SR-71

Here is some text I received froma friend of mine about the SR-71.

Enjoy

Big John
************************************************** **8




Subject: SR-71 Data
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 22:17:03 -0400

Be sure to read notation at the end of this very interesting article
on the SR-71 "Blackbird."



Recently, at the museum of flight (Boeing Field, Seattle) was the
2007 Blackbird Forum. SR-71 pilots, reconnaissance officers, and crew
chiefs discussed their experiences with the airplane and answered
questions. The capabilities of that airplane built with 1960
technology are mind boggling. The engine is a masterpiece. At mach
3.2, 75% of the thrust comes from the inlet. (The nose spike moves aft
26 inches.) Air pressure in front of the compressor increases from 0.5
psi to 14.5 psi over a distance of 5 feet, while internal airflow
slows from mach 3.2 to mach 0.8 so the compressor blades can handle it
without stalling. Bypass tubes divert extra air around the engine
directly to the afterburner and cause it to perform like a ram jet.

Airspeed is not the limiting factor. At mach 3.2 a primary
instrument is compressor inlet temperature. If it exceeds 427 degrees
Centigrade, the compressor blades disintegrate. The pilot monitors the
CIT and lets the airspeed take care of itself.

At mach 3.2, the titanium skin heats considerably. The fuselage
stretches six inches. The fuselage is six fuel tanks. They leak all
the time on the ground, but at altitude they heat up and expand,
sealing the joints. After some fuel is consumed, the fuel still cools
the bottom of the tanks, but is no longer in contact with the top.
Therefore the top of the fuselage stretches more than the bottom,
causing it to actually bend down somewhat at each end.

When the USSRshot down our U-2 in 1960, Kelly Johnson immediately
realized we needed something higher and faster that no enemy could
reach, so the Skunk Works went back to the drawing board. The first
flight was 22 months later. Try that today. We lost three out of 50
due to accidents. (One broke up after colliding with the drone it had
just launched.) No enemy was ever able to touch it.

SecDef Robert McNamara ordered all the SR-71 manufacturing tools
destroyed so he would have more tax dollars to waste on the F-111. In
1994 William Jefferson Clinton used line item veto to cancel all
funding for SR-71s. They are now in museums. The pilots said that we
really need that airplane today for reconnaissance over places like
Iran, Iraq, Syria, Korea:country-region, China, Russia, etc. If it
were not for Clinton, SR-71 would still be performing that
reconnaissance today. The argument that satellites can do the job is
not correct. Any school boy with a lap top can tell you when a
satellite will be overhead, so the bad guys simply shut things down,
and later restart them. On the other hand, the enemy never knows where
or when the SR-71 will suddenly appear out of nowhere.

At 80,000 feet the cameras can see 80 miles. From 20 miles off the
coast, the airplane can photograph objects 60 miles inland.
The requirement for a rock solid gyro stabilized camera platform
was paramount. My favorite analogy was this:
Nail a four foot square sheet of plywood to the bottom of the
airplane. Drill a quarter inch hole through the middle of it. Insert a
quarter inch dowel that is 16 MILES long. Drag the dowel across the
surface of the earth at 30 miles per MINUTE.
Program the camera to take one photo per second of a specified set of
coordinates for four minutes, in order to examine the spot from all
angles. Do this in such a way that all photos are crystal clear, with
no blurring.

Pilots, who are not trained as photo interpreters, say they can
read the photos easily. One pilot looked at an Infrared photo of a
USAF base and immediately recognized the shadow (heat signature) of a
spot where a B-52 had been parked one hour earlier.

Celestial navigation is automatic. There are about 50 stars
programmed into the computer. These stars can be observed by the
navigation system while parked on the ramp during broad daylight.
Although the pilot takes off and lands the airplane manually, the
navigation system is accurate enough to put the airplane on the runway
in zero-zero conditions after flying nonstop from Californiato Iraqand
return with four inflight refuelings.


Some of you on this distribution list may be aware that in addition to
being a line B-52 pilot, I also had a tour of duty as a SAC command
post controller at Beale AFB, Calif in the mid 70's. In addition to
B-52's and KC-135(Q)s, the base was home to the the famous SR-71
Blackbird and later, to the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft formerly from
Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona. The term controller in this
case does not mean "air traffic controller" but rather more like an
shift operations controller for the base. It was my job to know where
all of the base's aircraft were at any given time and to be able to
give immediate updates to the wing commander and the air division
commander (a 2 star general) on aircraft status. As such, I was fully
advised on SR-71 missions and results. I'm sure I know many of the
SR-71 pilots who recently attended the "Blackbird Forum." Needless to
say and to no one's surprise, we were regularly overflying Cuba, China
and North Korea. There also were the fun missions, like setting
international speed records from NY to LA and from London to NY--very
carefully executed missions requiring exact timing for air refueling
just moments before the Blackbird hit the "timing gate" to begin the
record run. So much for background on my involvement with the SR-71.
The following is one of many recollections of that involvement that I
have never forgotten.

One of the Blackbird's missions was for humanitarian purposes at the
request of the Japanese government. A Japanese fishing trawler went
missing, but the Japanese "coast guard" could not find any trace of
the ship or it's crew, so they requested that a Blackbird fly some
recce sorties in support of their efforts (the Japanese were very
aware of the capabilities of the SR-71 because the U.S. used Kadena AB
in Okinawa as a forward airbase for the SR). I recall being the duty
controller the night this mission was scheduled out of Kadena. Later
in the shift, the intelligence officer in charge of the
photo-reconnaissance lab asks to be cleared into the command post to
see me. He brings in some photos just downloaded and sent to him from
that mission. He shows me a picture (taken from 80,000++ feet and
mach 3++ mind you) of a lone Japanese fisherman in an inflatable life
raft. He is looking skyward (right into the camera) and his Asian
features--slanted eyes, etc) are easily discernable. Absolutely
amazing! The U.S. passed along the coordinates of the photo and he
was rescued. He was the only survivor. I thought you might find this
"first-hand" account of the amazing capabilities of the Blackbird to
be of interest.


