50 years old and still the most impressive, menacing looking plane ever engineered

[packman]

Damn if it doesn't look right out of STAR WARS

[The Blue Flower]

1. LA to NY in six minutes

They took the Blackbird out over the Pacific Ocean, got it up to top speed, and then clocked it from LA to NY. An incredible feat of engineering.

[Zorro]

5. I think it was closer to one hour and six minutes

An amazing record, nevertheless.

[ZZenith]

7. Er, closer to sixty minutes. But still damn fast.

And, while menacing in appearance, it carried no armament because it flew faster than bullets.

[3Hotdogs]

32. Interesting, how time catches up.

WW I planes were also shooting themselves down. I believe they were shooting their own propellers.

[caraher]

82. Right, firing through the arc of the propellors

Some early aces put armor plate on the back of the propellers to deflect bullets, but eventually engineers developed a gearing mechanism that would interrupt the firing of the gun for rounds that would otherwise strike the the blades

[caraher]

84. There's also a more modern example

The Navy's first supersonic fighter managed to shoot itself down

The test pilot had assumed he had been the victim of a bird strike, but the accident investigation revealed another cause: in his fast descent, the pilot had actually flown into his own stream of 20-millimeter cannon rounds. Although the rounds had a head start (the air speed of the aircraft plus the muzzle velocity of the rounds) they slowed quickly due to drag passing through the surrounding air. The rounds decelerated, the Tiger accelerated, and the two reunited in the sky, with fatal (for the aircraft) consequences.

[ZZenith]

86. "SLOW DOWN, DAMMIT!" I think is the lesson here.

[caraher]

83. More to the point, it flew faster than anything that could shoot at it

Bullets fired from a plane as fast as the SR-71 would have been quite deadly - you *add* the muzzle speed to the firing plane's speed. But nothing could catch it. And faster ground-based missiles had impossibly brief intercept windows.

It's pretty common for recon aircraft to be unarmed. The U-2 was much slower, relying on altitude for safety, and was also unarmed. Recon variants of fighters also typically had no weapons; they were stripped down for maximum speed.

[Codeine]

35. That's upwards of 28,000 mph.

I think the Blackbird topped out at a bit over 2000 mph.

[MasonDreams]

55. Right you are, the Blackbird has very briefly hit Mach 3.5 or approx 2593 mph.

But it would burn up at that speed, too much air friction. 2000-2200mph is Max fast to cruise.

Apollo10 returning from the moon May 26 1969 (fastest humans) reached 24,791mph

The air speed velocity of an unladen sparrow depends on whether it's an African or European swallow.
The fastest level flight bird is a spine tailed swallow over 100mph.
But the periguine falcon can hit 240 mph in a scream of a dive.

[GeoWilliam750]

57. What's your favorite color?

[Codeine]

63. Ni! nt

[Zorro]

2. Closer to 60 years now

Awesome plane, but for me the most sinister-looking plane is the U-2 (another Kelly Johnson/Lockheed Skunk Works brainchild).

[Brother Buzz]

21. I always found it interesting the U-2 outlived the SR-71

KISS, baby!

Another KISS airplane on my sinister-looking list is the A-10 Warthog. That is unless you're on the ground and it's supporting you, then it's totally angelic looking

[lastlib]

22. I had one of these bad boys use me for target-practice once......

(not live-fire, of course, or I wouldn't be here!)

I'm driving down a nearly-deserted road that runs along the edge of an Army base, just after sunrise on a Saturday morning, headed to the start of a backpacking weekend, when I hear this scrEAMing sound--and I thought my car was coming apart! I hit the brakes, right in the road, shifted to park, shut off the motor, and opened my door--only to see this Warthog starting to climb out of a dive--I doubt he was 200 feet above me when I first saw him! He climbed to maybe a couple thousand feet before banking off into the sunrise and departing.

I never want to be in the sights of another one!

[sarge43]

23. "....and it's supporting you, then it's totally angelic looking"

Say hello to our little friend.

[El Mimbreno]

30. Funky looking, but deadly

Built around a gatling gun that fires bullets weighted with dead uranium (heavier than lead). Designed for close ground support, pilot sits in a tub of titanium armor and it can be shot to pieces and still fly.

[Crabby Appleton]

31. I got to see one of those landing

at bien Hoa AFB when I was pulling guard duty nearby. Very cool aircraft.

