Who produced the Blackbird?

I was just wondering if anyone knows which aerospace
company made the Sr-71 blackbird and the blackbirds
that had an internal missile bay( can't remeber what
their called the X-10 or something)

Lockheed made the aircraft, Pratt and Whitney made the engines.

Hope this helps!

Lockheed Martins "Skunk Works Division".

As to any other questions on information, this is a very credible source for such:

"The Blackbird Archive"
Link:
www.sr-71.org...



regards
seekerof

thanks mate thats tops

The fighter version of the SR-71 was called the A-12 and it was missile armed.

It was also a Lockheed "skunkworks" aircraft.

I believe that it was cancelled near the same time as the XB-70 Valkerye bomber because of the USSR SAM threat at high altitude as demonstrated in the 62' U-2 incident.

After that tactics changed to low altitude penetration that these aircraft could not accomplish.

how cool there was a backbird drone the D-21

link

[Edited on 16-1-2004 by Raptor]

All of the Blackbirds were built by the Skunkworks division of Locheed. As for the version with the Missile bay it was called the YF-12, and was a prototype interceptor.

Tim

Lockheed Skunkworks, Pratt N Witney engines, no internal bays(to my knowledge), purely stealth and it was classified as the A-12(also another aircraft that looks and seems alot like the blackbird)
Created in the late 70's and needs to be refueled right after take off, costly to maintain.
sry for the inconvienience, the SR is not stealth, it just moves really really fast to be detected by radar.

[Edited on 5-2-2004 by ShatteredSkies]

hmm ok so the 71 was armed and designated as the A-12 and no it was not canceled during the XB-70 was cause ithe XB was shot down by mig-23's in 1966 and it was never reopened cause of the threat of the mig interceptors and the black bird retired about 10 years now not 40. it only came out in the late 70's when the technology was being explored.

[Edited on 5-2-2004 by ShatteredSkies]

The first SR-71 to enter service was delivered in 1966 and due to politics, it was retired in 1990. However, the USAF still kept a few SR-71s in operation up until 1998, after a few were brought back to service in 1995.

The A-12 is the first of all Blackbird Variants. First flown in 1962, it had a very short career, and was retired in 1968. The A-12s sat in storage for over twenty years in Palmdale before being transported to museums around the country.

The YF-12A is a prototype for a proposed Mach 3+ interceptor/bomber. Only three were originally built and only one remains today. The YF-12A program was cancelled in the mid-1960s for budgetary reasons. However, the aircraft went on to serve NASA before its eventual retirement in 1979.
Fixed Armament: 3 Hughes GAR-9/AIM-47A air-to-air radar-guided missile (max speed Mach 4)
The YF-12A used a combination of long range radar and infrared search sensors along with a precision radar coupled to the infrared tracking system. Range of the radar and infrared trackers was estimated at 200 to 300 miles when it was first shown, giving the YF-12 unparalleled ability to detect and destroy enemy aircraft. The YF-12 used Hughes ASG-18 radar and the GAR-9 missiles that had been developed for the F-108 Rapier.

Following the development of the A-12 came the SR-71, an improved platform for reconnaissance. The capabilities of the SR-71 versus the A-12 have been debated many times. Each of these aircraft served different purposes and regardless which is better, the SR-71 is still a magnificent aircraft.

Although the M-21 looks like an A-12, it was not modified from one. After A-12 #60-6939 was built, two M-21s were built. These aircraft had two cockpits: one for a Pilot and one for a Launch Control Officer. Due to the fatal accident with aircraft #60-6941, the M-21/D-21 program was cancelled.

Due to the agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States restricting the use of manned vehicles over the Soviet landmass, this unmanned aircraft was developed. The drone was carried and launched by two A-12-like modified aircraft and a number of B-52Hs.

Link

Stealth?....The Blackbrd wasn't stealth. It had afterburners and for some reason theese show up on radar thats one of the main reasons they're not used these days too. The were high altitude but not stealth the plan was to make it stealth but the technology for stealth wasn't around then......or was it?

I think the term "stealth" for this craft was because at the time, it could fly very high and very fast to avoid contact.

A different meaning from the "stealth" of today.

There were two different versions built as well, Airforce double seater and the CIA single seater which was lighter and faster. My grandfather flew one of those babies a couple of times.

I suspect mine did as well, but he passed before I had a chance to get a confirmation. Makes me wonder though....

Now the next question is:

Where was it built?

It really bothers me how documentaries on the history and A&E channel's never tell you that the Blackbird was first flown at Area 51. Which of course is we know that it was. I still don't understand why they do that. Are they being told by the government not to mention Area 51 when talking about the blackbird? Somebody help out here.

It was built in Palmdale California;
home.att.net...
A small Skunk Works engineering team worked with engineers from Pratt & Whitney and were able to construct the first prototype in only 22 months. In December 1961, the first A-12 (article number 121, USAF serial number 60-6924) was trucked from Palmdale, California to the secret base at Groom Lake, Nevada

Now that right there ticks me off. They don't mention that part on tv programs.

thanx man you opened up a whole new world for me. well not really but now i knew things i did not before and you helped, plus your right "stealth" means to not be seen by radar. And yes the technology was being explored, the 117 nighthawk was being designed in the late 1960s and was built in the late 1870s to early 1980s and released as public info in 1988. well atleast there are some ppl in the world that make sense

{I think the term "stealth" for this craft was because at the time, it could fly very high and very fast to avoid contact.

A different meaning from the "stealth" of today. } ===ZZZ

The meaning of today is an understanding and controlling of parameters in the Radar Range Equation.
In theory, this could have been explored in the days of Maxwell, but understanding theory takes time.

www.argospress.com...

/\/ight\/\/ing

I may be wrong, but i remember reading somewhere that the SR-71 was coated in primitive RAM. This is because the USAF realized that the U-2 was not being picked up by radar because of the materials it was made out of. Although the Blackbird didnt use the "stealth shaping" that has become the trademark of cutting edge US stealth aircraft (mainly because to fly at mach 3, a plane has to have a certain shape) it did involve a small amount of stealth radar absorbent material.

If you think or can prove me wrong please do so - i am not stating this as fact, although i do know i have read and heard this numerous times before (not on some web page, but actual published books and from some USAF piolets whome i know).