Thanks, this really cool material to share. I always tried to see all the SR-71s and the A-12s I can find in my travels. Each one carries so much history and talent. I have only seen and touched one YF-12A at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. real sleek plane.
I was lucky enough to grow up in Sacramento, just down the road from Beale AFB. As a child we would see them flying by occassionally, in the landing pattern of McClellan AFB. When I was in A&P school, we took a trip to Beale AFB and went through a pilot breifing, Suit-up and then out to see the plane being readied for the flight. then out to the runway to watch the takeoff. (I have one of the hard copy SR-71 flight manuals that were published, before being pulled from store shelves, if you look around they come up sale occassionally).
Later I joined the US Army and was stationed at Edwards AFB working flight test (1991-1995), and we would fly by Palmdale (Plant 42). As we would fly by there were 4-5, SR-71 stored there in flyable storage. When I got out of the Army, I stayed near Edwards AFB. Later working Security for NASA (Edwards AFB), when they were flying SR-71's. One of my duties every hour, was to check on the SR-71 flight simulator and aircraft (8 times a night, every shift).
Air Force Historical society has several SR-71's on public display outside of Palnt 42. Once a year they have an open cockpit day. There is also one on display on Edwards AFB, and one at the San diego air & space museum.
While in the CA Air Guard, I had the chance to guard an F-117 at an airshow. I count myself as lucky to have been in the right place and right time for several aviation events. I have also been lucky enough to meet several aviation personalities (Bob Hoover, Scott Crossfield, Robert L. Scott, Clay Lacy, ect....). Some that I can call friends (Robert L. Scott, Benjamin Davis, Wally McDonnald, Bob Gilford, Bruce Lockwood, Matt Jackson, ect.....).
Hello. If possible could someone tell me the maximum altitude reachable from an SR-71 in perfect working order? Some charts stop to 85,000 feet (Figure 5-3; section V, page 5-9). Another chart is up to 100,000 feet (appendix I, part I; Figure A1-5, page A1-10 of the Pilot's manual). I knew that the A-12 could reach higher altitude than the SR-71. Is it correct?
Thanks.
Hi, I doubt that in the sr-71's cockpit at 85,000 feet you could feel the mach-3 speed.
A former MIG-25 pilot told me that the canopy at mach-3 became so hot that you couldn't touch him with glove-less hands. The MIG-25 had a 3 minutes limit at mach-3 speed (actually mach 2,83) because of the engines. This time limit could be exceeded (and many russian pilots exceeded him in many missions without problems), but it was dangerous. The MIG-25 had also a cooling system for the radar, the cockpit and the airframe with about 295 liters of water and pure Ethanol, because of the heating by the friction at mach 2,83 speed. This system must be re-supplied after each flight in the stratosphere and gave to the Foxbat the nickname of: "the Drugstore", because of the 45 liters of pure Ethanol (or Vodka ...). The russians say that also the SR-71 and A-12 had a time limit at mach-3 speed (about 9 minutes) and then he was forced to slow down. The same thing before each high speed turn of the Blackbird. The MIG-25 had to slow down only for a minute (60 sec.) after 3 minutes at mach 2,83 (or more) and then he could speed one more time. A similar thing for the SR-71 but I don't know the time necessary fot the re-cooling of the SR-71.
I know that in the 20th mission, during the "Black Shield" Operation, in 1967/'68, an A-12 reached a speed of 3,5 mach at 80,000 feet over the North Vietnam.
After burning the most of the fuel, an A-12 could fly at 90,000 feet or more. http://www.airforce-magazine.com/Mag...195shield.aspx
The majority of the interception missions of the MIG-25 for an high speed, high altitude target (YB-70, B-58, SR-71, A-12, cruise missiles ...) had to be from the front. Interception from behind of an high speed target had some limits because of the altitude and the speed of the target. A limit for a rear interception of an A-12/SR-71 was a target's speed not more than mach 2,5.
Last edited by Vulturvulturis; 09-25-2012 at 05:22 AM.
While I'm not normally one to comment unless I know every detail of a subject, my understanding was that the sr-71 could do mach 3 or so for sustained periods and not just short runs. The biggest problem with interception is if you can only match the speed of the aircraft you are intercepting, you will never catch up to the target in an intercept situation. Then on the technical side, heat was probably the biggest problem to overcome in these aircraft beside jet inlet design because traditional materials like aluminum have a high thermal expansion coefficient when heated and thereby grow quite a bit and the outside of the blackbird got at least as hot as an oven. The blackbird is still an amazing feat of engineering!
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