Hmm,

The MIG 31 could intercept SR 71s and there have been reports of it, provided they had a MIG 31 patrol on station at the time that the SR-71 was picked up on radar, there is a very good article about the MIG 31 and it intercepting the SR-71.

- Phil

an xb-70 could have caught up with the aircraft in speed and ceiling and fire a fast missile like the pheonix or some other missile that can move mach 5 or more.

Originally posted by MickeyDee
The X-43 is the fastest (known) object man has ever built so im sure it could catch the Blackbird!

Whoa ...
I'm sure you meant to say the fastest known AIRCRAFT...
We all know the shuttle and other space vehicles go much faster than Mach 9+

Just thinking, wonder if the Soviets ever looked at modifying an AS-4 to go after Blackbirds...

I suppose the sheer size of it would slow down the launch aircraft (it would have to be a Backfire) too much to even get into an intercept position.

Hitting an aircraft with another aircraft at mach 3+ speeds would be more difficult than trying to hit 3 bullets with 1. It's not impossible, but it's near damn close.

And the X-43 isn't the fastest object, it may be the fastest Air breathing aircraft man has managed to build, but that's the extent that it goes to.

the XB-70 is slightly slower than the SR-71, it's a Mach 3.1 long range bomber. The MiG-31 would do a better job.

And why would anyone build an aircraft to counter another aircraft already retired permenantly?

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
And why would anyone build an aircraft to counter another aircraft already retired permenantly?

For fun

Originally posted by intelgurl

Originally posted by MickeyDee
The X-43 is the fastest (known) object man has ever built so im sure it could catch the Blackbird!

Whoa ...
I'm sure you meant to say the fastest known AIRCRAFT...
We all know the shuttle and other space vehicles go much faster than Mach 9+

Very true...i did indeed mean to say that the X-43 was the fastest known aircraft!

Originally posted by Seekerof

Apparently, for such to take place--a MiG-31 taking down an SR-71--you are theoretically assuming that everything would have to placed perfectly, timing would have to be perfect, etc.?

The MiG-31 can only go the speeds it can for mere minutes, whereas, the SR-71 cruises at such speeds indefinately.
seekerof

Well, not quite! Nothing can cruise at top speed indefinately! The Blackbird can hold it's top speed longer then the Mig, but even it has to slow down to refule after a while.

In theory, the only real way to take down a Blackbird is to intercept the tanker, and then wait for the SR-71 to run out of fule!

Tim

Originally posted by ghost
In theory, the only real way to take down a Blackbird is to intercept the tanker, and then wait for the SR-71 to run out of fule!

This is probably the best of all of the ideas short of launching nukes at the SR-71. Something people need to check out is the maximum speed at which missiles can be carried on an aircraft. The F-14 carrying the Pheonix missile was limited to speeds less than 600 mph because of the force from the aircraft's slipstream would tear the missile from the mounting hardware. The Tomcat actually had to slow down to under 400 mph before launching the Phoenix to ensure that the missile would seperate cleanly from the aircraft. Early tests showed that with speeds over 400 mph the Pheonix had a tendency to rise up into the launching aircraft instead of falling away. You don't just strap on a missile and run the aircraft upto full speed and launch. There are many parameters that must be met for an air-to-air missile launch to be effective. One other thing to consider is the maximum altitude at which you can launch a missile. Up where the Blackbird flies there isn't that much air to be used by the missile for control. This can cause the missile to miss the target.

One thing that seems to be forgotten is that the sr-71 went from Los Angeles to Dulles Airport in 45 minutes, thats blowing at well over Mach 3 at altitude the whole way!!!

Theres nothing that has been developed that even comes close to that sort of endurance speed. The MIG-31 had no chance, just as the person posted before me, firing missiles at mach 2 plus is very difficult and the larger the missile carried, the more difficult it is to gain altitude.

Just reminicing about the shear altitude and speed of the aircraft reinforces the knowledge that it can not be shot down except by sprints with nucs.

Train

Originally posted by Darkpr0

MiG 31 Firefox. Planned but never put into production I think.

Oh dear darkpr0, you're confusing reality and fantasy. The Firefox is a fictional aircraft devized for a novel of the same name by Craig Thomas, the picture shows a privately made model of the 'Firefox' as created for the Clint Eastwood movie of the book.

The real life MiG 31, developed from the MiG 25 and called Foxhound did go into production and service not long after the book was published, they are separate entites and the Firefox was never real or planned.

waynos is indeed right that plane is from the fictional movie Firefox with Clint Eastwood. That picture is of it landed on ice sheet waiting to refuel from a waiting US sub after Clint stole it from Russia. I thought it was a good movie the Concept of the FireFox a stealth Hypersonic plane was very cool.

I think it even had thought interface between the plane and pilot, though you had to think in Russian

I think people are still getting confused between theoretical capability and reality. There are some situations where you can easily overfly the target and get out of trouble at top speed, but these are relatively rare. In practice the Blackbird is likely to need to turn, and it doesn't exactly have an agile turning circle.

Remember, they never dared fly the Blackbird over the Soviet Union.

Also, the design died out: if mach 3 made you invulnerable, there would have been a rash of mach-3 aircraft, even with 60's technology.
And think also about the MiG-25 and its successors and why, in spite of pure speed, there aren't that terrific.

"But the mig-25 failed on every attempt to intercept the SR-71 never even geting a chance to sire off a shot. "

Except in the documented cases when they did.

Leads to the other question: what can intercept a MiG-25 these days?

Care to link to any information on this documented case Wembley? It would be very interesting to this thread