The Black Bird was bad ass

[Sean88gt]

The Blackbird was a beast, like to see this and a Mig 25 race and see who had a better acceleration.

Interesting that a plane like that is still used. Is it because of the lack of satellites by the countries that have those planes?

[pHILSANITY07]

Interesting that a plane like that is still used. Is it because of the lack of satellites by the countries that have those planes?

that or if you need a quick pass somewhere and you dont have satellites in position.

[CJ]

There was an armed interceptor version of the Blackbird called the YF-12. It used missiles, obviously, as its intended role was to shoot down other Mach 3+ aircraft.

But the Blackbirds were always intended to be stealthy, incredibly fast reconnaissance aircraft. They were expensive to maintain and fly. So now that we have spy satellites that can read handwriting, or monitor the movement of house windows to determine what is being discussed inside, we don't have much need for manned reconnaissance aircraft.

Those fuckers were amazing though... there are new stories coming out all the time.

Common misconception. Satellites are easy to avoid, they can be timed, and usually they can only photograph one location 1 maybe 2 times a day for a short span. We still have a need for this aircraft, and Sen John Glenn said it's retirement was a travesty for our intelligence. In my opinion, I find this aircraft to be the most impressive ever designed, even more so than the space shuttle. I just hope the Aurora really does exist.

Here's an excerpt from wikipedia:

Much speculation exists regarding a replacement for the SR-71, most notably aircraft identified as the Aurora. This is due to limitations of spy satellites, which are governed by the laws of orbital mechanics. It may take 24 hours before a satellite is in proper orbit to photograph a particular target, far longer than a reconnaissance plane. Spy planes can provide the most current intelligence information and collect it when lighting conditions are optimum. The fly-over orbit of spy satellites may also be predicted and can allow the enemy to hide assets when they know the satellite is above, a drawback spy planes lack. These factors have led many to doubt that the US has abandoned the concept of spy planes to complement reconnaissance satellites.[73] Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are also used for much aerial reconnaissance in the 2000s. They have the advantage of being able to overfly hostile territory without putting human pilots at risk.

The problem with the SR71 is they never wanted to retrofit the aircraft for live data transmission. The SR-71 still relied on film, which had to return to base, be extracted, developed, and distributed to commanders.

[jakesford]

I guarantee we have something that services the same roll... Look at the "stealth helicopter" no one even knew it existed, and if it hadn't gone down...

Satellites are great, but they have to be moved into position. The current fleet of known drones are great if we have the assets in position (slow). If you need eyes on target quickly you need a fast bird like the sr-71. The blackbird really wasn't stealthy, I bet we have something faster and with modern stealth technology out there now.

[YALE]

The Blackbird was a beast, like to see this and a Mig 25 race and see who had a better acceleration.

The SR-71 would smoke the Mig-25.

[Ratt]

I'm no rocket surgeon, but I'm going with...no

I'm going with: right out of the muzzle, yes, however it would lose momentum almost too quickly to calculate.

[bottlerocket]

Couple 35mm scans of the SR on the boom. Pics are dated 30 Aug 87.

Personal pics? KC-135Q, dont see much of those anymore

Didn't read the Wiki, but this thing had to have its own fleet of tankers to support it. Couldn't use the regular KC-135/KC-10s that were out there already for its JP-7.


About JP-7

JP-7 is a mixture composed primarily of hydrocarbons, including alkanes, cycloalkanes, alkylbenzenes, indanes/tetralins, and naphthalenes, with addition of fluorocarbons to increase its lubricant properties, an oxidizing agent to make it burn better, and a cesium containing compound known as A-50, which aided in disguising the radar signature of the exhaust plume. The Blackbirds used approximately 36,000 - 44,000 pounds of fuel per hour of flight. It's estimated that over 20,000,000,000 (20 billion) pounds of fuel was burned during the life of the program...

...The very low volatility and relative unwillingness of JP-7 to be ignited required triethylborane (TEB) to be injected into the engine in order to initiate combustion and allow afterburner operation in flight.

And a little about the tankers

To accomplish this, specialized KC-135Q tankers were required to refuel the SR-71. The "Q-model" tanker had a modified "high-speed boom," which would allow refueling of the Blackbird at nearly the tanker's maximum airspeed, with minimum flutter. The Q-model also had a separate fuel system, which kept the tanker's fuel (either JP-4 or later JP-8) isolated from the JP-7 needed by the SR-71. During its operational life, the SR-71 had dedicated KC-135Qs and aircrews sitting on alert, ready to launch within minutes to tank up a Blackbird. Some of these alert birds were located on the east coast (Pease AFB, Loring AFB, Plattsburgh AFB etc.); on the west coast; at Hickham AFB, Hawaii; Mildenhall, England; and Guam.

I wouldn't mind being a nav on one of those. Not a bad base for any of them

[pHILSANITY07]

The SR-71 would smoke the Mig-25.

yea I think so too, but I think the Mig 25 was built for the XB-70. It would be interesting to watch cause the Max Speed of a MIg 25 is Mach 3.2. The SR-71 has a top speed of Mach 3.3. Thats what it says in Wikipedia. It might go even faster than that

[CJ]

yea I think so too, but I think the Mig 25 was built for the XB-70.

The comparison is illogical. An SR-71 has twice the thrust.

[Denny]

yea I think so too, but I think the Mig 25 was built for the XB-70. It would be interesting to watch cause the Max Speed of a MIg 25 is Mach 3.2. The SR-71 has a top speed of Mach 3.3. Thats what it says in Wikipedia. It might go even faster than that

The sole purpose of the Mig 25 Foxbat was to fuck up the SR-71. The Russians "scored" some detailed intel about how fast the SR-71 was. I guess they forgot to carry the 2 on their calculations. LOL

They just made it a production Mig because they couldn't afford multipule models of Migs at the time (we were bankrupting them in the nuclear race and space race).

Russia was the one that invented the fart can exhaust:

[46Tbird]

The comparison is illogical. An SR-71 has twice the thrust.

About three times the thrust actually, and about five times the loaded weight. Since the question was about acceleration, and F=MA, the MiG-25 has a good chance of out-accelerating the SR71. That is assuming that we have the correct values, which we probably don't.

There may be high-speed unmanned stealth drones out there being used by the CIA, but it's a pretty safe bet that the Blackbird series are the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft that have ever been, or will be, developed.

Anyone that thinks that slightly-stealthy manned Mach-3 aircraft are capable of gaining better intelligence than satellites is out of their f'ing mind.

[YALE]

yea I think so too, but I think the Mig 25 was built for the XB-70. It would be interesting to watch cause the Max Speed of a MIg 25 is Mach 3.2. The SR-71 has a top speed of Mach 3.3. Thats what it says in Wikipedia. It might go even faster than that

You are a thick bastard.

[SS Junk]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[46Tbird]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tuned into Firefox the other day, about 2 seconds before we hopped up and stole the plane before they went on the chase. What a great movie...

[NoClassic]

Those stories from the pilots are so cool. I built its model as a kid and still have it to this day.

I cant agree that the aircraft has any place in modern ISR though.

Why move fast when they cant see you?