SR71

All of the times I have seen an SR71
An SR71 at Miramar NAS in San Diego a short time after moving to San Diego to live - probably October 1985. The SR71 was still operational then. I stitched this picture and the next picture together to make the first picture. I wasn't sure that digitising old print photos and stitching them would work, but it did. In November 3 1986 Keith Trostle, an Air Force Colonel, invites us to Edwards AFB to an air show.
An SR71 in 1986 at Edwards Airforce Base We learn about a USAF air show to be run at Norton AFB on November 16, 1986 near San Bernadino CA and the star of the show is to be the SR71. Norton Air Force Base (1942–1994) was a USAF facility 2 miles east of downtown San Bernardino. I convert this to a PDF text document that is much easier to read . After taking a squizz, click the browser's back arrow to return JGRVariousPictures 0009 a
The SR71 at Norton AFB, San Bernadino. Armed guards mind the plane. The Skunk Works logo is on the plane. Getting the SR71 ready to play its part in the show. It sits with its engines running for about ½ an hour
The SR71 Taxis out . . . . . . and starts its takeoff run. This is an amazing moment for me, to actually see an SR71 taking off. This particular plane 61-7979, an SR-71A, now rests at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. During a mission, an SR71 would take off with nearly empty fuel tanks and then refuel in mid-air from a tanker. It would then proceed on its mission, sometimes needing more mid-air refuelling.
1986 LifeInSDAndBeyond 0247 a Lift off at 180 knots - 333 kmh. Shitty photo but precious. Horrible technology back then. SR71 flies past the crowd
1986 LifeInSDAndBeyond 0251 a It goes into a climb and the whole crowd yells with excitement - me too. It's thrilling. I don't know if afterburners are on but the sound is one of raw, intoxicating power. Wheels down ready to land Wheels down
YF-12A - Early March 1998   At the time of my visit to the USAF Museum in Dayton, this was the only A-12 in the museum. The YF-12 was developed in the 1960s as a high-altitude, Mach 3 interceptor to defend against supersonic bombers. Based on the A-12 reconnaissance aircraft, the YF-12A became the forerunner of the highly-sophisticated SR-71 strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft on display (the second one built) was recalled from storage in 1969 for a joint USAF/NASA investigation of supersonic cruise technology. It was flown to the museum in 1979, and it is the only remaining YF-12A in existence (the first YF-12A was damaged beyond repair after a landing mishap, and the third YF-12A was destroyed after the crew ejected to escape an inflight fire). Though the aircraft performed well, the F-12 interceptor program ended in early 1968. High costs, the ongoing war in Southeast Asia, and a lower priority on air defense of the US all contributed to the cancellation. March 2004   Digital photography at last. I'm at the Pima Air & Space Museum (adjacent to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base), Tucson, Arizona.
This is aircraft number 17951. It is an early production SR71A that was loaned to NASA as YF-12C #06937. A bit of the plane has fallen off at the back. The aerodynamics is amazing. Why is there a leading edge droop? Aerodynamically, there needs to be a sharp leading edge on the cockpit, engines and wings to fly at supersonic speeds to prevent the formation of a bow shockwave ahead of the leading edge of the surface as this significantly increases drag. I gather this droop helps at high angles of attack. This is the D21 drone that was only ever carried by the M21 Blackbird. The D-21 was designed to carry a single high-resolution photographic camera over a predetermined path, then release the camera module into the air for retrieval, after which the drone would self-destruct. The program was canceled in 1971.
Sunday March 28, 2004 Museum of Flight, Seattle. This is the Museum's M-21, the first of the rare two-seat variants of the early A-12. It carried an unpiloted D-21 drone for intelligence gathering for the CIA. These drones were intended for launch from the M-21 for flights over hostile territories. Design features of the M-21 include the second seat for the Launch Control Officer and the launch pylon on which the drone is mounted. Lockheed manufactured two M-21 airframes; the other one was lost in a D-21 launch accident in 1966. The nose cone and engine bleed vents are very apparent in this picture. Air exits or enters these vents depending on the SR71's air speed. The vents and the cone work together to slow supersonic air to sonic speeds before the air enters the engine itself. These devices are used from Mach 0.0 to full speed at Mach 3.2. Bloody amazing! For an animated explanation of how this works look at this YouTube video
The Lockheed Skunk Works developed the SR71 from the A-12, a high-altitude Mach 3+ reconnaissance aircraft built for the CIA, based on the designs of Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. It was the 12th in a series of design efforts for "Archangel", the Skunk Work's internal code name. In 1959 the CIA selected the A-12 over Convair's competing designs and then developed and operated the A-12 under Project Oxcart. This Blackbird, SR71 64-17977, crashed on takeoff in 1968. A landing gear failure caused the plane to slide 1,000 feet off the runway at Beale Air Force Base. The crew escaped unharmed but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. The Museum of Flight acquired the nose section from the Air Force and restored it at the museum's Paine Field facility. I sit in the cockpit of a real SR71, from aircraft serial number 64-17977. It was built in 1964 and suffered a spectacular crash in 1968. I can't imagine sitting in this plane, in a space suit, for 12 hours or more. It must have been even worse for the SRO sitting behind.
