Great stories! A friend of mine was a SR-71 pilot. He said they took off with full fuel but the fuel tanks leaked so much at low speeds due to being designed to withstand the planes thermal expansion and it burned so much on takeoff they would then refuel before going supersonic. The problem was the stall speed of the SR-71 was higher than the max speed of the tanker plane. What they had to do was put the tanker in a dive from high altitude and then the SR-71 would hook up on the descent.
This is the same thing that the B-47's did with the KC-97's in 1953 and thus the 367-80 ,KC-135 and compatible refueling scenarios. Switches
And I worked on its design, with a whole lot of other engineers, in Renton from 1991 thru 1993. (The engineers moved to Everett afterwards.) I wish I could fly in 777s more often, but there are few in use domestically. I have more success in finding the other airliner I worked on the design of, the 767.
And you couldn't walk under one after it returned from a flight for the same reason! A regular flying sieve. Fortunately the flash point of the fuel was such that I heard that you could throw a lighted match into a puddle of it on the ground and nothing would happen.
And I worked with you on both but unfortunately I never met you. I worked on all the jets from the B-52 to the 777 less the odd numbered 737 and 757 because I was working on the 747 and 767 at the time. It amazes me that the engineering staff of both Airbus and Boeing haven't been able to design something to beat the performance of the 737. They just tweek it a little bit and beat back anything that confronts it. Amazing little airplane! And to think, at one time they were going to dump the program. I have no faith or attachment to the 787 thing. It is not a Boeing product like the 777 was. When I look back at the coordinated effort of the Design Build Teams that we conducted with the customer reps and the IN-HOUSE manufacturing teams I know that we did the right thing. They *****ed about the high cost of the initial run of airplanes but it is now paying off. The 777 is one of the a great ones if not the greatest. Switches
Back during the Vietnam war I was sitting at my air intercept control console in CIC of the Guided Missile Frigate (USS Wainwright DLK 28). We were running NORSAR off the coast of Haiphong. We had several sorties up and around Hanoi and I was just keeping an eye on things. One of the other controllers onboard told me to look further north on my screen and tell me what I saw. We had an unknown object flying at over 70,000 feet at slightly below mach 3. We had been able to pick it up on the AN/SPS 48 long range air search radar. The other controller reported it as a missile but then it changed course and took about 100 miles to make a wide sweeping fast turn and head directly back south again. We watched it for about three minutes while it made a few more turns. About that time we received a command to drop track on the object and to discontinue tracking it. We found out later it was an SR-71 snapping pictures..............First and only time I ever got to track one on radar. It was quite a thrill........ Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
What I find to be so interesting is that the Blackbird is, essentially, a 50-year old plane. But, it was so amazingly advanced at that time that even today it's impressive. It makes me wonder why we aren't pushing the engineering limits. I'm sure I'm glossing over a whole host of more recent aeronautical achievements, but the truth seems to be that we (as in humans) haven't produced any plane that's equally or more capable than the Blackbird. I'm sure economics has a lot to do with it, but any comments are welcome. I've heard much talk about scramjet technology, but nothing's here, yet. Moreover, satellites have obviated the Blackbird in many applications. So, was the Blackbird THE apex of aeronautical technology? Or, will we see even more fantastic planes in the future? CW
It's true that when you look at a century of aviation and compare the first 50 years to the last 50, the development curve has leveled off considerably, notwithstanding the recent advances made in stealth technology, avionics, composite construction, etc. In the first 50 years (44 to be exact), we went from the Wright Brothers' first powered flight to supersonic. To me, that is just staggering.
There may be more fantastic planes already in existence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(aircraft)
Finally had a chance to read through the whole thread. Great stories all around. Another excellent thread! Regarding donv's Wikipedia URL: For some reason, the correct URL doesn't post properly here but adding that closing parenthesis in the address bar will make it work if you tried clicking on the link (or, just copy paste the whole URL into the address bar).
No worries, no fault of your own! I even tried test posting it and it would drop the closing parenthesis from the live link. Go figure...
I completely forgot to come back and check on this thread. So many cool posts and stories! If anyone has any more SR-71 anecdotes (AnotherDunneDeal's story was awesome), please share. As for having it as a personal commuter - a guy can dream, can't he?
I can also recommend Ben Rich's "The Skunk Works". He talks about his time in the Skunk Works from the U-2 Days up to the F-117. He is the man that succeeded Kelly Johnson in running the Skunk Works. Interesting stories about the Blackbird in there.
A guy I know fairly well (he pays me when I travel) has a framed shoulder patch on his "I Love Me Wall." It is from his last unit of assignment. Best job he EVER had and he LOVED to HATE it. His weekly commute was a govt(?) provided aircraft with window shades drawn at all times. They routinely had their window shades closed (if they had windows at all) for no explained reason. The yellow and black patch is in the shape of a western US State with a cute little stinky black and white critter on it. The unit's Motto: "Area XX. We work in the shadows, to keep YOU in the dark." Honestly, I think that answers your question. IMO there are allot of things out there that our adversaries, friends and even the US public has no need or even right to know for MANY years, if ever.
I can attest to "Sled Driver" - it's a fantastic book (yes, I own a copy signed by the author). As cool as the stories are in the book, the photography is out of this world (literally). Seeing what appears to be the aircraft at 90,000+ feet in black outerspace is just awe inspiring. Carbon, if you put gloves on you can peruse my copy
Having been at a particular airport and seeing aircraft departing on a schedualed basis for a particular location in the middle of no-where, it is very interesting that over the years NO ONE has talked about what they do. It is comforting that in todays world, your word means something.
1ual777 & Jet-X, Sorry. I am dumb as a post. Other than what I have said, I have no FREAKING IDEA what either of you are talking about. I ..... have NO NEED To Know. Not now; Not ever.
