SR-71

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by soopaman2

In the opinion of everyone here would this still be a viable aircraft today?

Nope. High and fast gets you killed. The Patriot and latest SA-XX can engage targets like the SR-71.

This is the super high speed recon asset of the future:

It stays up for a year, evasive maneuvers can send it in to the next hemisphere, it doesn't lose speed or alt in a turn, is expendable...

[Stealhead]

Yeah the SR-71 would not be safe like it was during the Cold War at the time it was they way to go but the Soviets knowing about the SR-71 and the B-70(though it got scrapped in 69~70) they started developing counters I am not sure if it an urban legend or not but it is said that the interceptor version of the MiG-25 was designed specifically to deal with the B-70 which was a project that they did know about to some extent

That is why the scrapping of the original B-1A program was a good choice that program was to be a high altitude bomber something that was clearly the way of the Dodo by even the early 70's.The B-1B was originally(and it can still perform in this role as can the remaining B-52s if need be) a low altitude NOE penetration platform the odds it was felt where much better of flying low and fast as the Soviets lacked aircraft that had look down shoot down radar abilities until the MiG-31 came along in the early 80s and still good NOE even if radar did see it would have required a high level of coordination to deal with (remember in a SAC war you are sending a large number of bombers in) I am pretty confidante that the Soviets would have been overwhelmed and the F-117 and B-2 that just changed the whole game because those could be used to strike unseen and blow holes in the wall for the B-1Bs and Buffs to penetrate and they could do this to some extent already with cruise missiles.

I would say that radar and guidance technology have caught up with very high and very fast well we all know that high alone was not enough when Gary Powers was shot down 70,000 ft was not high enough.

[Krauter]

Good post Steelhead

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

This is the super high speed recon asset of the future:

Looks like a chinese copy of the shuttle!

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

It stays up for a year, evasive maneuvers can send it in to the next hemisphere, it doesn't lose speed or alt in a turn, is expendable...

Surely that depends on the initial speed into the turn, the force of the turn, and a few other bits that escape me at the moment. Unless it's turn radius is huge at any speed?

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

Looks like a chinese copy of the shuttle!




Surely that depends on the initial speed into the turn, the force of the turn, and a few other bits that escape me at the moment. Unless it's turn radius is huge at any speed?

It's in orbit, so it's changing its vector more than turning.

Also wright pat in Dayton has a 71 too, iirc from my last trip there.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

It's in orbit, so it's changing its vector more than turning.

That makes more sense! I should've guessed by it's looks.

Back to the Blackbird, I've seen them at Mildenhall and Lakenheath airshows in the late '80s and very early '90s but disappointingly only on static display, and I've seen it fly once at Alconbury airshow around the same times.

Living where I do I've seen a lot of different aircraft over the years in their day-to-day flying, but not this beauty.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

Looks like a chinese copy of the shuttle!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

[MH]

[Platapus]

There are a few static displays of aircraft that look like the SR-71. But maybe they are not SR-71s. How can you tell the difference?

1. If it is a single seater, it is an A-12 (there was one 2-seat trainer but that's gone)
2. If the forward chines are chopped short of the nose, it is a YF-12
3. If it is a two seater and the chines go to the nose it is an SR-71

SR-71 trivia question: What color is the SR-Blackbird?

[jmann]

All i can say is x-plane 10

[Tchocky]

Some of the old hands at work tell stories about working on the radar while the SR-71 was blazing through*. Nowadays the fastest we see is a pokey Dutch or Belgian F-16 running up to six or seven knots.


Pshaw.

* - Not that you'd be likely to pick up a Blackbird on a civilian radar anyways if they weren't squawking something convenient. Mostly sightings from piots below or a nice phoned-in warning from the Air Force

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

* - Not that you'd be likely to pick up a Blackbird on a civilian radar anyways if they weren't squawking something convenient.

They were for sure stealthy against radar, but... take a wild guess why the MiG-29 and Su-27 featured an IR targeting system in the nose.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Platapus

There are a few static displays of aircraft that look like the SR-71. But maybe they are not SR-71s. How can you tell the difference?

1. If it is a single seater, it is an A-12 (there was one 2-seat trainer but that's gone)
2. If the forward chines are chopped short of the nose, it is a YF-12
3. If it is a two seater and the chines go to the nose it is an SR-71

SR-71 trivia question: What color is the SR-Blackbird?

Refer to the link I posted at the bottom of the last page it lists and has photos of every A-12/SR-71 on display in the US it lists them by model A-12 or SR-71 A or B and the location.Look at those pictures and you will see the differences.

The two seat A-12 is in LA she still is around( http://www.sr-71.org/photogallery/blackbird/06927/ ).If you look at the body of the A-12 it looks as if they designed it to allow a second cockpit if needed and some had one I suppose with the SR they decided to have a full time extra man to deal with the electronics and let the pilot focus on flying.

The color is indigo blue.

What I like are the start carts because my old job in the Air Force was working on and driving these and other equipment to aircraft without us nobody flies.
http://www.sr-71.org/photogallery/bl...rt-2004-10.jpg

that is two V-8 engines either two Buick or two Chevy take that Ford and Chrysler! your engines cant handle the work load of starting the Blackbird.They one of these machines for each engine. Nowadays they use diesel engines or a gas turbine to start em up the gas turbine can also use bleed air to start engines.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

The two seat A-12 is in LA she still is around( http://www.sr-71.org/photogallery/blackbird/06927/ )

Good catch and thanks for keeping me honest. I thought that airframe was chopped.

Mea culpa!

[Osmium Steele]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

It stays up for a year, evasive maneuvers can send it in to the next hemisphere, it doesn't lose speed or alt in a turn, is expendable...

... it is curiously overdue to RTB, unless there was a clandestine landing within the last couple of weeks.