My Daughter in front of one at Eglin. The engines were huge.
Posted on 07/29/2016 8:16:36 AM PDT by DFG
For 40 years it has been the fastest plane ever built, and now the crew who flew the record-breaking, speed-shattering mission have been reunited with the aircraft they once commanded, and climbed back into the cockpit. It was 1976 when U.S. Air Force pilot Maj. Gen. Eldon 'Al' Joersz and Lt. Col. George 'GT' Morgan flew a jet faster than a speeding bullet. They flew faster than anyone had done before, or since. On July 28, 1976, the two men flew a SR-71 Blackbird spy plane for more than a thousand kilometers at 2,193 miles per hour, covering one mile every 1.64 seconds, a record that still stands today.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
"The Blackbird always showed us something new, each aircraft possessing its own unique personality. In time, we realized we were flying a national treasure. When we taxied out of our revetments for takeoff, people took notice. Traffic congregated near the airfield fences, because everyone wanted to see and hear the mighty SR-71. You could not be a part of this program and not come to love the airplane. Slowly, she revealed her secrets to us as we earned her trust.
One moonless night, while flying a routine training mission over the Pacific, I wondered what the sky would look like from 84,000 feet if the cockpit lighting were dark. While heading home on a straight course, I slowly turned down all of the lighting, reducing the glare and revealing the night sky. Within seconds, I turned the lights back up, fearful that the jet would know and somehow punish me. But my desire to see the sky overruled my caution, I dimmed the lighting again. To my amazement, I saw a bright light outside my window. As my eyes adjusted to the view, I realized that the brilliance was the broad expanse of the Milky Way, now a gleaming stripe across the sky. Where dark spaces in the sky had usually existed, there were now dense clusters of sparkling stars. Shooting stars flashed across the canvas every few seconds. It was like a fireworks display with no sound. I knew I had to get my eyes back on the instruments, and reluctantly I brought my attention back inside. To my surprise, with the cockp lighting still off, I could see every gauge, lit by starlight. In the plane's mirrors, I could see the eerie shine of my gold spacesuit incandescently illuminated in a celestial glow. I stole one last glance out the window. Despite our speed, we seemed still before the heavens, humbled in the radiance of a much greater power. For those few moments, I felt a part of something far more significant than anything we were doing in the plane. The sharp sound of Walt's voice on the radio brought me back to the tasks at hand as I prepared for our descent."
Mrs. JimRed’s cousin used to drive one. He doesn’t talk about it, but when the topic comes up he grins a lot!
Err ... 60,000 feet altitude is FL600, not FL60. [grin!] An SR-71 going at 6,000 feet would be in severe conflict with local traffic - as in going straight through! It does not do slow speed very well at all unless landing.
That, and the cone inlets to the engine can move quite a bit depending on speed and altitude to adjust for proper fuel burning.
They cannot be sent where they are needed. Their utility is limited based on the dynamics of their orbits.
They are stuck with the sensor suite they have at launch. You cannot change the sensors based on the mission needs.
Other than that, they are a perfect replacement for the SR-71.
>>That, and the cone inlets to the engine can move quite a bit depending on speed and altitude to adjust for proper fuel burning.
But that’s a controlled change for engine operation and not just a shape change due to heating that makes it impossible to calculate the speed of the aircraft as post #4 claimed.
Originally the A 12 was a single seater and then some 2 seaters were made.
The A 12 flew higher and faster than SR 71.
I knew one of the A 12 pilots who flew first in Oxcart at Area 51 and then over Korea and Viet Nam. When that program ended in 1968 he was ushered back into the Air Force and attached to the SR 71 wing at Beale as an instructor.
All of those puppies have predictable orbits. That being said, the U-2 does the pinch hitting because it isn’t so expensive to operate and maintain.
When we were a proud culture before the collapse.....
Great link...thanks for sharing! Those photographs are amazing!
What makes you think we don't?
A person close to me worked security for Los Alamos and Sandia Labs. Being a science geek, I used to (annoyingly) pump him for even the slightest glimmer of what they were working on. This used to piss off this person to no end. One day when I asked him about something I had seen on the web, he said:
"Think of what you think we have, add a hundred years of research and development, and you start to come close."
Waterboard him for more details.
It always works on MY relatives.
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You are correct about the CIA 'A'rchangel being single-seat but the only built versions were the '12' versions; A-12, YF-12A and then the M-21 (launch platform for D-21 drone). The YF-12A was the USAF designation for the Interceptor version of this airframe and identifiable by the nose lacking the smooth chines of the other models to accommodate the Hughes AN/ASG-18 fire-control radar. However the 3 YF-12As were all two-seaters, pilot & radar operator. Two of the YF-12As were lost but the remaining one is at Wright-Patterson USAF Museum in Dayton, OH.
The 9 surviving A-12s are on display at the following locations;
A-12 60-6924 at the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum Annex, Blackbird Airpark, at Plant 42, Palmdale, California.
A-12 60-6925 at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, parked on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, New York City.
A-12 60-6927 the two-seat trainer at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, California.
A-12 60-6930 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
A-12 60-6931 at the CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia.
A-12 60-6933 at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, Balboa Park, San Diego, California.
A-12 60-6937 at the Southern Museum of Flight, Birmingham, Alabama.
A-12 60-6938 at the Battleship Memorial Park (USS Alabama), Mobile, Alabama.
M-21 60-6940 at the Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington.
“They” make it. You just don’t hear about it.
My Daughter in front of one at Eglin. The engines were huge.
There is also one at the Huntsville Space Museum in Alabama.
I’ve also read that the planes constantly leak fuel because no sealant will withstand the heat. On one picture taken from a tanker you can see the fuel leaking from the seams.
Yes, to complete your splendid list, YF-12A 60-6936 is the one at Wright-Patterson USAF Museum in Dayton, OH. 934 and 935 were lost.
I had the pleasure to be on the engineering test team at Edwards while stationed there. Good times.
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