Thursday 5 November. 2009 National Museum of the US Air force, Dayton Ohio. I'm in the Cold War Gallery North and pore over SR71 number 17976. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum It has since moved into the new Kettering Gallery (Cold War Hangar) next door where it is on display near the museum's D-21 Drone, which was previously in the Research and Development Hangar with YF-12A #60-6935. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum In this picture the Tertiary Doors (above the red line) can be seen. These doors are open up to Mach 0.5 and feed air into the after-burning section. The doors close thereafter as the nozzle (the divergent/convergent ejector) opens as speed increases to Mach 3.2. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum If the SR71 was at Mach 3.2, the tertiary doors (4 outboard, 3 Inboard) would be closed. The convergent/divergent ejector flaps (the nozzle) doors appear to be fully open in which state the SR71 could travel at Mach 3.2. The last stage of the J58 turbojet is in front of the four afterburner spray rings which is front of the afterburner liner. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum
In 1962, in his book “Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible”, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke formulated his famous Three Laws, of which the third law is “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” .   The SR71 gets about 20% of its thrust from the J58 engine and the rest is through magic. This is one of the first SR-71s to be put on permanent display. It was flown to the USAF Museum on 27 March 1990 and immediately moved inside. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum This aircraft flew the first operational mission of any SR-71. Assembly of this aircraft started on 13 April 1966 and its roll out was on 18 January 1967. The first flight of the aircraft was during May 1967. This aircraft ended its career with 2,985.7 flight hours : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum After completion of all USAF and NASA SR-71 operations at Edwards AFB, the SR-71 Flight Simulator was moved in July 2006 to the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field Airport in Dallas, Texas : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum
Speculation exists about a replacement for the SR-71, including a rumored aircraft codenamed Aurora. The limitations of reconnaissance satellites, which take up to 24 hours to arrive in the proper orbit to photograph a particular target, make them slower to respond to demand than reconnaissance planes. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum The fly-over orbit of spy satellites may also be predicted and can allow assets to be hidden when the satellite passes, a drawback not shared by aircraft. Thus, there are doubts that the US has abandoned the concept of spy planes to complement reconnaissance satellites. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are also used for aerial reconnaissance in the 21st century, being able to overfly hostile territory without putting human pilots at risk, as well as being smaller and harder to detect than manned aircraft. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum On 1 November 2013, media outlets reported that Skunk Works has been working on an unmanned reconnaissance airplane it has named SR-72, which would fly twice as fast as the SR-71, at Mach 6. However, the USAF is officially pursuing the Northrop Grumman RQ-180 UAV to assume the SR-71's strategic ISR role. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum
It also had to be retired because the J58 engine had been out of production for so long that spare parts were limited. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum Yes. I wuz there. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum The Pratt & Whitney J58 engine powered the Lockheed A-12, YF-12 and the SR-71. It was an afterburning turbojet engine with a compressor bleed to the afterburner. This increased engine thrust at high speeds where compression of the air mostly came from the speed of the aircraft itself. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum These bypass tubes can be seen behind the final turbine stage (where all of the tubing stops) running along the engine into the after-burner section. Behind the engine sits the convergent/divergent ejectors as part of the airframe. It was a conventional afterburning turbojet for take-off and acceleration to Mach 2 and then it used permanent compressor bleed to the afterburner above Mach 2 where it operated like a ramjet. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum
The YF-12 was a twin-seat version of the secret single seat Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft operated by the CIA. Unlike the A-12, it was furnished with fire-control radar and could be armed with air-to-air missiles. It set and held speed and altitude world records of over 2,000 miles per hour and over 80,000 feet until surpassed by the SR-71 Blackbird. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum The YF-12 "Blackbird" was an experimental fighter-interceptor version of the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft but the YF-12 was never adopted by the military as an operational aircraft. It was, however, a precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance plane. Also, this plane had a vertical vertical fin underneath at the rear to increase stability ands ee how the tertiary doors at the rear of the engine are open? : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum Notice the absence of the chines that on the SR71 came all the way to the nose cone? My understanding is that adding the chines to the SR71 removed the need for a ventral fin. Lockheed convinced the USAF that an aircraft based on the A-12 would provide a less costly alternative to the recently canceled North American Aviation XF-108, since much of the design and development work on the YF-12 had already been done and paid for. : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum Not really an SR71 but exciting never-the-less is the rocket powered X15. The X-15's highest speed, 4,520 miles per hour, was achieved on 3 October 1967, when William J. Knight flew at Mach 6.7 at an altitude of 102,100 feet (31,120 m), or 19.34 miles. Three X-15s were built, flying 199 test flights, the last on 24 October 1968. One was lost in a crash and this one broke in half while landing and was later repaired.
Also exciting is the USAF F22 Raptor, a single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the USAF. The aircraft was designed as an air superiority fighter, but also with ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence capabilities. The prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, built most of the F-22's airframe and weapons systems and conducted final assembly, while Boeing provided the wings, aft fuselage, avionics integration, and training systems.   The end of this segment : 2009-11-04 USA Air Force Museum