my brother who helped design the bird.
dude you are watching WAY TOO MUCH tv
the pilot I heard speak mentioned this, but he pointed out that it would have been safe to drop a lit match into the leaking fuel, which he said sloshed around the pilots feet at times, since the ignition point of the fuel was so high.
Most of the above from my brother who helped design the bird.
Your brother worked with Kelly Johnson? That would have been an amazing place to work. He must be a very talented designer. I'm very jealous of the stories you must have heard.
thanks,
now I've blown the whole morning.
Drinking beer makes you smarter. It made Budweizer.
It absolutely does. Does anyone have the Cliff Claven buffaloe theory handy?
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