Fascinating photos reveal how they built the SR-71 Blackbird

[n2doc]

Built and designed in the 1960s after the A-12 Oxcart, the SR-71 Blackbird is still the fastest, most vanguardist air-breathing airplane in the history of aviation. These once classified photos reveal how Lockheed built both birds in secret, in California. They look taken at the Rebel base in Hoth.


"Everything had to be invented"

The A-12 and the SR-71 were a completely different design from anything else before it—and everything after, as time has demonstrated. At the time, many of the technologies needed to make these airplanes were considered "impossible." And yet, thanks to Kelly Johnson and the amazing team at engineers and scientists at Lockheed's Skunk Works, they were invented from scratch—in twenty months.

According to Lockheed Martin's official account, Kelly Johnson—the engineer who made the A-12 Oxcart and the SR-71 Blackbird—"everything had to be invented. Everything." From the The Pratt & Whitney J58 engines—a technological feat still unsurpassed by today's mass manufactured airplanes—to its titanium skin—capable of surviving temperatures from 315C (600F) to more than 482C (900F)—and composite materials. Its landing gear, for example, is "the largest piece of titanium ever forged in the world." Ironically, the United States did not have enough titanium to build these airplanes, so they have to buy it from the Soviet Union. Imagine that: Buying the only material in the world that could make an spy plane from the country you wanted to spy.

more with photos

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/fascinating-photos-reveal-how-they-built-the-sr-71-blac-1683754944

[Tobin S.]

1. How fast were these planes?

I didn't see an exact figure in the article. It only mentioned that they could outrun surface to air missiles.

[n2doc]

2. 2200 mph

http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/srrcd~1.htm

[Tobin S.]

3. Thank you. That's incredible.

New York to London in under two hours. Coast to coast in a little over an hour.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Yeah, can you imagine?

What a ride that must be.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. IIRC, it's turning radius at speed...

was New Jersey. Literally.

[TexasProgresive]

4. Here's a reply to the question

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread288863/pg1
Shadowhawk

posted on Jun, 25 2007 @ 11:54 PM
link
We no longer need to rely on speculation. The performance characteristics of the Blackbirds have all been fully declassified.

Mach 3.32 is the design cruise speed, but maximum allowable Mach number was dependent on outside air temperature and its effect on compressor inlet temperature (CIT). The pilot was authorized to accelerate to Mach 3.3 as long as CIT remained at or below 427 degrees Centigrade. Speeds exceeding Mach 3.3 were occasionally recorded, but generally the pilot tried to avoid this area of the performance envelope because it placed excessive thermal stress on the airframe.

Some maximum speed milestones:
YF-12A, 1 May 1965, Mach 3.14 (2,070 mph)
A-12, 8 May 1965, Mach 3.29 (2,171 mph)
SR-71A, 28 July 1976, Mach 3.32 (2,193 mph)

The Blackbirds were designed to cruise at 85,000 feet with a useful fuel load and reconnaissance package. Because the A-12 was 20,000 pounds lighter than the SR-71, it had an altitude capability about 3,000 feet higher than that attained by the SR-71 at any given point in a flight profile for missions of the same range.

Some maximum altitude milestones:
YF-12A, 1 May 1965, 80,257 feet
SR-71A, 1968, 89,650 feet
A-12, 14 August 1965, 90,000 feet

In 1975, Lockheed studied the possibility of expanding the flight envelope of the SR-71 with some modifications. The results of several studies concluded the maximum speed limit could be extended to Mach 3.5 for short periods of time. The only structural limit to speeds above Mach 3.5 was a KEAS (knots equivalent airspeed) limit of 420, set by inlet duct pressures and temperatures that exceeded acceptable values. Limited inlet capture-area and excessive engine CIT also limited operation at higher Mach numbers, even with proposed modifications.

Similar studies addressed the possibility of achieving flights well above 85,000 feet. results indicated the SR-71 could briefly reach an altitude of about 95,000 feet in a zoom-climb profile. The proposed mission could have been accomplished with an airplane having a gross-weight of 85,000 pounds. According to the flight profile, the pilot would accelerate from Mach 3.2 to 3.5 at an altitude of 80,000 feet, then zoom to 95,000 feet as speed decreased to normal cruise mach numbers. The airplane would subsequently settle back down to an altitude of about 84,000 feet. Sustained flight above 85,000 feet was limited by wing surface-area and engine thrust capabilities.

[pa28]

5. I've always been fascinated by the SR-71 and it's variants. Thanks!

[Sherman A1]

6. They were wonders of technology

Designed in an era of slide rulers.

[hunter]

9. That was back when Lockheed cared more about building exciting things...

... than their stock prices and bloated cost plus defense contracts for barely functional or unusable "services" and "product."

The fathers of some of my childhood friends and classmates built those planes, but they never talked about it until we were all middle aged and our fathers mostly retired. Some of their fathers are still occasionally recalled as consultants and problem solvers, well into their eighties. They know that sort of bird well.

My brother worked in a shop that made various parts for the regular maintenance of these planes, but he didn't know it at the time, only that the materials were somewhat exotic and the tolerances extremely demanding, even by the standards of the aerospace industry. Years later, talking to a retired Lockheed engineer, he found out what the parts he made were for.

One very peculiar thing about these planes is that the JP-7 fuel did quadruple duty as fuel, internal coolant fluid, hydraulic fluid, and external evaporative coolant.

The plane is obsolete now because piloted aircraft and spacecraft are obsolete for the purposes it served.

And, if anyone important ever asks me, the U.S. Air Force is rotten and well past it's expiration date, technologically obsolete. It's decades past time to merge our Air Force back into the Army, with parts of it going to the Navy.

I also think the CIA and other national "intelligence" agencies should be opened up and made transparent. Let the diplomats of the State Department handle the issues that require very discrete high level discussions between world leaders.

Secrecy is corrosive in all political systems.

[Brother Buzz]

10. The SR-71's Secret Powerhouse - The Mighty J58

[backwoodsbob]

11. I remember when they decided to do a few public world record runs before they were retired

Atlantic crossings and such.The pilots said they didn't push the plane to it's limits...they simply ran fast enough to set records that wouldn't be approached for the foreseeable future.

Truly one of the marvels of the modern world