SR71 Blackbird Best of the Best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrVwDvq9Rw4 For aviation enthusiasts a must see documentary there was no equal and probably will not be another even...

sr71 Loc: In Col. Juan Seguin Land

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrVwDvq9Rw4

For aviation enthusiasts a must see documentary there was no equal and probably will not be another even close to it's capabilities.

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

sr71 wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrVwDvq9Rw4

For aviation enthusiasts a must see documentary there was no equal and probably will not be another even close to it's capabilities.

I was stationed at Beale AFB in the 70’s and Habu was across from our birds, the U-2, in their revetments. Loved to watch them fuel up for flight and then leak fuel all the way to the end of the runway for takeoff. Nine times out of ten they had to return to the shelters with some clitch keeping them on the ground.
Beautiful lines and lots of power, but a mechanics nightmare.

Bill Munny Loc: Aurora, Colorado

sr71 wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrVwDvq9Rw4

For aviation enthusiasts a must see documentary there was no equal and probably will not be another even close to it's capabilities.

Well, Lockheed is one company that is on contract right now for the new one and is going strong with the design to surpass the SR-71. Whether they do it is not the question but when will it be available or will the cost be too high. My project at Lockheed, before I retired, was testing LIDAR systems in flight on the 2 SR-71's that were still flying (oops, you did not hear that). The Blackbird was totally amazing, the new one should be 3 sigma.

vonzip Loc: cape cod

When working at Hill AFB, once they landed they where immediately escorted to a hangar and a guard was put on duty. When taking off a T-38 was a chase plane that was soon left in the dust and the blackbird was very quickly off the scope. Awesome bird. vz

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

Nothing can convey the enormous, gut rumbling power those birds had like standing near the runway when one took off. Even inside the BOQs at Beale, which were over 6 miles from the runway with a hill in between, you knew when an SR71 started its takeoff roll (but you never heard a B52 from there.) In the late-60s and early-70s when I was there, the capabilities and operations were highly classified, and if you weren't in the program you didn't know much of anything beyond the published statistics. The unveiling of information on and stories about these machines in recent decades has been fascinating to one who, at the time, could only marvel at what they must really be like.

oldgeezer3 Loc: SoCal

I was working at March AFB when one SR71 took off to make the record-breaking run across the U.S. What an awful noise it made! The building I worked in was right on the guest parking apron so you can imagine how loud it was on it's take-off roll! There is one parked at the March Museum, now, too.

pendennis

pmorin wrote:

I was stationed at Beale AFB in the 70’s and Habu was across from our birds, the U-2, in their revetments. Loved to watch them fuel up for flight and then leak fuel all the way to the end of the runway for takeoff. Nine times out of ten they had to return to the shelters with some clitch keeping them on the ground.
Beautiful lines and lots of power, but a mechanics nightmare.

The SR-71 would leak fluids because the body was designed to seal after heating up in flight. I seem to recall that they were frequently refueled right after takeoff because of that. I've also read the same that mechanical problems were always present.

PS - I had a lot of Airedale buds at Quonset Point, NAS. They often told me that if no liquids (such as fuel, oil, grease or hydraulic fluid) are leaking out of an aircraft, it's safe to say there are none within.

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

pendennis wrote:

The SR-71 would leak fluids because the body was designed to seal after heating up in flight. I seem to recall that they were frequently refueled right after takeoff because of that. I've also read the same that mechanical problems were always present.

PS - I had a lot of Airedale buds at Quonset Point, NAS. They often told me that if no liquids (such as fuel, oil, grease or hydraulic fluid) are leaking out of an aircraft, it's safe to say there are none within.

The skin on the SR was made of titanium to withstand the heat . The fuel cells on a normal aircraft are made with an internal bladder, but that could not be done in the Blackbird because of the heat. Once the titanium reached temperature the expansion of the metal sealed the tanks in flight. The pilot then had about 17 minutes of fuel left after takeoff and had to have a kc in the air ready for him to refuel in flight. Sometimes they could not get both in the air at once.
The deuce that my outfit maintained rarely leaked any fluids.

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

oldgeezer3 wrote:

I was working at March AFB when one SR71 took off to make the record-breaking run across the U.S. What an awful noise it made! The building I worked in was right on the guest parking apron so you can imagine how loud it was on it's take-off roll! There is one parked at the March Museum, now, too.

Last time I was at the March AFB Museum they had moved the SR71 inside due to the weathering it was receiving outside.

tallshooter

Check out the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS. They have a great display of the SR 71. http://cosmo.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khPIueo3UNE

IDguy Loc: Idaho

sr71 wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrVwDvq9Rw4

For aviation enthusiasts a must see documentary there was no equal and probably will not be another even close to it's capabilities.

SR 72 development apparantly well along. Nearly twice the speed!

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/news/a28420/hypersonic-sr-72-demonstrator-reportedly-spotted-at-skunk-works/

TonyBot

... and the highest speed *ejection* ever made from a flying aircraft was done from a failing SR71. The pilot, as I heard it, left the Blackbird as it was breaking up, when it was traveling in somewhere around Mach 2.3 - and he survived! Imagine a gust of wind hitting you, and that gust is going about 1,800 knots! Thats just short of 2,000 mph, and about 10 times the highest sustained wind ever recorded. He survived, but he isn't doing too well. While I'm not sure of the exact speed, it was definitely the fastest, ever. Not a record that I'd like to set.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

sr71 wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrVwDvq9Rw4

For aviation enthusiasts a must see documentary there was no equal and probably will not be another even close to it's capabilities.

Yes, quite a plane. I've seen that documentary several times. The SR71 still looks like it's from the future, so imagine what people thought when they first saw it decades ago.

sr71 Loc: In Col. Juan Seguin Land

IDguy wrote:

SR 72 development apparantly well along. Nearly twice the speed!

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/news/a28420/hypersonic-sr-72-demonstrator-reportedly-spotted-at-skunk-works/

I felt they were working on something, glad to sees at least a conceptional picture. Mach 5+ that's gonna blow some doors off.. whew!!!!! thanks for the link.....

sr71 Loc: In Col. Juan Seguin Land

TonyBot wrote:

... and the highest speed *ejection* ever made fro... (show quote)

nothing like becoming an instant pancake, he was lucky for sure....