Posted on 07/29/2016 8:16:36 AM PDT by DFG
I think that almost 50% of the space is for fuel.
I knew somebody who was a security policeman in the air force. When the plane was still secret, one of them had to make an emergency landing at his air base. The air controllers were at first confused by the aircraft’s location and ETA to land, as it didn’t make sense....implied speeds they thought weren’t possible. Then the futuristic bird landed and the pilot handed them instructions about dragging it into a hanger to hide it.
To him the whole experience was surreal. He’d spent a career in the Air Force, and all of the sudden he’s looking at a plane he didn’t know existed.
A friend, who was a PANG Capt pilot of a C-130 (forget which version) in Afghanistan, told me that ‘it’ expands as it heats up flying, and seals all the leaks. But when it’s cold on the ground, it leaks liquids everywhere. They couldn’t wait for it to get airborne. No, he didn’t fly one, but drooled everytime we talked about it.
When I was stationed at Beale one of the things a lot of people loved to do was sit on the hills above the flight line and watch the engine burnoff after she landed. They had a pad the plane would taxi to and they would then open the engines up and burn the remaining fuel off. It was a hell of a light and sound show! We would call it the sound of freedom.
Just this week we had a (slow flying) spy airplane land in Russia. For some reason, there is apparently still a need to use airplanes too.
Try as they did, and they did and still try, not the Russkies, the ChiCOMS, the NKs nor anyone else been able to replicate the SR-71
Doesn't matter!
This is NASA man!
O's been telling us for eight years about all the contributions muzzies have made to the U.S. and science in general.
I'm sure that our eighth century muzzies could build them again.
Two pocket protectors...
There were some 2 seat versions built mainly to make it easier to train new pilots.
Originally the A-10s(CIA) and SR 71s(Air Force) were single seaters
In his book, Sled Driver, SR-71 Blackbird pilot Brian Shul writes: “I’ll always remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day as Walt (my backseater)
and I were screaming across Southern California, 13 miles high. We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft as we entered Los Angeles airspace. Though they didn’t really control us, they did monitor our movement across their scope. I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its groundspeed.”
“90 knots” Center replied.
“Moments later, a Twin Beech required the same.”
“120 knots,” Center answered.
“We weren’t the only ones proud of our groundspeed that day as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted, ‘Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests groundspeed readout.’
“There was a slight pause, then the response, 525 knots on the ground, Dusty”.
“Another silent pause. As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation this was, I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my backseater. It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison.” “Center, Aspen 20, you got a groundspeed readout for us?”
There was a longer than normal pause.... “Aspen, I show 1,742 knots”
“No further inquiries were heard on that frequency”
____________________________________________
In another famous SR-71 story, Los Angeles Center reported receiving a request for clearance to FL 60 (60,000ft).
The incredulous controller, with some disdain in his voice, asked, “How do you plan to get up to 60,000 feet?”
“The pilot (obviously a sled driver), responded, “We don’t plan to go up to it, we plan to go down to it.”
He was cleared...
I interviewed a Lt. Colonel who had been assigned to the SR-71 back in the 70s. Remarkably, he had been a Enlisted Crew Chief on a B-25 and was shot down over North Korea.
He survived a NK prison camp, returned to the USAF and was chosen for pilot training. He made the grade and was married and received his 2nd Lt. bars on the same day.
Great story...
If I recall one Blackbird pilot hinted that they pushed the throttles into uncharted deflection when they thought the Soviets had a lock on them during a late mission.
I’ve seen it up close at Dayton Museum and what’s amazing is it looks like it was glued together and it isn’t as big as you think. But what an amazing plane!
The 1960’s technology was indeed cool to see.
My understanding is that Kelly Johnson and his team went from paper to flying in 18 months. I got to see one of these refueled from a tanker plane. We were on the Iowa-IL state line when the Bird called in, telling us he was slowing down for link-up...he just passed Billings, Montana!
The linked article quoted the Pilot to say they didn’t go as fast as they could, just fast enough to break the record. The plane looks screaming fast just sitting in the Wright Patterson museum.
An interesting link on how the Blackbirds were moved from Skunkworks to Area 51.
http://roadrunnersinternationale.com/transporting_the_a-12.html
Preferable, except that it’s hard to schedule a satellite pass over an arbitrary point of interest.
Sadly you are correct. My dad worked for Kelly Johnson at Lockheed on the P-38 project. Amazing what was done with slide rules, wind tunnel models, and no computers.
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