SR-71

Brian- If you want any book, abe.com is by far the best source I have seen. I have picked up dozens of WW-I era technical books on aircraft engines published from 1916-1922. Unbelievable what you can find on that site, which every book store in the world seems to use.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Thanks Terry, I will check that out next time I need some books.

 

Brian- Whoops, that is abebooks.com.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Not sure if this was posted before, but here's a nice pic for desktop wallpaper.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockheedmartin/4256659363/sizes/o/in/set-72157601438448243/

 

I just posted in Silver Subscribed about a really cool event that happened to our son last month on a music tour he was on. He was housed for three nights with a retired Colonel and his wife while in Port Isabel, Texas. The colonel had been an SR-71 test pilot and later regular pilot. His last duty assignment had been at a little old desert base called Area 51.
He had also been at the Pentagon for a tour of duty there. Colonel Ellington I believe.

I have not had time yet to pick J.J.'s brain for all the stories he has to tell about his time with the colonel and his wife. But he did say the colonel told him he could not say much about Area 51 except that there are several planes there that you will not find a any regular base...

 

The colonel, Jerry Ellington, told J.J. that on one of their high speed test flights in the SR-71 in the very early 70's they were at about mach 4 and were passed by something that made them feel as though they were backing up. The colonel reported it and was told to "not worry about it". He told J.J. that there were several planes that we really do not know much about............if anything at all.....

I really wonder what kind of memories are locked away in the colonels brain about his time at Area 51....We are to meet him when he comes to the Alliance Airshow in Fort Worth in August. Maybe I can pick his brain about something that may have become declassified since his retirement.......I am really looking forward to meeting an actual SR-71 test pilot.

 

Evergreen Air Museum has an SR-71 Symposium going on this weekend. I happened to stumble across it-- pretty interesting listening to the stories of the pilots and mechanics. My son got to sit in the SR-71 cockpit.

Apparently none of them have flown since the late 90s, and none of them will fly again. Evergreen's is one of the few which wasn't sawn in half before being put into a museum to make it unflyable, so in theory that airframe could fly again-- but these guys were all quite certain that it would never happen.

One of the mechanics said that when they got some airplanes operational in the late 90s, after only sitting for a few years, the engines were the real challenge.

 

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/07/16/ford-roush-and-shelby-team-up-for-one-off-charity-mustang-inspi/

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I'm pretty sure that the Boeing museum plane was disassembled the same way.... Probably 20 years ago I remember reading about it and going to see the parts on a truck in Wilsonville when it was being shipped up to Seattle.

 

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/07/30/one-off-sr-71-mustang-sells-for-375-000-at-eaa-airventure/

 

Reviving a thread....

A couple weeks ago I had opportunity to spend some time with someone who had a significant amount of time in the Blackbird and he answered one of my long time questions.

Basically how was the Blackbird able to fly supersonic across the US at various time given the prohibition on supersonic flight?

The answer was that they would basically climb above Class A (FL600) and the rules didn't apply up there. To get up there they would accelerate/climb in one of the military supersonic flight corridors. It's not the sort of thing that has been or ever will be relevant to my flying career that I am familiar with the specific regulations but it seemed to make enough sense to me.

There was still a significant sonic boom from that altitude (approx 2 psi) though there were things they could do do significantly increase the overpressure, most notably a descent. Apparently there were some missions where a point was to be made that someone was watching and the would maximize the boom.

Final thing that I didn't realize was that the Blackbird was a relatively fragile airplane, according to this guy it was pretty much limited to 2.5 G.

 

Thanks... didn't know that.

So, not acrobatics at Mach 3, huh?

 

Maybe that was just their operational limit - surely it was stressed structurally higher than that.

After all, it did not have a long wingspan like the U-2, and it could carry those drone missiles on its back.

 

My impression wasn't so much laterally as longitudinally. That big long front end sticking out there didn't take kindly to stress. One aircraft was structurally damaged from an air show demo when the pilot got tricky in front of the crowd and pulled 3.5G. It was patched together for a one time flight back and was made a static display.

The drone missiles never really worked out and led to the loss of at least one Blackbird.

 

True that on the drones. They make for a very cool model display, though.

I remember reading that the AF specifically refused to allow former fighter pilots to apply for the SR-71 program. They did not want any hot dogs - it was former bomber pilots only.

Considering the power of the engines, there may very well have been an acceleration G-load limit as well.

 

That was another thing the guy said, they brought a lot of people over from the B-58. Figured that if they could handle Mach 2 then they could go a little faster. The plane he was referring to that was over G'd was flown by a former Thunderbird when it happened.

 

For the SR71 fans, I highly recommend "Sled Driver" and the "Untouchables" by Brian Shul. Awesome reading and pictures.

I got lucky on Amazon one day at about 3:00 AM and bought both. This was maybe two years ago. "Sled Driver" was about $110 and "Untouchables" was about $80. Both were mint. Just got lucky.

MDS

 

Just picked up a fun new book on the SR-71, co-authored by Paul Crickmore, another guy who knows a thing or two about the Blackbirds.

http://www.amazon.com/Lockheed-SR-71-Blackbird-Manual-Workshop/dp/0857331566/

 

I just watched the Great Planes docu. I didn't know much about this plane, glad I saw this thread.
Amazing that this is 1950's tech.
I wonder what they must have now hidded away at Groom Lake.

 

I once saw one for a breif moment on the tarmac at the airport as we were taxing out on a flight in 1997 and I was in awe. I was also in awe when I saw my first Ferrari, I was 10 and in D.C. it was a Black 308GTS and an even more brief moment. Funny how the breif moments have stuck so vivd in my memory when i can hardly remember anything from the college years.

 

cool stuff. Fast stuff.

and you thought all the F-117's were cut up....
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I guess this has been posted before but did not find when I did a search tonight.
Had this up on my office wall for years!
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I guess we all wish at times that we could fly New York to London in two hours.....

 

What's crazy to me is how old this technology actually is, and how awesome the current secret projects must be...

 

I got to see one takeoff when I was TDY at Edwards. It was when NASA was flying them. As the airplane taxied out there was an entire fleet of support vehicles following it out to the runway. You could also see the fuel leaking out. The takeoff roll was fairly long and it has got to be the loudest jet I have ever heard. I feel very fortunate to be able to see this legend fly. For me it was a case of being in the right place at the right time.