SR-71 Blackbird Pilots ...

I would think that the main and only reason why the S/R-71 had windows in the first place was to mainly use them so the pilot could see the runway during takeoff and landing. Take a look at how small that window is and how much the pilot has to see. It was a fast flying Spy Plane. Not a commuter jet. It was designed and engineered for these fast and high flying altitudes. I believe that the fastest for the Blackbird is Mach 3.5. If you could fire a rifle bullet at the same time a Blackbird was flying over to race it from New York to Los Angeles, the SR-71 would beat the rifle bullet by 7 minutes. Pretty cool eh?

well, this is second hand info and its entirely possible that this guy was lying to me, but my wife and I were at the Huntsville Space and Rocket center a few years ago, and they have an SR-71/A-12 on display out front that I was admiring, there was a guy there that I got to talking to and he told me that he worked on the SR-71 when he was in the Air Force. We got to talking about the specs of it, because they were on a placard posted in front of the plane, and he told me "The SR-71 can EASILY do Mach 5 at 120,000 ft"...being that my dad was in Naval Aviation and I spent a good portion of my life on Naval Air Stations, this nearly floored me..he did seem to know a good bit about the plane, but he could have been just another SR-71 buff

Yeah he could have been working on the SR-71 Internet research team. J/K, thats pretty interesting though, you never know who people are and what they do. There is a guy down here that came to our school and talked to us and I thought he was just some employee for a school business. Come to find out, he worked on Nuclear Submarines for 20 years.

I have said it once, and I will say it again, if you think the sr-71 just goes mach 3.5, you need to take another look at the pictures of it. Everything about it just screams speed. There is a reason the top speed is classified, and it isn't because it was just as fast as fighters of the day.

Originally posted by beyondSciFi
OFFICIAL BLACKBIRD SPECS

MAX speed in level flight: mach 3.5 (if it goes any faster the windsheild will break and kill the pilots)

MAX Altitude in level flight: around 125,000 feet give or take a couple of thousand feet.

These are the max SAFE speeds... Why is that so hard to understand? The SR-71 is not a miracle plane it has it limitations. The Specs are from normal operation conditions. Yes, it can go faster but not in leveled flight, and when I said faster then mach 3.5 I didn't mean like mach 3.51 more like mach 3.7-9 depending on air conditions. The windshield will break but not in one big bang ... after continuous flight at higher speeds it will crack/melt till it gives way. As for it max altitude, 125,000 is around max with normal fuel load. It could go higher if it was flying on fumes. And it could go even higher if it did a pop-up...

[edit on 5-2-2005 by beyondSciFi]

Exactly, the SR is not some super plane. It is way ahead of its time. Think about the technological advances this world has got. Think we have things that are way ahead of their times? Of course. The Blackbird can go well past Mach5 if it wanted to. The RAMJET's on the SR-71 are exactly as what they are said to be. They ram air into the intake at high pressure (hint: the cone shape at the front). As this air is passed through, there is a controlled amount of fuel that is pumped (throttled) into the air and gas chamber where it is cumbusted and rocketed out of the back. If you were to go up to Mach 3.5 with this airplane, and push the throttles full, you would speed well past Mach4, and eventually Mach5. The stress of the pilots would not be able to handle such speeds though. Read the small print when you read the speed. "Maximum OPERATIONAL Speed". The SR-71 isnt flying full throttle all the time.

My Info comes from the Test Pilots and 1129th SAS and 9th SRW pilots who I'm in regular contact with. I will be meeting up with lot of them again in October of this year when the people who worked at Groom Lake on the U-2 ,A-12 and the YF-12 programs hold their bi annual reunion.

Originally posted by creamsoda
Exactly, the SR is not some super plane. It is way ahead of its time. Think about the technological advances this world has got. Think we have things that are way ahead of their times? Of course. The Blackbird can go well past Mach5 if it wanted to. The RAMJET's on the SR-71 are exactly as what they are said to be. They ram air into the intake at high pressure (hint: the cone shape at the front). As this air is passed through, there is a controlled amount of fuel that is pumped (throttled) into the air and gas chamber where it is cumbusted and rocketed out of the back. If you were to go up to Mach 3.5 with this airplane, and push the throttles full, you would speed well past Mach4, and eventually Mach5. The stress of the pilots would not be able to handle such speeds though. Read the small print when you read the speed. "Maximum OPERATIONAL Speed". The SR-71 isnt flying full throttle all the time.

hmm...odd post, you start out by saying its not some amazing super plane then end it with it could go mach 5???

Also, it is NOT a ramjet enigne, its a turboramjet, I have no doubt that a true ramjet could go mach 5, but its biggest flaw would be that it couldn't get off the ground, unless of course assisted by a rocket or something. Instead of me explaining the differernce, i'll just post a good link that explains it all very well.

How the Turboramjet operates

Yeah... its not going to do mach 5... EVER. Way too many problems with heat and stress...

