SR-71

And a rare two seat A-12 trainer.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Like Carbon, I don't claim to know much about planes either. However, the variants of the Blackbird were my favorites as a teen, ones I built models of and read about in everything I could get my hands on. I seem to recall that my favorite was a YF variant called the YF-12A, which was basically the Blackbird, with a separable drone/pod plane mounted to it... any additional info or stories on this one?

I rarely truly :lol: on the internet. But I :lol:'ed

We will certainly see far more fantastic planes in the future. In fact, they're flying right now. And they can easily read the headlines of a newspaper held in your hands from altitude. But it will be ~20 years before we know about them, at which point, they'll be outdated, and some other plane that none of us will be able to fathom will be the new hotness.

Thank you Carbon/NNO and SkunkWorks for this thread... cheers!

-Tad

 

Actually, the YF-12A was a long-range interceptor version, as alluded to above. The version with the piggy-back drone was called the M-21, and only 2 were built. The D-21 drone is shown in reply #74 above. On one launch attempt the drone collided with the mother aircraft and both were lost, so that concept was scratched and changed to launching the drones from under the wings of B-52s.

The surviving M-21, with D-21 drone mounted on its back, is on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

 

There is an A-12 with a drone on display at the Evergreen Museum, in McMinnville Oregon.

What was the proposed mission for the YF-12? I'm assuming it was an interceptor, rather than a "fighter"-- it's hard to imagine that thing dogfighting with an F-16 or an SU-27. Or even a MiG-25, to put it in the appropriate time context (the MiG was really an interceptor as well).

 

@DonV - the A-12 you referred to in your post is actually 17971, a true SR-71. It was reactivated and used by NASA in the 90s for high speed testing purposes. I cant find any information about the D-21 drone you mention, but am researching that as we speak. It may be a few days, but I am curious.

Most of the D-21s were destroyed, but there are just a few on static displays around the nation. My last count had that there were five being displayed. This would make a sixth unless one of those five had been moved. There were only a total of 38 built.


PDG

 

Sorry for the double post.

The YF-12 was going to be a long-range, high-speed interceptor bomber. The idea was that if a nuclear missle at us the YF-12 would have been acting as a first line defense to be able to catch and shoot down any incoming missles. The strategic plan was to keep a net of these in the air patrolling the US border at all times, able to respond in an instant to any incoming threat.


PDG

 

sad to see those great planes outside on a pole.

 

The YF-12 was designed for the Phoenix fire control system eventually fitted to the F-14 Tomcat. The big problem was they could not get clean separation on the missiles, which tumbled when they separated from the laminar flow of the aircraft. Similar thing happened on the attempted launch of the D-21. There is an SR-71 web site showing the M-21/D-21 launch attempt that should also be on U-Tube. The pilot and back seater survived the ejection after the impact, but the back seater got a hole in his pressure suit and drowned before he could be recovered.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

FFWD to 3 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMyC2urCl_4

 

Carbon- I have 2000+ hours of flying time in fighters, my father flew P-47Ds in WW-II, and my brother flew F-4s. Between the three of us, we had 76 years in the AAF/USAF. It is in my blood.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

@Carbon - Most of my best SR-71 stories are already told here, hearing them from me would be second or third hand at best. I had done a number of interviews for my book and had extensive notes but lost every bit of it when my computer was stolen from me about seven years ago. I could never recreate it all. I would still enjoy the opportunity to sit down and have a beer though!! I do remember a few that arent here that I will try to post later.

@Tazandjan - THAT is very impressive. I would enjoy the opportunity to talk to you about that at some point. I am pretty sure you have some good stories there. What did you fly? Where? I am very curious...


PDG

 

For those who want SR pics, the NASA collection has a number of very nice high-res shots.

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/SR-71/index.html

 

Hey Patrick, come down to Huachuca next weekend. I'm headed to the Pima Air museum next weekend to see the SR71 there. Serial Number: 61-7951 Gonna stop by the Titan Missile Museum too.

 

Patrick- Mostly F-111s, 2000+ hours in those as a WSO, but also F-15D, F-16D, RF-4C, F-4G. Desert Storm, FWIC, etc. I have quite a few war stories here already. Search "Taz".

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Interesting-- did they actually have the accuracy to hit a missile?

I thought the whole "missile defense system" thing was only recently able to hit a missile in flight? Or maybe it's easier because they YF-12 would already be so high up?

As for the SR-71, I see that you are right.

Here is a picture of the drone next to it:

http://www.sr-71.org/photogallery/blackbird/d-21/index.php?file=d-21b-2006-03.jpg

 

Without taking the time to look it up I seem to recall the missiles the YF-12 was meant to fire were nuclear which meant close was good enough.

 

That would have been a debacle (so say the least!). I'm glad cooler heads prevailed and cancelled that plan!

 

I dont recall ever reading about arming the YF-12 with nuclear missles. My memory could easily be failing me though. I do KNOW that conventional missles were used in the testing and could accurately hit high speed targets up to 100 miles away. I would assume that would be good enough to destroy incoming nuclear missles of the era.

@Thomas - take some good photos and send them to me via email. I would love to get some more up to date photos. Maybe I should get back into working on a book about it again. I am getting re-inspired by this thread...

@Carbon - Count me in if I can make it out to Cali!!

@Taz - I will look up and see what stories I can find here. Those are indeed some amazing planes. I would hazard a guess that you probably hold the record for the highest speed attained by any FChatter. Even an Enzo cant keep up with an F-16!!!


PDG

 

Patrick- Only mach 2.55 for me. The SR-71 was a full mach number faster.

The YF-12 was never considered for an ABM role, too long ago. The Phoenix predecessor system with the GAR-9B/AIM-47 missiles was a conventional system. Unlike what I said earlier, they did have good DT&E success with the AIM-47 from the YF-12. Memory gets foggy sometimes. Should look these things up.

As far as I know, there was never any intention of putting the unguided AIR-2 Genie system with nuclear warhead on the YF-12. The aircraft was as fast as the missile. The GAR-9 (predecessor missile to the GAR-9B and AIM-47) for the cancelled F-108 (B-70 mach 3 contemporary) did have a nuclear warhead option.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

So was the YF-12 supposed to intercept a particular Russian bomber?

I've been Mach 2, but not in a pilot seat... Lots of time at Mach 0.85 in a pilot seat, though!

 

Don- Pretty much any bomber the Russians had. The idea was to intercept before they could launch the cruise missiles of the time. Would probably have had an overwater look-down, shoot-down capability against large cruise missiles, too. Not much stealth back then. F-111s had RAM in their intakes, but pretty crude by current low observable standards.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Anybody have any specific parts they want pics of when I go to the museum on Sat?