sr71/pilot funny

[Sam1]

Not a pilot but I still got a kick out of this one

 

http://tribunist.com/technology/sr-71-blackbird-pilot-trolls-arrogant-fighter-pilot-with-ground-speed-check/?utm_source=MOH

[Rightwinger]

LOL, awesome!  I saw a poor old rusted Black Bird at the Space and Rocket Center last week.  Almost sad......

[TripleGGG]

Now that was funny 

[buck1032]

I was relegated to helo's in the Navy. No go fast for us, but when the go fasters went down they always looked for us.

[peejman]

Dad has a copy of Sled Driver. It's full of great stories, I remember that one. 

[hipower]

3 hours ago, peejman said:

Dad has a copy of Sled Driver. It's full of great stories, I remember that one. 

Good for him. It's a very hard book to find. At least at a reasonable price.

[monkeylizard]

This x 1000.....literally.

Amazon currently has 7 used starting at $800 and 1 new for $1,999.95

I don't understand why the publisher hasn't done another run of this book. It's clear there's demand for it.

 

ETA: I found a place selling them (not the Limited Edition ones) for $250 if anyone wants one. http://galleryoneimages.com/Hangar/product_info.php?products_id=51

Edited July 19, 2016 by monkeylizard

[BigK]

awesome story, thanks for posting that

[No_0ne]

Another one, from a former ATC controller, about a short exchange between an SR71 and younger controller:

 

 

In another famous SR-71 story, Los Angeles Center reported receiving a request for clearance to FL 600 (60,000ft).

The incredulous controller, with some disdain in his voice, asked: “How do you plan to get up to 60,000 feet?”

The pilot (obviously a sled driver), responded: “We don’t plan to go up to it, we plan to come down to it…”

After a long pause, the now chastened controller replied: "Cleared for FL 600" ...

 

[Rightwinger]

I grabbed a photo of the old sled that's rusting away in Huntsville.  They really need to do some upkeep on most of their outside displays.

[monkeylizard]

That's an A-12

Edited July 22, 2016 by monkeylizard

[KahrMan]

The Oxcart A-12 was the predecessor to the SR-71 Blackbird.

Edited July 20, 2016 by KahrMan

[Sam1]

I wonder if they were at max altitude and max speed then shut off the engines, how many miles they could coast before having to land.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Sam1

[Trekbike]

I wonder if they were at max altitude and max speed then shut off the engines, how many miles they could coast before having to land.

There is a story about that but I'm not in a position to search for it right now.

[No_0ne]

2 hours ago, Sam1 said:

I wonder if they were at max altitude and max speed then shut off the engines, how many miles they could coast before having to land.

Every aircraft has a "best glide speed" which maximizes horizontal distance traveled vs. the rate of descent.  This speed varies by configuration changes (gear, flaps, slats, spoilers, etc), weight distribution and several other factors, but is always well below "max speed".  The procedure is to immediately bring the aircraft to whatever best glide speed is for a particular configuration, however that is complicated for the SR71 by the minimum airspeeds required to prevent stalling at various altitudes and will necessarily change on the way down.  One source I found says the "glide distance" of an SR71, traveling at Mach 3.0 at 70000 ft. would be about 77 nautical miles.  By comparison, the known glide distance of the earlier U-2 from the same altitude was in excess of 225 nm.  The SR71 did many things well, but it was not an efficient glider, pilot anecdotes often include the word "brick" in their description of it's gliding qualities ...

[monkeylizard]

That might be a bit generous on the A-12's range. I've seen numbers as low as 2500 miles unrefueld. It did fly higher and faster because it was considerably lighter with only 1 crew and a smaller payload. That's what ultimately killed it in favor of the SR-71 which could carry more cameras including side-looking cameras. It didn't have to penetrate enemy airspace to do its spying, but the A-12 usually did as it was designed like the U-2 as an overflight aircraft. Budgets just didn't allow both to be performing such similar missions when the SR-71 could do it at a safer distance and had longer range.

But the A-12 has some serious cool cred since it was based out of Groom Lake, remained secret for 13 years after it was shut down (the SR was basically public from day 1) and CIA spooks are the only people ever to fly in them. Various dignitaries (including Congresscritters) were given rides in the SR-71. Maybe the congressional cooties is what finally killed it. I don't think penicillin will take care of that.

In the end, both were amazing aircraft.