[diverdownjt]

74. AN-225 taking of at DIA....

Christmas eve in a snow storm. I used to work for Integrated Airline Services.
My wife had the job after I left and was coordinating fueling and deicing and working with
the crew. She couldn't get any of her crew to show up, and I wasn't going to let her do it by herself. I was working for one of the big cargo airlines now and still had security clearance.
She couldn't get any of the contractors to come and deice the plane, so I kept calling for her
while transporting the crew out to the plane 3 at a time(13 total). Each guy had 20+bags of
stuff from Walmart(blue jeans,t-shirts,food stuff). No one would take the Captains Russian credit cards or even American cash. Finally I talked Continental into doing it, so when I got the last crew out I told one of them and he said go tell the Captain. This plane tilts it's nose up to load so when it's down for flight the only way up is an extension ladder tied in place. I get up to the cockpit I tell the Captain that I got a taker on the deal for cash. He looks at me and says "I don't need f-ing deice, thank you now get off my plane". I was like" Capt. please don't do this. Heavy snow coming down horizontally. He said Merry Christmas now get off. Now I think I'm about to witness an aviation disaster, but instead I get a lesson from an experienced Pilot who knows his plane and knows what it can do. This guy no doubt has flown his plane Siberia and what not, so this is just spitting in the wind to him. I get back to the van and we watch as they taxi up to the runway and turn north into the wind and punch it. They get up to speed and we can barely see it now, but he pulls up the nose and tons of snow fall off all at once and the Antinov(largest cargo plane in the world) leaps into the air
and disappears on it's way to Baghdad, via JFK, Spain, Egypt.

[AllaN01Bear]

3. i saw one once at dryden research centre in southern ca whilst following a space shuttle .

inspecting heat resistance tiles . bb was the only aircraft that could keep up with the shuttle .

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. I found something like that on the beach once.

Mom let me take it home in a pail.

[Blue_Tires]

6. +1

Looks very modern even today...

[The Wielding Truth]

8. Is it a SR-71?

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="

" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Dem2theMax]

29. Great video.

Thanks for posting it.

[lunatica]

42. LOL!

That was fantastic! Great laugh!

[blaze]

58. Ha! That was fun.

Thanks for posting.

[SnowCritter]

66. Great story and video

Thanks for sharing!

[crickets]

68. Hilarious! Thanks for sharing that. nt

[gibraltar72]

9. My vote would be for the B 52

but that's just me.

[Zorro]

10. I once saw a sortie of B-52s fly overhead at low altitude

A very menacing sight indeed. I shudder to think about being on the receiving end of one of their bombing missions.

[gibraltar72]

17. Carpet bombing are us.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

24. Once saw a B-52 on a *very* low practice run on a military training route in Nebraska.

It was startling, to say the least.

[James48]

41. I once saw

A B-52, utilizing ground hugging radar, fly about 200 feet over the top of me, in the dark, in the pouring down rain, in central Germany, at about 5 in the morning, directly down the middle of the US Army base I was stationed at. (Wuerzburg)


We had been out doing morning physical training shortly after 5 a.m., when the Buff snuck up on us and scared the bejeezes out of us!

[Major Nikon]

44. I've seen B-1s doing the same thing in ND

There’s a lot of low-level training routes out west of here with a lot of activity. Never had enough interest to camp out under one, but I’ve heard of those who do.

I’ve been buzzed a couple of times flying VFR through MOAs. I tend to avoid them during the week.

[NoPasaran]

48. One of the amazing things about the B-52 is its longevity

There are guys flying B-52s today whose grandfathers flew them. And chances are they'll have grandkids fly them.

[lpbk2713]

11. To me the F-4 Phantom always looked like it was born to kick ass.

Sounded like it too.

[jpak]

14. My choice too

yup

[Wounded Bear]

25. Yeah, that was a bad ass plane...

but I'm prejudiced. I used to work on them.

[skydive forever]

60. So did I.

Elgin AFB in Florida. Late 70s.

[Wounded Bear]

62. MCAS El Toro, early 70s...

Radar/Fire Control Technician

[The Wizard]

59. During the first Gulf War (91)

Some F4s were armed with smart bombs and performed as well as the newer jets. The F4 set the standard for fighter jets today. Many pilots preferred them as they were easier to fly.

