Quote :

"The SR-71 "Blackbird" spy-plane was generally considered untouchable in enemy airspace. (Possibly the biggest "no shit" in aviation history) It flew high enough and fast enough that one design engineer stated that Webster's should replace their definition of "Impunity" with a picture of a Blackbird taken at the exact moment it was flying directly over the Kremlin. Even theoretically, one might conclude that the only way to interecept the SR-71 at speed and at altitude (using sciences present in the years of it's operation), , would have been to launch a missle from a near-space /and/or/ near-speed platform. Which likely would only have been possible using yet another SR-71. Guns wouldn't have been smart to fire while moving at over mach 3.2 (the plane's advertised top-speed), as the frictive forces imposed on projectiles travelling at these speeds (which would have the bullet approaching the speeds at which solids behave more like fluids) would have slowed them down fast enough to pose a fantastic risk to the very plane from which they were fired. Even missles would prove improbable here because carrying the missle would ruin the critical air-flow and sensitive mass-placement of it's design, (it would almost certainly have had to be mounted externally) and therefore likely would not come close to the targeted SR's speed (at least with the missle intact and operational, which is also unlikely, as the frictive air-forces would have heated most feasable warheads and missle motors to the point of ruin. It's not that missles aren't designed to operate in extremely hot conditions, it's that almost none would have existed that could withstand these temperatures for the duration of the high-temp/long-time flights that the Blackbird was expected to execute. [Even after landing, it could not even be approached by crew for quite a while. 300C surface-temps could be expected upon engine shutdown]). The cockpit A/C in this plane consumed a non-trivial percentage of the over-all energy generated by it's freakish engines. The by-product of this is that it could not have been launched from the plane as a near-space platform either, as the speed of the craft was what enabled it to travel so high in the first place. Not to mention that, even if all of this were possible and executable, by the time the proposed craft could have been, alerted, prepped, manned, and completed it's start up, warm up, re-fuel, speed up phase, the target Blackbird would have had the time to complete a lengthwise circuit in the airspace above the entire Soviet Union. And to counter these time constraints by keeping at least one of these proposed planes at-speed at all times by rotating a fleet of them on and off cycle, the monetary cost would have been, lets say, an item of concern. The cost of keeping just ONE plane aloft has been estimated at an average of around $27,000/hr, much of that operational cost went into the custom fuel. (FYI, the most costly portion of the flight would be the time before high cruise-speed was achieved, as the faster it went, the more fuel/energy efficent it's engine's became ) The ultra-specialized fuel, JP-7 [described by it's detractors as being more expensive per unit volume than single-malt scotch whiskey] was so difficult and time-consuming to produce, that contemporary industry and refining proceedures would not have been capable of manufacturing it fast enough to keep pace with the rate at which it was burned. "

If that's factual, then fuck the moon landing right
Fuck the moon-landing.

2/16/2008 7:42:51 PM

is it on a treadmill?

2/16/2008 7:44:13 PM

i always heard it was drippy when it wasn't flying

2/16/2008 7:48:25 PM

UMMMM

UHHHH

possibly the biggest "no shit" in aviation history!!!1

2/16/2008 7:54:21 PM

The titanium alloy skin did contract when cool and it did leak fuel like a sieve when on the ground/cold. It needed to be refueled in flight.

2/16/2008 7:56:55 PM

dont listen to Seotaji, i know him in real life. he's not really a rocket ship scientist!

2/16/2008 7:58:23 PM

found it in a collection of old text files i had from school/highspeed internet. was always fascinated by the thing

[Edited on February 16, 2008 at 8:03 PM. Reason : FAST]

2/16/2008 7:59:30 PM

under normal operations it also could only fly for 45 minutes before needing to be refueled.

2/16/2008 8:00:48 PM

only 45? according to the 5 minutes ive been reading about it, that 45 minutes will get you just about anywhere in the country. haha

also Wraith is a rocket scientist or whatever at NASA, he was yelling at people about the treadmill thing.

[Edited on February 16, 2008 at 8:05 PM. Reason : i agree with you based of wikipedia ]

2/16/2008 8:03:46 PM

The wing surface created very little lift at low speeds so that maximum take off weight would be exceeded if the plane took off with a full load of fuel. The little lift also meant that it had to be moving pretty fast to take off so it would burn a lot of fuel getting off the ground and climbing to altitude. Refueling immediately after takeoff was made necessary.

2/16/2008 8:16:01 PM

considering they only take off from US soil, they still have quite a few refueling trips every mission.



fucking hurricanes.

2/16/2008 9:05:04 PM

I had a huge poster in my room growing up of the SR-71 and at the bottom gave a stat that said it went coast to coast in the US in 68 minutes

2/16/2008 10:03:45 PM

^^ They used to fly out of Okinawa. Could technically still be true I guess.

2/16/2008 10:06:06 PM

why why do you always kick me when im high?
knock me down till we see eye to eye
figured her out I know she may not be
miss right she'll do right now (she'll do right now)

2/16/2008 10:07:12 PM

2/16/2008 10:11:20 PM

if i remmeber correctly, i like a few of their songs

2/16/2008 10:11:41 PM

Yes, it's true.

THe SR 71 holds the world record for an air breathing aircraft. It did leak fuel on the ground, and it did expand in flight. A lot of them crashed though. I'm sure it was a bitch to fly.

At Mach 3.2, it was untouchable. It also cruised at something like 60,000 feet. The russians built the Mig 25 Foxbat for the sole purpose of intercepting this aircraft, but that aircraft tops out around Mach 3.1, and the engines melted if the pilot flew past Mach 2.5 or so (thankkfully, us americans have/had superior metallergy).

One of my Aero Professors ("McCrazy") use to work with that program.

2/17/2008 12:33:23 AM

I don't mean to piss you off, with things that I might say
But when I try to shut my moth, well they come out anyway
And I when I speak my mind, that's when we connect
Yeah, but that's not, politically correct.

2/17/2008 12:43:15 AM

"1985" is a song best known for its performance in 2004 by the pop punk band Bowling for Soup. Featured in their album A Hangover You Don't Deserve, as well as the American popular music compilation Now That's What I Call Music! 17, and Barbie Hit Mix, Vol. 2, "1985" was originally written and recorded by the band SR-71, led by Mitch Allan.

2/17/2008 12:51:04 AM