Edited July 21, 2016 by monkeylizard

[peejman]

If you haven't, you guys should check out Rich Graham's books. 

http://www.amazon.com/Richard-H.-Graham/e/B001IO9Q8E

 

i was fortunate to attend a talk given by Col. Graham and got autographed books for my Dad. Really neat to hear his stories in person. 

[Dustbuster]

Love the habu spent many days at Kadena afb watching takeoffs and landings. Sr 71 Pitching for best glide speed would be kinda funny, a Cessna 172 is around 68 mph avg compared to a sr....I've got a bracelet made from sr Unobtainium that I just love due to the notoriety of its origin. Those planes and crews were phenomenal and prob did more than we'll ever know!!!

[monkeylizard]

1 hour ago, Dustbuster said:

Love the habu spent many days at Kadena afb watching takeoffs and landings.

Me too. I remember what felt like every building on the whole base shaking and you knew it was the SR taking off so you stopped what you were doing and ran outside to watch. We had an F-15 pilot who lived next door and even he'd come out in his yard to watch it. Night launches were especially memorable watching the afterburners slowly go from 2 dots to 1 then to none, but you could still hear it even after you couldn't see it.

A 2nd or 3rd grade field trip was over to the hangar to get up close and personal with it, the pilots, and their gear. Got to put on one of their "space helmets" and eat peaches out of a tube.   I remember big pans on the floor of the hangar (like sheet cake pans, but bigger) to catch fuel that dripped out of the expansion joints. Once it got up to speed, the skin got hot enough to expand and stop dripping.

[peejman]

School field trips to go rub up against one?  How cool is that?!  

I sure wish I'd been able to see one fly in person. 

[monkeylizard]

We couldn't touch it, but we were no more than 10 feet from it. Definitely one of the best field trips I ever had. Thinking back on it, growing up as a military kid had it's down sides, but it had some pretty amazing things too. Flying in a KC-135 to watch refueling operations, up close and personal with the Habu, touring the USS Wasp, flying an actual F-15 simulator, and getting a personal tour (just me and my dad) by the XO and the Chief of a nuclear attack submarine are pretty awesome experiences. Few people ever get to do any of those things, much less all of them.

[NoBanStan]

On 7/20/2016 at 1:09 AM, Rightwinger said:

I grabbed a photo of the old sled that's rusting away in Huntsville.  They really need to do some upkeep on most of their outside displays.

I took my kids last year. It was surprising to me just how little it had changed. Sadly, I didn't even notice the new wing until we had 30 minutes before the park closed. I just happened to look at the map and said "where's this tipped over Saturn 5????" That was a real let down just running through it real fast.

You're right, that A12 is looking rough.

I did get to see an SR71 at the Smithsonian annex in DC though. That ones in great shape.

***edit*** Had the picture handy. Too large to upload direct to the forum and I'm lazy. So, click you must!

https://i.imgsafe.org/24d526967b.jpg

Edited July 22, 2016 by NoBanStan

[Sam1]

On 7/20/2016 at 9:01 PM, No_0ne said:

Every aircraft has a "best glide speed" which maximizes horizontal distance traveled vs. the rate of descent.  This speed varies by configuration changes (gear, flaps, slats, spoilers, etc), weight distribution and several other factors, but is always well below "max speed".  The procedure is to immediately bring the aircraft to whatever best glide speed is for a particular configuration, however that is complicated for the SR71 by the minimum airspeeds required to prevent stalling at various altitudes and will necessarily change on the way down.  One source I found says the "glide distance" of an SR71, traveling at Mach 3.0 at 70000 ft. would be about 77 nautical miles.  By comparison, the known glide distance of the earlier U-2 from the same altitude was in excess of 225 nm.  The SR71 did many things well, but it was not an efficient glider, pilot anecdotes often include the word "brick" in their description of it's gliding qualities ...

225 miles on the U2?  that is crazy.  I remember watching them take off from Osan, Korea It was really cool watching them land with the pilots in the chase vehicles run with them down the runway.

If the specs above are correct, that 77 miles still seems like a long way for 140,000 pounds to be floating lol

Edited July 23, 2016 by Sam1

[monkeylizard]

Don't know if it's true or not, but I remember being told way back when (perhaps by an SR pilot, perhaps by someone full of crap, I just can't remember) that if she was going full speed eastbound from Key West, FL and started to turn left, she'd come on shore again somewhere around Cape Hatteras, NC.

[Sam1]

I could see that, straight line distance on google maps shows it at 823.48 miles.  That thing flying 2000mph+ isn't going to be able to do an emergency u turn lol.