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Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird (tail view)

Image by Chris Devers
See more pictures of this, and the Wikipedia report.

Particulars, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:

No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in a lot more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71, the world’s quickest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s overall performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments throughout the Cold War.

This Blackbird accrued about two,800 hours of flight time for the duration of 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its last flight, March six, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging three,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane more than to the Smithsonian.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation

Designer:
Clarence L. &quotKelly&quot Johnson

Date:
1964

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 18ft five 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (5.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft five 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (5.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)

Materials:
Titanium

Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-kind material) to minimize radar cross-section Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines feature massive inlet shock cones.

Long Description:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in far more hostile airspace or with such total impunity than the SR-71 Blackbird. It is the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird’s performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments throughout the Cold War. The airplane was conceived when tensions with communist Eastern Europe reached levels approaching a complete-blown crisis in the mid-1950s. U.S. military commanders desperately necessary precise assessments of Soviet worldwide military deployments, specifically near the Iron Curtain. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s subsonic U-two (see NASM collection) reconnaissance aircraft was an in a position platform but the U. S. Air Force recognized that this relatively slow aircraft was already vulnerable to Soviet interceptors. They also understood that the speedy development of surface-to-air missile systems could place U-2 pilots at grave danger. The danger proved reality when a U-two was shot down by a surface to air missile more than the Soviet Union in 1960.

Lockheed’s 1st proposal for a new higher speed, high altitude, reconnaissance aircraft, to be capable of avoiding interceptors and missiles, centered on a style propelled by liquid hydrogen. This proved to be impracticable since of considerable fuel consumption. Lockheed then reconfigured the style for traditional fuels. This was feasible and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), already flying the Lockheed U-2, issued a production contract for an aircraft designated the A-12. Lockheed’s clandestine ‘Skunk Works’ division (headed by the gifted style engineer Clarence L. &quotKelly&quot Johnson) developed the A-12 to cruise at Mach 3.2 and fly properly above 18,288 m (60,000 feet). To meet these difficult specifications, Lockheed engineers overcame many daunting technical challenges. Flying more than 3 times the speed of sound generates 316° C (600° F) temperatures on external aircraft surfaces, which are enough to melt traditional aluminum airframes. The design group chose to make the jet’s external skin of titanium alloy to which shielded the internal aluminum airframe. Two conventional, but really effective, afterburning turbine engines propelled this exceptional aircraft. These power plants had to operate across a massive speed envelope in flight, from a takeoff speed of 334 kph (207 mph) to a lot more than three,540 kph (two,200 mph). To avert supersonic shock waves from moving inside the engine intake causing flameouts, Johnson’s group had to design a complicated air intake and bypass method for the engines.

Skunk Performs engineers also optimized the A-12 cross-section style to exhibit a low radar profile. Lockheed hoped to accomplish this by very carefully shaping the airframe to reflect as small transmitted radar power (radio waves) as achievable, and by application of special paint created to absorb, rather than reflect, those waves. This therapy became a single of the very first applications of stealth technologies, but it in no way entirely met the design and style targets.

Test pilot Lou Schalk flew the single-seat A-12 on April 24, 1962, right after he became airborne accidentally for the duration of high-speed taxi trials. The airplane showed wonderful guarantee but it required considerable technical refinement just before the CIA could fly the initial operational sortie on Could 31, 1967 – a surveillance flight over North Vietnam. A-12s, flown by CIA pilots, operated as element of the Air Force’s 1129th Unique Activities Squadron under the &quotOxcart&quot program. Although Lockheed continued to refine the A-12, the U. S. Air Force ordered an interceptor version of the aircraft designated the YF-12A. The Skunk Operates, nonetheless, proposed a &quotspecific mission&quot version configured to conduct post-nuclear strike reconnaissance. This system evolved into the USAF’s familiar SR-71.

Lockheed constructed fifteen A-12s, including a particular two-seat trainer version. Two A-12s have been modified to carry a specific reconnaissance drone, designated D-21. The modified A-12s had been redesignated M-21s. These had been designed to take off with the D-21 drone, powered by a Marquart ramjet engine mounted on a pylon among the rudders. The M-21 then hauled the drone aloft and launched it at speeds higher adequate to ignite the drone’s ramjet motor. Lockheed also constructed three YF-12As but this type in no way went into production. Two of the YF-12As crashed in the course of testing. Only one particular survives and is on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The aft section of a single of the &quotwritten off&quot YF-12As which was later employed along with an SR-71A static test airframe to manufacture the sole SR-71C trainer. One SR-71 was lent to NASA and designated YF-12C. Including the SR-71C and two SR-71B pilot trainers, Lockheed constructed thirty-two Blackbirds. The 1st SR-71 flew on December 22, 1964. Simply because of intense operational charges, military strategists decided that the a lot more capable USAF SR-71s should replace the CIA’s A-12s. These were retired in 1968 after only 1 year of operational missions, largely more than southeast Asia. The Air Force’s 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (portion of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing) took over the missions, flying the SR-71 starting in the spring of 1968.

