They must have crashed two of them then. I also remember seeing a pic of 3 NASA SR's where they were painted white with yellow stripes on the wings. One was a normal SR, the other 2 were the training models that had the "hump" behind the pilot's seat like the one in the middle of my linked photo.
/Q]
I don't know about the politics, but they were phenomenally expensive to fly & maintain - even by Air Force standards.[/quote]
I always was amazed that the SR-71 was designed to leak fuel on the ground. Eventually, at supersonic speeds the skin would heat up and seal the gaps preventing leakage.
I don't know about the politics, but they were phenomenally expensive to fly & maintain - even by Air Force standards.[/quote]
I always was amazed that the SR-71 was designed to leak fuel on the ground. Eventually, at supersonic speeds the skin would heat up and seal the gaps preventing leakage.
The SR-71 costs A LOT of money. A LOT. The U-2 is comparatively free (actually, it's probably a TR-1 now...think of it as a modified/upgraded U-2).
Sadly, the SR-71 has been cut from the budget and is now more or less a museum piece. When it flew, it was way ahead of its time--among other things, fastest & stealthiest. It is still a very advanced aircraft. Although nothing can beat the 'instant' photography that can be delivered by a craft like the SR-71, most of the money managers in Congress decided that satellites (and upcoming unmanned, short-range surveillance) would more than fit the bill for military photography intel.
The SR-71's weren't that reliable. The engines had a habit of flaming out at max chat which is never a good thing. Also, because of the speed they flew at, the noses would take a pounding and would need to be reshaped and repainted after each sortie. Turnaround time and running costs were large compared with other aircraft. Most supersonic aircraft really get a beating and take a fair amount of time to get back up in the air.
Yet another reason why concorde is one of man's finest achievements, ever.
I'd imagine the U2 to be a lot cheaper to run and possibly more reliable since it is significantly slower.
Yet another reason why concorde is one of man's finest achievements, ever.
I'd imagine the U2 to be a lot cheaper to run and possibly more reliable since it is significantly slower.
is it just me or does this seem like a photo chop on the jet?
http://img129.echo.cx/img129/4218/cutout6yd.jpg
within the red circle
Let's not forget that when the SR-71 was retired, the world was a much more stable place. It seems in only the last few years, countries like North Korea, Iran, and a bunch of other countries have begun acting up.
It was originally retired in 1990. At that time the Soviet Union had just dissolved and there weren't really any high-threat environments that needed it when a U-2 could have done the job cheaper. They brought the SR-71 back temporarily, but retired it for good in 1998.
There's always something going on in the world so we'd always need spy planes. But if the country isn't being very aggressive and threat isn't high, they'll just use U-2's instead.
It was originally retired in 1990. At that time the Soviet Union had just dissolved and there weren't really any high-threat environments that needed it when a U-2 could have done the job cheaper. They brought the SR-71 back temporarily, but retired it for good in 1998.
There's always something going on in the world so we'd always need spy planes. But if the country isn't being very aggressive and threat isn't high, they'll just use U-2's instead.
You can easily track them on radar. Since they have to follow the same orbit 100% of the time, they follow the same path at the same time, every day. Satellites only have a small amount of fuel on them for stabilization and giving them a tiny boost to overcome the minute amount of drag that's up there. They can't change directions or anything like that.
the SR-71 is no longer operational.
It was so incredibly complicated that it outlived its usefulness. I think the U2 is a fairly normal aircraft, just with really long wings an a high-altitude engine.
Probably flying over Pakistan to look for Bin Laden, or possibly Iran to keep track of their nuclear progress.
Go outside and look up
Seriously - there is a whole amateur observer community that get's their kicks attempting to determine the orbits of objects that aren't, shall we say, "in the public catalog"
They do it mostly by optical observation - often just with naked eye or binoculars and a stop watch.
Of course, if you have the right kind of friends, you just go ask countries like Russia where they are. They have full blown space surveillance capabilities.
I doubt that they get all of them all of the time. But they probably have a pretty good idea about most of them most of the time.
why would they use a spy plane from the 60's when they could easily (and probably much more cheaply), use one of those unmanned spy planes that are tiny?
thats not photochopped. that is the two seat trainer.
SR-71B Two-seat trainer with a separate raised cockpit for an instructor pilot; 2 built (1 lost)
SR-71C Two-seat trainer rebuilt from a YF-12A structural test model and incorporating parts from other crashed airframes, built to replace one of the SR-71B trainers that was lost, later used by NASA; 1 converted
link
Do you really think a tiny, unmanned spy plane has a range of thousands of miles like the real spy planes do?
I think he was talking about the hole behind the second cockpit, where the IFR probe goes.
FYI (not directed at alien, but at others that mentioned the YF-12) the only one that was made, was converted to SR-71C, won and still holds the speed record, and is on display at the R&D Hangar of the Air Force Museum, located at WPAFB in Dayton, OH. It is actually displayed with its trophy.
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