Photos of SR-71 you have never seen..., page 1

reply to post by freakyclown

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Did you work on them? I see you got pictures of the fuel nozzle area of the turbine.

I use to hate replacing those. Worked on civilian aircraft. SF 340, Beech C-99 and 1900c, and ATR 42's.

Replacing one turbine's fuel nozzles use to take almost a full shift. Do not miss the stress and low pay at all.

Great pics.

reply to post by freakyclown

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Star and Flag for the excellent pics! Thank you.

Another bit of SR-71 trivia for the fans of this remarkable aircraft:

On September 13, 1974 I was on duty as an Air Traffic Controller at Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) located in Palmdale, CA.
As such I was a "witness" to the final leg of the SR-71 speed record run from London to Los Angeles. The officially recorded time of the trip was 3 hours 47 minutes 35.8 seconds, or 1,435.587 mph.

A few weeks later the crew for the speed record run came to our facility to brief us on the record breaking flight and present our facility with a plaque commemorating our participation in the flight. During the briefing, the aircraft commander revealed that, unknown to the general public, they were required to refuel 3 times during the flight. That involved locating the tanker, descending to it's altitude, slowing to refueling speed, refueling and then climbing back to altitude. Their actual cruising speed was much higher than the "average" speed reported in the press. I have personally measured (via radar) speeds in excess of 5000 mph during "normal" flight operations for the SR-71.

Additionally, this crew brought along a film produced by Lockheed of a YF-12A (the earlier, interceptor, version of the SR-71) launching a missile at altitude. The camera was apparently mounted at the aft end of the weapons bay near the top and was pointed down at the missile. As the weapons bay door opened, the missile was outlined by the blue glow of the upper atmosphere. As the missile dropped clear of the aircraft the motor, when ignited, produced no visible tail flame but rather the 170' shock wave that we had seen when the LEM's lifted off from the moon. The missile then tilted down at about 45 degrees and disappeared from sight revealing the clearly visible curvature of the earth against a black sky. When asked about the altitude of the missile test, they replied (with a straight face), "60,000 feet. Wink Wink!"

Again, thanks for the pics and the trip down memory lane.

reply to post by freakyclown

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Hi,
You might find the following link useful - shows all remaining aircraft;

gmaps.tommangan.us...

Peace!

Originally posted by jawsismyfish
Cool pics. Did you take these at the Pima Air and Space Museum?

I was gonna post the link, amazing place... with an Sr-71 and a Space Shuttle

If you want aircraft, check this link out, guaranteed to consume over an hour of your life..
LINK

And THIS is an SR-71




[edit on 23-2-2010 by seataka]

They were discussing some old Russian MIG's on another ATS thread a while back.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Without going into detail, I'm curious who solved the engine bug that was preventing hypersonic operation Russia or the US?

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