[DarthDem]

12. Yes. Menacing and Yet Beautiful

I have had a professional scale replica of the SR-71 in my living room for about 25 years. Awesome, awesome plane. I wish they still flew.

[MicaelS]

13. XB-70 Valkyrie.

Most beautiful plane that ever flew.

[OilemFirchen]

20. She used to greet visitors driving by the National Museum of the USAF, right by Col. Glenn Highway

I loved seeing her on my daily commute.

Moved inside now:

[Major Nikon]

45. I've seen it a couple of times

[eppur_se_muova]

15. Reminder: The YF-12 was the *armed* two-seat version of the A-11. SR-71 was the later modification.

The YF-12 "interceptor" never saw combat. It would have been the most expensive combat plane ever.

[Ron Obvious]

16. It has the face of a peevish Daffy Duck.

When seen straight on like that. Hardly menacing.

[trof]

18. I had one join on my right wing once.

I was going into Edwards in an F-84 back in the early 70s.
Approach called and asked if a Blackbird could join up with me.
Well sure.

He slid up on my right wing.
"Hi Speedy 11. I flew those in Korea."
"Small world."

Wish I'd had a camera.

[Wounded Bear]

26. If you'd snapped a pic, you'd probably have been arrested...

[rickford66]

65. Pictures were OK, but not of the ground cart.

That would let "others" know where it would be flying out of. An engineer I worked with came back with photos and he told me this. Tell me he was wrong, but he had the photos. He was working on the simulator at some site.

[brush]

33. I always thought the F-86 Sabrejet was a beatifully proportioned plane.

Last edited Tue Dec 3, 2019, 02:43 PM - Edit history (1)

[ProudMNDemocrat]

27. The SR-71....The Blackbird....

Very impressive plabe. I have seen tbese on display when at Osh Kosh.

[Ilsa]

28. Wicked cool. nt

[burrowowl]

34. Thanks

[B Stieg]

36. Pretty scary, but...

I still prefer the A-10 for its sheer ferocity.

[Aristus]

50. Me too.

The Tanker's Friend.

[Kaleva]

37. Phffffft! You can't draw big dicks in the sky with it.

As you can only fly straight with very wide turns.

[Marcuse]

38. The B-58 Hustler deserves mention.

[link:http://www.ddmcd.com/books/b58| According to this knowledgeable author it was all due to internal Pentagon politics: the B-52 guys ganged up on the B-58 guys and the B-52 guys won. This was despite analyses and assessments that seemed to show the B-58 to be a superior warfighting system.

[gwyllm]

69. True

As an old Air Force vet, I agree that the B-58 Hustler is the most awesome plane I've ever seen fly.

[Zorro]

71. I grew up around B-58s

My father was stationed at Bunker Hill AFB for 5 years in the early 60s. Beautiful, sleek aircraft, but apparently not easy to handle at low speeds. Seemed there was always a crash or two every year there.

Its mission was to penetrate Soviet air space at Mach 2 and drop a nuclear weapon; there wasn't much room for standard ordnance in the bomb-carrying pod below the airframe, so the B-52 was the better choice for more conventional munitions.

[gwyllm]

72. I remember Bunker Hill AFB

My father was a field engineer for Univac, which supplied the mainframe computers at the base. While my dad worked
there, I spent the 1966-67 school year in High School in Kokomo. Dad was also an Air Force vet from the late 1940s, he's
still going strong at 91.

[Ptah]

40. This biplane looks menacing to me!

[House of Roberts]

43. You can get pretty close to one for free, here in Huntsville.

It's in the Space and Rocket Museum parking lot.

[MasonDreams]

54. Glad to know she is still there, I still think they should bring her indoors.

The fun fact that always reset all my circuit breakers is the leaking gas tank. By design every SR-71 , when on the ground, leaks fuel. Why?
The plane flys SO FAST that the friction of the air (thin air @80,000ft up) heats up the plane causing it to become approximately 18 inches longer! The fuel tanks seal up once she gets up to speed !!

Also last time I checked the SR-71's top speed and altitude ceiling was classified information.

When I was a kid there in HSV you could climb into the cockpit of a Mercury capsule, to be inside a spacecraft that had been in orbit!

[marybourg]

46. Late DH worked on a component of that plane,

he eventually was able to tell me.

