The Black Bird was bad ass

[Shemmy]

[71chevellejohn]

One of my favorites, grew up on Beale AFB. Watching a Black Bird under full after burner wasn't an unusual sight but still something that made most people stop what they were doing for a few minutes. Especially at night or in the evening.

This.

<-- grew up on Mildenhall, and my dad was a firefighter/firechief so we got to hang out at the station, right on the flightline.

[inline 6]

WARNING! you could fuck a few hours off on this website if you are not careful. This guy built an amazing model of a blackbird from scratch with turbine engines and with incredible detail. Just click on the dates on the left side of the screen to see progress over the years.

http://www.mmrca.org/lance/sledframe.html

[Ratt]

how much fuel does it have in its tanks prior to takeoff. Ive heard that when the plane is on the ground it isnt fueled cause it leaks but when its in the air the leaks seal up.

That's been covered. There was no material that could handle the temperatures of the acceleration process to get fast enough to stretch the metal to seal the tanks. There still isn't. They had to fill it completely full of fuel so that it would have enough time to take off, fly to the supertanker in the sky, and refuel.

[Ratt]

WARNING! you could fuck a few hours off on this website if you are not careful. This guy built an amazing model of a blackbird from scratch with turbine engines and with incredible detail. Just click on the dates on the left side of the screen to see progress over the years.

http://www.mmrca.org/lance/sledframe.html

I fucking hate you.

[JimD]

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


And a little about the tankers


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

Yes they are scans of 35mm pics i took when i was in the USAF, You are wrong about the tankers tho, we were flying in a KC-10A.
The SR-71 was no doubt a cool jet, but a pain in our asses to support. Major bitch to prep the KC-10 to hold/deliver the JP-7, none of it could be mixed with the 10s wing tank fuel, all the manifolds all the way to the boom had to be completely drained, fuel tanks flushed, then a couple trucks of JP-7 added, followed by a flash check(sample taken to a lab). If all was good fill the tanker up to the fuel load. Then...we had to take flash checks every 12 hrs until flight and another within 2 hrs of takeoff. And, it was possible to transfer the wing fuel to the body tank so if some anus pushed the wrong button... you are fucked for atleast another 12 hrs to completely defuel the plane and start over.

Heres a couple more, one of the 135Q that was up there that day with us.

[Z06killinsbf]

^^ Very cool