Source deleted.



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On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:40:23 -0500, Big John
wrote in :

Here is some text I received froma friend of mine about the SR-71.

Enjoy

Thanks for sharing.

"Big John" wrote in message
...

We lost three out of 50 due to accidents.

I heard 12, including the one that's on display at the Boeing Museum of
Flight. This very fascinating site seems to indicate 20:
http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/srloss~1.htm

Still....

If they recommissioned the remaining birds tomorrow I'd call it tax money
well-spent, if nothing but on the very principle of flying it over people's
heads for the simple psychological value. "We built this in the '60s and
you still can't do anything about it...look, it ****s pure money. We can
afford it..."

-c

"Gatt" wrote in message
...

"Big John" wrote in message
...

We lost three out of 50 due to accidents.

I heard 12, including the one that's on display at the Boeing Museum of
Flight. This very fascinating site seems to indicate 20:
http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/srloss~1.htm

Still....

If they recommissioned the remaining birds tomorrow I'd call it tax money
well-spent, if nothing but on the very principle of flying it over
people's heads for the simple psychological value. "We built this in
the '60s and you still can't do anything about it...look, it ****s pure
money. We can afford it..."

It would be a lot cheaper to fly over their heads with much slower aircraft
and purge the toilets.

"Gatt" wrote in message
...

"Big John" wrote in message
...

We lost three out of 50 due to accidents.

I heard 12, including the one that's on display at the Boeing Museum of
Flight. This very fascinating site seems to indicate 20:
http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/srloss~1.htm

Still....

If they recommissioned the remaining birds tomorrow I'd call it tax money
well-spent, if nothing but on the very principle of flying it over
people's heads for the simple psychological value. "We built this in
the '60s and you still can't do anything about it...look, it ****s pure
money. We can afford it..."

-c


I have a feeling that a lot of the spying we do now is with drones, stealth
and otherwise. Who cares if they crash or get shot down, no family to
notify. Slick Willy's selling out of America not withstanding, I think the
US military had other aircraft fill the SR71 spot even though the SR71 is an
amazing aircraft. Besides the B2 and F117 are incredible
aircraft...conceived 20 years ago, can you imagine the stuff they are
playing with now that we have not seen!

-------------------------------
DW

In article ,
"Darkwing" theducksmail"AT"yahoo.com wrote:

"Gatt" wrote in message
...


We lost three out of 50 due to accidents.

I heard 12, including the one that's on display at the Boeing Museum of
Flight. This very fascinating site seems to indicate 20:
http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/srloss~1.htm

Still....

I have a feeling that a lot of the spying we do now is with drones, stealth
and otherwise. Who cares if they crash or get shot down, no family to
notify. Slick Willy's selling out of America not withstanding, I think the
US military had other aircraft fill the SR71 spot even though the SR71 is an
amazing aircraft. Besides the B2 and F117 are incredible
aircraft...conceived 20 years ago, can you imagine the stuff they are
playing with now that we have not seen!


I can understand the AF program to retire the Blackbird. When it was
operational, IIRC, it was "the most expensive system in the AF
inventory." I can believe that -- just the support infrastructure
(tankers, special fuel, special maintenance, spares, training,
equipment, etc.) had to be exorbitant!

Then in AF thinking, it couldn't even deliver a weapon to a target!

Yes, I can believe that satellites, TR-2s and drones, etc. can perform
most of the recon mission, at much lower cost and exposure.

In a previous article, Big John said:
destroyed so he would have more tax dollars to waste on the F-111. In
1994 William Jefferson Clinton used line item veto to cancel all
funding for SR-71s. They are now in museums. The pilots said that we

The line item veto was declared unconstitutional soon afterwards, Congress
offered to re-authorized the money, but the Air Force declined because
they wanted to spent the money on Predator and Global Hawk. And let's not
forget that try as you might, you can't blame the first SR-71 retirement
on Clinton.



--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
Better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. And if he can't
be bothered to learn to fish and starves to death, that's a good enough
outcome for me. -- Steve VanDevender

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
In a previous article, Big John said:
destroyed so he would have more tax dollars to waste on the F-111. In
1994 William Jefferson Clinton used line item veto to cancel all
funding for SR-71s. They are now in museums. The pilots said that we

The line item veto was declared unconstitutional soon afterwards, Congress
offered to re-authorized the money, but the Air Force declined because
they wanted to spent the money on Predator and Global Hawk. And let's not
forget that try as you might, you can't blame the first SR-71 retirement
on Clinton.

Why not?

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
news
The line item veto was declared unconstitutional soon afterwards,
Congress
offered to re-authorized the money, but the Air Force declined because
they wanted to spent the money on Predator and Global Hawk. And let's
not
forget that try as you might, you can't blame the first SR-71 retirement
on Clinton.

Why not?

It was first deactivated in the '80s, before the Clinton administration.

-c

"Gatt" wrote in message
...

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
news
The line item veto was declared unconstitutional soon afterwards,
Congress
offered to re-authorized the money, but the Air Force declined because
they wanted to spent the money on Predator and Global Hawk. And let's
not
forget that try as you might, you can't blame the first SR-71 retirement
on Clinton.

Why not?

It was first deactivated in the '80s, before the Clinton administration.


"Deactivated" is not the same as "retired".