Sr-71

PG5768

PG5768

Joined
Apr 28, 2008
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Gizmodo had a post today about the SR-71. This has got to be one of the greatest achievements in aeronautical engineering ever. Designed by engineers using slide rules for heaven sake. I remember seeing this fly over my Junior High as a kid and thinking "Wow!".

SR-71 Link
 
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As far back as i can remember (elementary school) the Black Bird has been my hands down favorite. I was finally able to see one in person many years later and it truly is an amazing achievement in engineering.
 
Drudge said:
As far back as i can remember (elementary school) the Black Bird has been my hands down favorite. I was finally able to see one in person many years later and it truly is an amazing achievement in engineering.
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This, even though I've never seen it fly.:thumbup:

Jason
 
I read that because the frame heated up some much expansion had to be taken into account. The plane thus leaked fuel and was several inches shorter on the ground then when it was flying.

Amazing plane. :thumbup:
 
Kelly Johnson is one of the 20th century's greatest innovators and unsung geniuses. He designed the SR71, the U2, P38, and

Kelly designed single-handedly the Lockheed Hudson Bomber at the age of 29. Traveling to England with Courtland Gross, A Lockheed director, the British nixed the original design. Johnson recalls: "They told us the bombs had to go under the floor, that they needed forward shooting guns and dozens of other things." "So, I redesigned the airplane in my hotel room in a couple of days according to British specifications." Johnson's design landed Lockheed an order for 200 planes, the largest order that had ever been placed in the U.S. during peacetime. In all, Lockheed built 3,500 Hudson's for the U.K. by the end of World War II.
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He headed up the famous "Skunk Works" and designed and built the U2 spyplane in 80 days. He built America's first jet (1944) in just 143 days.

"Nobody ever tried to tell us what to do. We knew the problem. I knew the kind of wings I wanted."
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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870519-1,00.html#ixzz0kTjyOYVT

Try that today with all the layers of bureaucracy. You are right, the SR71 IS one of the greatest achievements of all time in aeronautical engineering. It still holds airspeed records for the fastest flight of a manned, airbreathing jet dating back to 1965 of over 2,000 mph!!!!!!!

Oh, I forgot to mention that in 1990 they flew an SR71 from Los Angeles to its retirement home on the coast of Virginia. It took 64 minutes. A record that still stands.
 
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We have an aircraft carrier in NYC, The Intrepid, that serves as a sea, air, and space museum. They put an SR-71 on the flight deck with a ladder so we could climb up to the cockpit. I don't think I'd fit inside!
 
I've gone up to the Udvar-Hazy center a couple of times and saw the SR-71 it is a BIG plane. One of the guides said it was funny how we bought the Titanium from the Russians to build the plane and then used it to spy on them :D
 
I got to see one of those bad boys up close for the first time at the Air Force Armaments Museum at Eglin AFB a few years back. It is a big plane. One really wild thing about it is that the shape actually gave the aircraft some degree of what we would call stealth characteristics even though that was probably never intended by the designers. You occasionally here stories about the SR-71's being shot at a number of times in Vietnam and just flat outrunning SA-2's without having to do the normal violent evasive manuevering.
 
Come on, let's see some SR-71 pr0n

lockheed-sr71-blackbird_3.jpg
 
If you ever find the book Sled Driver it is fascinating. I loaned mine to a friend and he now can't find it.:grumpy:
 
The sr71 was impressive (still is) but some of the skunk works planes coming out soon are mind blowing. Google "scram jet" or "Hyper-X".
 
It's been my all time favorite plane as long as I can remember pure kickass.

sr-71.jpg
 
In 1987 I was at Kadena AFB waiting to board a plane home after 6 months in Okinawa. We (my BN) had gone through processing and customs and were lounging in some open-lattice brick structures perhaps 500ft from the flightline trying to stay cool and catch a nap. All of a sudden the loudest noise I've ever heard in my life came blasting over us. I looked up and saw a SR-71 taking off on the far runway. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to grab the camera out of my bag before it was gone. :( I've been less than 200ft from two F4s taking off in tandem and the noise of the SR-71 dwarfed that.

A few months later I went to Miramar NAS for the air show. There was a SR-71 on display with approximately 30ft around the plane roped off. The crewmembers were inside the roped off area and were answering questions. When it finally was my turn I asked two questions. I don't recall the first but the second was "I know these are stationed at Kadena, Beale and Mindenhall, are there any other bases they're at?" I received the same answer to both questions..."I can't tell you that". After the second time I said "I suppose there's not much point in me asking you anything is there". He just smiled and said "No".
 
Yup, another SR-71 junkie here. What's not to like about the thing, right? I managed to see two of them up close; one in a museum, and one at an airshow. The airshow was great, but my friends and I waited outside the grounds until it closed down to watch the SR-71 take off. WOW is all I can say. :eek: It taxied like a normal fighter jet, and then proceeded to do a really steep vertical climb. Halfway up the climb the afterburners kicked in shooting out huge orange flames, and "poof" it was gone. Picture three teenagers with their mouths hanging wide open, like they just witnessed the virgin birth. It was 30 years ago, but I still remember it like yesterday. One of those memories that will always be with you.

- Mark
 
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Esav Benyamin said:
We have an aircraft carrier in NYC, The Intrepid, that serves as a sea, air, and space museum. They put an SR-71 on the flight deck with a ladder so we could climb up to the cockpit. I don't think I'd fit inside!
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No, sorry, they've never put a SR-71 on the deck of aircraft carrier. And there's certainly not one on the USS Intrepid.




Trick statement, so be careful answering. It's a pet peeve of mine.


ETA: Just so you don't get upset, here's a clear-cut example of what I'm talking about:

Take a look at this pic of a very nice Randall Model #1:

csstoreonline_2098_5026770



See what I mean?
 
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There's a documentary post on Youtube that is pretty interesting.

Starts with this one. Ends with Part 6.

[youtube]Ev8Lqm5Ngi8[/youtube]
 
Albin said:
No, sorry, they've never put a SR-71 on the deck of aircraft carrier. And there's certainly not one on the USS Intrepid.




Trick statement, so be careful answering. It's a pet peeve of mine.
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Had to look it up. A-12.
 
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