[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by nikhilarni

Not to mention, when I had some relatives visiting and mooted to go see the museum, and was turned down stating " What to see in old plane and all, we want to see NY " , that was it.

Go and see NY by all means, but do visit the USS intrepid and see, amongst others, on the flight deck, a SR71!

http://www.jeroendorrestein.com/Fran.../New_York.html

Jeroen

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Thats not true, the Mig-25 was designed to intercept the B-70 Valkyrie a Mach 3 capable bomber which was being developed by the Americans in late 1950s however it never went into production

The requirement for a mach 3 interceptor was floated by the Soviets in the late 1950s. It(MiG-25) was to designed intercept the u-2 and high flying USAF bombers like the b-47, b-52 and the xb-70 quickly before they got to their targets to drop their bomb load.

Till the MiG-25 entered service, none of the MiGs, Sukhois or Yaks of that time could intercept the high flying U-2 which flew well above Soviet jets service ceilings. This is as per my copy of Yefim Gordon's book on the MiG-25.

The U-2 was out of reach of Soviet interceptors of that time but not SAMs and that is the reason why the A-12/SR-71 programme was a accelerated.

Once the MiG-25 entered service with the Soviet AF, USAF and NATO bomber tactics changed to flying low attitude supersonic bombers and that gave birth to jets like the F-111, Mirage IV and Jaguar. The B-1 too was a result of this tactical requirement.

[RajeVenu]

The SR71 had a very unique engine I think called the J58. The engine functioned as turbojet during takeoff & landing but at speeds above 1.2 Mach or so could convert into a ramjet hence the speeds above 3 Mach. The diffuser cones are visible on the aircraft which are a primary requirement for ramjets. A unique and only one of its kind. Way ahead of its time..

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by RajeVenu

The SR71 had a very unique engine I think called the J58. The engine functioned as turbojet during takeoff & landing but at speeds above 1.2 Mach or so could convert into a ramjet hence the speeds above 3 Mach. The diffuser cones are visible on the aircraft which are a primary requirement for ramjets. A unique and only one of its kind. Way ahead of its time..

Strictly technically speaking they are not ram jets.
Jeroen

[Fraz33r]

Originally Posted by aah78

There is a SR-71 on display currently at the Air & Space museum in Chantilly, VA.

Originally Posted by SajiNSalin

The Smithsonian Air and Space museum near Dulles airport, Washington DC, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, has an incredible collection of SR71, Concorde, the Enola Gay (atomic bomb carrier aircraft), a whole host of US, USSR, Japanese vintage era aircraft, the space shuttle Discovery and lots more

Since so many of you have mentioned this, and is literally in my backyard, let me know if you are craving for more pictures; I can just bike and go to the museum and take as many as you want

Here are some, This is the first time i saw the BlackBird and you have to be impressed by its sheer size.










This Museum also holds the Space Shuttle Discovery and was piggy backed and brought to this museum via this ( Credit to the Original uploader i.e. NASA image taken of the net.)

Originally Posted by Indraneel Bhat

Trivia:

The SR-71 at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, starred in the second Transformers live action movie "Revenge of the fallen". It is the dormant form of the Decepticon turned Autobot called 'Jetfire'.

Wow I didn't knew this! Good to know.

P.S.: Sorry if I hijacked the thread!

[condor]

Lots of nice pics there. Reminds me of my visit to Smithsonian, and seeing one of these. Also the Enola Gay :(


Btw, looking at the title of the thread, I thought @D33-PAC actually spent a day inside , and WITH the SR-71 ! Like we do with a car that can be driven around. But This is only seeing it displayed !

[karan561]

Thanks to this thread and other posts about the SR-71 which made me watch a documentary on YouTube about this game changing plane

Let's hope someday i get to see it in person

[ravi_xx]

Another bit of trivia - motorcycling related: the Honda SuperBlackbird 1100XX was named after this famed aircraft which used to carry the Blackbird nickname. Every bird forum has tons of snaps of both these in the same frame

[preetamkabra]

Good One mate. Read it till the end and was agreeing with the Troll.... how much did you say the ground speed was again !!!

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

Brilliant, brilliant pics!

Reminded me of this famous anecdote about the SR-71

http://tribunist.com/technology/sr-7...d-speed-check/

Cheers,
Vikram

[Rehaan]

The SR-71 is truly something special.

While driving across the United States as a college student with friends, we saw the sign for a museum. It had a picture of a SR-71 on it.

As cheap college students, we decided to check it out, but not go in if the entrance fee was too high (read: >$5).

Luckily for us, this is what we saw as soon as we walked in the door (even before getting to the ticket counter!) :




Do watch this video of the SR71 cockpit as explained by a blackbird pilot. The video is 20 minutes long, but every single minute of it is enlightening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj9UwKQKE3A

[TheStranger]

For more in-depth knowledge on the SR-71 Blackbird, I would recommend a book ...

Sled Driver, written by former Blackbird pilot Brian Shul.

This book is awe-inspiring and vividly describes the experience from the pilot's POV.

This webpage posted above :
http://tribunist.com/technology/sr-7...d-speed-check/

It is an actual part taken from the book I mentioned.

[Durango Dude]

I just loved these planes right from my childhood days when I used to ogle at them in the Encyclopedia Britannica. It started life as a single seat A 12 that spawned the twin seat YF-12A which was an interceptor and then later came the SR-71 Blackbird for reconnaissance. Another plane that caught my fancy was the X-15A (that still holds the speed record) that was a rocket plane that was launched from the wing of a B-52 Stratofortess.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

The SR-71 is truly something special.

Luckily for us, this is what we saw as soon as we walked in the door (even before getting to the ticket counter!) :
]

That looks like the SAC museum (Strategic Air Command)

http://sacmuseum.org/what-to-see/aircraft/

Awesome collections of airplanes! They have another supersonic plane on display as well. The legendary B58 Hustler!

Jeroen

[SR-71]

They built a plane for reconnaissance over enemy skies and the only counter measure it had was 'speed'... It simply outran every single missile fired at it ! Now that is called fighting in style, simply snubbing the missiles fired at it. I had the good grace of seeing her in person at the Smithsonian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOjEeGY4QCM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reytu0y5efs

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by SR-71

I had the good grace of seeing her in person at the Smithsonian.

And memorably immortalized as Jetfire in Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgcs9YWUOao