[Glaisne]

49. What Made the SR-71 Blackbird Such a Badass Plane

https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a14491/story-of-sr-71-blackbird/

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

76. It was built with titanium which came from - wait for it - Russia.

That [2,200 mph] top speed meant the average temperature of the plane's skin was upwards of 600 degrees. At that temperature, it couldn't be built with aluminum, so it had to be built with 93 percent titanium – and that titanium came from Russia.

The Russians never knew to whom they were selling the titanium, but they sold enough to build 32 SR-71 Blackbirds — planes used primarily to spy on the Soviet Union.

source

[samnsara]

51. wow! what is it?

[randr]

52. Knew a retired Air Force mechanic who worked on these

He told tales and described how they took the plane completely apart for inspection each flight. He was one proud vet.

[yonder]

53. Even before clicking, I knew it was the SR-71

Badass aircraft.

[marble falls]

56. My wife and I love this plane more than any other.

[lastlib]

61. Kansas Cosmosphere has one hanging from the ceiling!

It is one bad-ass machine!

[hunter]

64. I knew one of the engineers who worked on that beast.

Never said a word about it until he and the plane were long retired.

[William Seger]

67. Fun fact: It was actually supposed to be called an RS-71

Last edited Fri Dec 6, 2019, 07:21 AM - Edit history (2)

... but when Reagan announced it, he called it the SR-71, so they renamed it.

Edit: I have to correct myself. First, it wasn't Reagan; it was LBJ. Second, SR-71 was the correct name -- SR meaning strategic reconnaissance. What happened was, in those days, a stenographer took shorthand notes of presidential speeches, and it was the stenographer who transcribed it as RS-71 all three times that Johnson said SR-71. That version of the speech was handed out to some reporters, and when someone noticed that it said RS-71, an urban legend was born. (I misremembered the president, but I believe I first heard the tale on the old Discovery Channel show Wings.)

[IronLionZion]

70. There's one at the Udvar Hazy center of the National Air and Space Museum

I think it still holds the record for fastest plane.

The B-2 Spirit is also menacing but enemies wouldn't see it coming at them.

[William Seger]

73. My favorite museums

A few years ago, I literally took a couple thousand pictures there and the main museum on the Mall. The hard drive I had them on crapped out, so now I must go back!

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

75. Here's Queen Amadala's space ship from Star Wars

See any resemblance to the SR-71?

How about this aircraft (coincidently named the Blackbird) flown by the X-men?



This is third iteration of the X-men aircraft:



It's amazing how a 50 year design can still inspire futurists.

[LaurenOlimina]

80. It was quite the upgrade for the X-men!

?q=50&fit=crop&w=738&h=1091

Ten Years Later...

?q=50&fit=crop&w=738&h=1068

?q=50&fit=crop&w=738&h=1071

[applegrove]

77. I rode a few times at a farm near the Ottawa airport. I was out when all of a sudden i noticed

Last edited Sat Dec 7, 2019, 05:29 AM - Edit history (1)

one overhead. It was a stealth bomber flying low. I don't recall what my horse thought of it. That was about 26 years ago.

[Kablooie]

78. The original skunkworks building is part of the office campus I work at.

In the 1990s it was used by Disney animation.
It now houses Kaiser Permanente business offices.

[LaurenOlimina]

79. Fun fact about that spyplane's titanium fuselage. Guess where the titanium came from...

The Soviet Union. Bought from exporters by various shell corporations to hide the ultimate destination.

http://www.mining.com/bbc-future-sr-71-blackbird-the-cold-wars-ultimate-spy-plane-11725/

“The airplane is 92% titanium inside and out.

“Back when they were building the airplane the United States didn’t have the ore supplies – an ore called rutile ore. It’s a very sandy soil and it’s only found in very few parts of the world.

“The major supplier of the ore was the USSR. Working through Third World countries and bogus operations, they were able to get the rutile ore shipped to the United States to build the SR-71.”

[Warren_Pointe]

81. And the only weapons it carried

were cameras.

[roscoeroscoe]

85. Favorite SR-71 story, you've read this one somewhere right?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/theaviationgeekclub.com/sr-71-blackbird-pilot-tells-story-behind-famed-ground-speed-check/amp

[bluedeathray]

87. Aah yes, Major Shul and the boys

And the story goes...