On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 19:54:46 -0800, Mary Shafer
wrote:

On 29 Nov 2003 12:48:59 -0800, (frank wight)
wrote:

There was a time when I thought that
the blackbird could secretly hit 5 on the
mach meter--but isn't there solid science
agains this? Such as:

If you go faster than Mach 3.5 the bow shock off the nose will impinge
on the leading edge of the outboard section of the wing and melt it
off if you do it for very long. It's OK for a dash, but not for
cruise. That's pretty solid science.


You know out of all the "how fast will it REALLY go" discussions
that's the first time I've heard an answer that satisfied me. Many
here are familiar with that X-15 that burned off it's ventral fin from
shock inpingment from that test ramjet. Most of the answers I'd
heard in the past for why it can't go a lot faster than 3.2 is
"because it can't". The shock thing makes total sense. I'd read that
one of the A-12s hit 3.6 at 97,600 which is probably close to the
alltime best. It's definitely the best I've ever seen published.