I'd guess that the air had to be pretty thin at top speed to keep it from burning itself up.
It's still pretty warm. At 9:30 in this video, Col. Gerry Williamson talks about what supersonic speeds will do to a Hershey bar in a B-58. (Not a SR-71, but still Mach 2.0+.)
FC
Last edited by Folically_Challenged; 04/08/20.
"Every day is a holiday, and every meal is a banquet."
Now that they’re long retired it’s safe to let out that the published ceiling was much lower than actual ceiling. My friend is a retired air traffic controller out of Hilliard Florida. He could see them come up and do a lap to warm the aircraft up to seal the fuel tanks. Then they would drop back down to meet a tanker to fill up. He said he saw them at the edge of space. Well past 100k. An amazing plane and the pinnacle of actual human engineering. It was the last major engineering achievement done without computers. All done with slide rules.
I've always had the opinion that we have aircraft that are at least one generation ahead of what is publicly admitted. I could never understand all of the information (and model kits) available on the F-117 without there being something beyond it in capability, with the information on it acting as a smokescreen.
Not a real member - just an ordinary guy who appreciates being able to hang around and say something once in awhile.
Happily Trapped In the Past (Thanks, Joe)
Not only a less than minimally educated person, but stupid and out of touch as well.
Used to enjoy watching them along with the U-2 operate out of RAF Mildenhall. Some of our aircraft parking spots were fairly closed to the runway. I could go out of the overwing hatch, sit on a wing tip and have a ring side seat for their takeoff.
I had the honor of knowing General Chuck Yeager. was at the air museum in Palmdale one day looking at the just retired SR71 when he walked up with another gentleman who turned out to have been the pilot of said Sr71. I spent about as fascinating an hour as a guy can have listening to a couple true American Hero's. will never forget it.
the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded. Robert E Lee ~Molɔ̀ːn Labé Skýla~
I grew up not far from the Glenview Naval Air Station back in the 60's. As a kid, I didn't have a clue as to what some of the aircraft I saw was. But I remember seeing some stuff that was out of the norm. And when they could finally break the sound barrier, sonic booms were quite common. I sometimes think of my grandparents who went from Kitty Hawk to moon landings!
It isn't what happens to you that defines you, it's what you DO about what happens to you that defines you!
I wonder how high they had to take it before they could open it up?
I'd guess that the air had to be pretty thin at top speed to keep it from burning itself up.
The fact of when the SR-71 was built still amazes me. The engines are a modified J75 turbo jet that at speed turns the engines into air pumps. This simplified description was related to me by me friend that was a SR-71 crew chief.
The Karma bus always has an empty seat when it comes around.- High Brass
There's battle lines being drawn Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Back in the early 80's I was driving cement mixers and was sent out to Beall AFB to deliver a full load of concrete. After many delays at the guard shack I was finally led out to the flight line area. The contractor had several rebar reinforced sono-tube upright pillars set up for the foundation of a future aircraft hanger. So we're pouring and vibrating concrete and filling sono tubes and then we pull up right next to a parked SR 71 Blackbird.
I told the contractor that we'll splatter concrete all over that blackbird if you don't cover it up or something. He said something to the affect of "I don't give a chit. Pour it." So we did and I splattered concrete all over that jet. I felt bad and when washing up my truck to leave I stopped and hosed off the Blackbird as best I could.
I remember thinking what a crappy paint job on these multi million dollar jets. Looks like somebody painted it with a rattle can of Rustoleum in flat black. So if you see a SR 71 on display with concrete specks on it that was me.
A friend and fellow photography hobbyist at Kadena Okinawa used to supply me with 100-foot rolls of 35MM black and white film that had "aged out" and couldn't be used in the cameras that the SR-71's that "weren't there" used. We shared a bulk film loader and cranked out our own 36-frame canisters of free film. We could make a pretty good guess about where the daily SR flights were headed by the number of KC-135Q tankers we launched to refuel the blackbird. 3 or 4 tankers meant that it was headed for a base in Turkey after flying over Russia and wouldn't be returning to Okinawa that day. Launching 9 tankers meant that it was making repeated short runs over Viet Nam and Cambodia, and returning frequently to gas up. Jerry
