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]
true...
That should be the countries new motto:
"Kicking Ass for over 200 Years"
or like McDonalds: "Over 50 million Asses Kicked".
"Kicking Ass for over 200 Years"
I'll go with that. We need to promote this country. That would be a great advertising line. Should be shown during the Super Bowl
This one?
Notice that it's upside-down.
This one?
Anybody know how many were made?
'Scuse me. I stand corrected, did know about Okinawa. Got my info from a "Mach 3" former pilot passing through our local airbase. My main point still stands, the bird is virtually untouchable by enemy action. I think, I am not sure, but I heard from same source, one is still flying as a "rent a platform" for high altitude science projects and recon, at one point we had recommissioned two for that purpose.
"Although faster than the earth's rotation, it would have to be thousands of times faster to really exhibit time dialation for the pilot.
If he was in the air 23 hours and landed in the same spot he took off, it would still be 23 hours later :)"
Alas, time travel is restricted to only one direction and at a constant rate. That is, only for us mortals.
Much larger photo and only 56,000 bytes versus 2,000,000 bytes for a much smaller photo.
An SR-71 and a YF-12 are still on the books of Wright-Patterson. Some 32 SR-71s were built with 12 lost.
If I remember correctly, the fuel, JP-7, was specifically designed just for the "Lead Sled" and had a flash point around 700 F.... the fuel was pumped through the leading edge of the wings, cooling the edge and preheating the fuel.
The funny corrigated look of the aircrafts skin was from the contraction of the frame when cooled....When the plane actually was in the air, the expansion stretched the frame and the skin smoothed out......plus, the Ti alloy was constantly being heat treated every flight and thus never suffered fatigue.
The early planes had bad fits of compressor failure when the spike in the engine intakes were not possitioned in the correct place....the problem was solved through use of electronic sensors that automatically positioned the spike.
When the plane was at cruise and altitude, the spike was positioned in such a way that the pilots could trottle back as much as 70% and still maintain cruise....the spike added so much compression to the engine that they basically had an overdrive......One of the weird little things that contributed to its awesome range....
Another tidbit, on the XB-70, the outer tips of the mains could be lower as much as 60 degrees, allowing the tips to ride on the shock wave genereated by the nose....it generated a tremendous amount of lift without adding any drag.....
Us Americans are really sneaky and bright fellows....
I see you read SiFi.....
My brother was a brain; I'm just smart enough to realize how dumb I am and how little I know.....
From NASA website:
The last SR-71 flight was made on Saturday October 9, 1999, at the Edwards AFB air show. The aircraft used was NASA 844. The aircraft was also scheduled to make a flight the following day, but a fuel leak grounded the aircraft and prevented it from flying again. The NASA SR-71s were then put in flyable storage, where they remained until 2002. They were then sent to museums.
Many thanks for the great info.
Bingo
I watched a 737 leaving the famous doughnuts on a rope contrail. Have seen them numerous times left by mere passenger jets.
Ben Rich's book, Skunk Works says it isn't. He was Kelly's righthand man and took over the Skunk Works when Kelly had to retire. I think he would know if it was true or not.
LOL! But what a great way to waste time! There are some fantastic websites out there for aviation.
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