[edit on 5-2-2005 by beyondSciFi]

I never said hypersonic, but I would not be surprised really. Why couldn't it go so fast? Anyone remember the x-15? That was manned, so the stress on the pilots argument is not really valid, and neither is the windshield and heat dissipating arguments. And don't forget the higher you go, the less stress and heat. So if the SR-71 had a much high altitude than is reported, its speed potential may far exceed our wildest dreams. And even compared to modern planes it is a super plane. To this date there is nothing from any country in any stage of development that even comes close.

The SR-71 is one of the fastest jets ever to be developed. This puppy will do in excess of Mach 5 and can cruise at the same altitude as some low orbiting spying platforms. Often the SR-71 will carry only enoungh fuel for takeoff and 50 mile range due to the "loose construction" effects at lower levels and lower speeds. When she gets airborne, she must hookup with a tanker for mid air refueling. Once refueled, she will still leak like a sieve until she can get up to Mach-2.5 Then due to the excessive amout of heat that is produced by the atmosphere and as her speed is increased, she will swell and her hull will seal as normal if there is such as thing. I could tell you more but then I would have to do away with you. One with knowledge of such, should be very carefull when discussing projects that are still classified. There is no doubt that this baby will haul a-s. We must be ever alert because the Ruskies will have something very similar in the ram/scram jet coming off their production line slated for 2006.

Journey,
The SR-71 was retired in 2002 and a few were sent to an aerospace museum.

Man u people have to think logically ... this is not a super plane in the sense that it will go mach 5.... WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND? If you guys knew anything about aerodynamics and physics you wouldn't be saying this. Thats it I quit this post, im sick of arguing with people that know less then me on the subject matter.

Originally posted by beyondSciFi
Man u people have to think logically ... this is not a super plane in the sense that it will go mach 5.... WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND? If you guys knew anything about aerodynamics and physics you wouldn't be saying this. Thats it I quit this post, im sick of arguing with people that know less then me on the subject matter.

Thankyou beyondSciFi, I was just about to reply to something like that. Take a look at the X-15 and the SR-71. Make sure you focus your attention on the wings and fusalage design. The SR-71 is very well capable of Mach 5, but it is not structuraly designed for those kinds of speeds. Aerodynamics have everything to do with the way an airplane flys. If the SR-71 were to go that fast, it would break up in midair.

FLYIN HIGH
This puppy will do in excess of Mach 5 and can cruise at the same altitude as some low orbiting spying platforms.

What!?!?

LEO (Low Earth Orbit) sats are in the 100-250 mile area, its rediculous to think that the SR-71 could go 100 miles up, there is no oxygen up there, so you have no propulsion, so I dont think you know what your talking about.

However I do believe that its top speed is around mach 4, I will not discard the possibility that it can go mach 5-7.

Because...Ramjets are reported to go around that speed, while this is a turboramjet, it is not a different engine, its just a ramjet with a turbojet in front of it, which gets closed off once it switches to ramjet propulsion. So it is possible, but of course having 2 engines on board is more weight, which would hinder its speed a bit. And the construction of the SR-71 and the X-15 were much the same, so I dont see any constraints to prevent it hitting the mach 5 marker, which you people have seem to have set for it.

Can I point out that the Engine does not get switched off. At mach 3+ the cone has moved fully back to control the flow of air into the engine and raised the internal duct air pressure to about 18 psi. Outside air presure at 82,000 feet being only 0.4 psi

Some of this air bypasses the engine from the 4th stage of the 9 stage compressor and is then re-introduced into the tubine exhust around the front of the afterburner where it is used to augument thrust and cool the back end.
If fact at mach 3+ 54% of the thrust comes from the ramjet, 29% from the ejectors and only 17% from the J-58.

reply to post by Murcielago


Top speed for the SR-71 was Mach 3.5 and 100,000 ft for altitude.

Sled Driver and The Untouchables byＢrian Shull are the best reads on the SR-71 ops out there. One of his missions was over Libya in 1986 right after the F-111 hit. They were at Mach 3.5 and accelerating as they went past Tripoli. He never gave the actual top speed, but he said it was faster than he had ever gone.

My grandfather Charles W. "Pete" Collins was an SR-71 pilot he said the max speed was Moch 3.5 if you went any higher the engine and parts of the plane would begin to melt from extreme heat and the highest altitude was 80,000-100,000 feet. I don't know how to post pictures on here but if you google Pete collins SR-71 you will see pictures of my grandfather with his navigator conny seagroves my grandfather is the tall one in the pictures conny is the short one if you have any questions feel free to ask.

reply to post by minkey53


What I find amazing and somewhat suspicious is the they retired the SR-71 and yet kept the U-2 which is older and not supersonic.

I'm thinking that theer is something in the arsenal that is better, but has yet to be seen by the public eye.

Hell, the F-117A was around for darn near a decade before it made it's public debut, and now they are retired as well.

But as I said before...the U-2 is still flying.