Soon after the Air Force began to operate the SR-71, it acquired the official name Blackbird– for the special black paint that covered the airplane. This paint was formulated to absorb radar signals, to radiate some of the tremendous airframe heat generated by air friction, and to camouflage the aircraft against the dark sky at higher altitudes.

Expertise gained from the A-12 system convinced the Air Force that flying the SR-71 safely essential two crew members, a pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO). The RSO operated with the wide array of monitoring and defensive systems installed on the airplane. This gear incorporated a sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) technique that could jam most acquisition and targeting radar. In addition to an array of advanced, higher-resolution cameras, the aircraft could also carry equipment made to record the strength, frequency, and wavelength of signals emitted by communications and sensor devices such as radar. The SR-71 was developed to fly deep into hostile territory, avoiding interception with its tremendous speed and higher altitude. It could operate safely at a maximum speed of Mach three.three at an altitude much more than sixteen miles, or 25,908 m (85,000 ft), above the earth. The crew had to put on pressure suits similar to these worn by astronauts. These suits have been needed to shield the crew in the occasion of sudden cabin stress loss although at operating altitudes.

To climb and cruise at supersonic speeds, the Blackbird’s Pratt &amp Whitney J-58 engines were developed to operate continuously in afterburner. Whilst this would seem to dictate high fuel flows, the Blackbird in fact achieved its ideal &quotgas mileage,&quot in terms of air nautical miles per pound of fuel burned, throughout the Mach three+ cruise. A typical Blackbird reconnaissance flight might require numerous aerial refueling operations from an airborne tanker. Every time the SR-71 refueled, the crew had to descend to the tanker’s altitude, typically about six,000 m to 9,000 m (20,000 to 30,000 ft), and slow the airplane to subsonic speeds. As velocity decreased, so did frictional heat. This cooling effect caused the aircraft’s skin panels to shrink significantly, and those covering the fuel tanks contracted so significantly that fuel leaked, forming a distinctive vapor trail as the tanker topped off the Blackbird. As quickly as the tanks had been filled, the jet’s crew disconnected from the tanker, relit the afterburners, and once again climbed to higher altitude.

Air Force pilots flew the SR-71 from Kadena AB, Japan, all through its operational career but other bases hosted Blackbird operations, also. The 9th SRW occasionally deployed from Beale AFB, California, to other areas to carryout operational missions. Cuban missions were flown directly from Beale. The SR-71 did not begin to operate in Europe till 1974, and then only temporarily. In 1982, when the U.S. Air Force based two aircraft at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall to fly monitoring mission in Eastern Europe.

When the SR-71 became operational, orbiting reconnaissance satellites had already replaced manned aircraft to collect intelligence from websites deep inside Soviet territory. Satellites could not cover every single geopolitical hotspot so the Blackbird remained a vital tool for global intelligence gathering. On several occasions, pilots and RSOs flying the SR-71 offered data that proved important in formulating productive U. S. foreign policy. Blackbird crews supplied essential intelligence about the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, and pre- and post-strike imagery of the 1986 raid conducted by American air forces on Libya. In 1987, Kadena-primarily based SR-71 crews flew a number of missions more than the Persian Gulf, revealing Iranian Silkworm missile batteries that threatened commercial shipping and American escort vessels.

As the overall performance of space-primarily based surveillance systems grew, along with the effectiveness of ground-primarily based air defense networks, the Air Force began to shed enthusiasm for the expensive system and the 9th SRW ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990. Despite protests by military leaders, Congress revived the system in 1995. Continued wrangling over operating budgets, however, quickly led to final termination. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration retained two SR-71As and the 1 SR-71B for high-speed investigation projects and flew these airplanes until 1999.

On March six, 1990, the service profession of one particular Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird ended with a record-setting flight. This specific airplane bore Air Force serial quantity 64-17972. Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding and his RSO, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Vida, flew this aircraft from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging a speed of 3,418 kph (2,124 mph). At the conclusion of the flight, ‘972 landed at Dulles International Airport and taxied into the custody of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. At that time, Lt. Col. Vida had logged 1,392.7 hours of flight time in Blackbirds, a lot more than that of any other crewman.

This specific SR-71 was also flown by Tom Alison, a former National Air and Space Museum’s Chief of Collections Management. Flying with Detachment 1 at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Alison logged more than a dozen ‘972 operational sorties. The aircraft spent twenty-4 years in active Air Force service and accrued a total of 2,801.1 hours of flight time.

Wingspan: 55’7&quot
Length: 107’5&quot
Height: 18’6&quot
Weight: 170,000 Lbs

Reference and Further Reading:

Crickmore, Paul F. Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996.

Francillon, Rene J. Lockheed Aircraft Because 1913. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1987.

Johnson, Clarence L. Kelly: Far more Than My Share of It All. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.

Miller, Jay. Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. Leicester, U.K.: Midland Counties Publishing Ltd., 1995.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird curatorial file, Aeronautics Division, National Air and Space Museum.

DAD, 11-11-01