Okay would any of the missile carrying jets of been able to do what the sr-71 did? outside of maybe the stealth aircraft... Even then one of them probably woulda got hit since couldn't outrun the missiles.

Nope, 100% true. While the Smithsonian has some iconic aircraft, its simply too small (hence the reason for Udvar Hazy) while they are to civil aviation what Wright Pat is to Mil aviation, the start of this thread was the SR-71. UH has one, but the AF museum has an SR-71, an A-12, a D-21, not to mention everything else (like the friggin Valkyrie) I just find it ridiculous how many people are unaware of the US Air Force museum when it is easily the best military air museum in the world. The Smithsonian IS a must see at least once, but you can spend days upon days at the AF museum, and still feel pressed for time.

No CAD was around to design it.

No computer modeling.

Just drafting tables and slide rules.

Freakin' amazing!

Seen - Saw

How does English work again?


They are badass.

YF-12.





'nuff said.  





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajwCX4PRkko











eta:  I have no idea why I can't get vids to embed anymore.  





 

Get rid of the "s" in the HTTPS part of the URL.

Here is an unlisted SR-71 story . My brother was working for the NSA in the late 80's spying on the Nork's from inside a bunker in the south . They were monitoring an SR-71 overflight and picked up the Norks launching a SAM, they informed the SR-71 and he made a course change.  they tracked the missile going up and falling short and hitting the ocean , not even close

Usually the best countermeasure was to accelerate away... Which it certainly was good at.

Where those aim 54 phoenix missiles?  That's even more badass.  Did it have a similar radar to the tomcat?



 

If memory serves, the Phoenix was designed for the YF-12, the the F14 got it after the YF-12 interceptor was passed on

Methinks they were designed for the F-111.

Though the Falcons the YF-12 carried (was going to carry?) are neat in their own right.

I disagree.


The ultimate in badass is being so invincible being armed is a waste of time.

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First post in awhile, but I'm glad I came back to some J58 thread! I grew up listening to my grandfathers stories about how secretive the Pratt & Whitney J58 fabrication was. Him and I planned an entire trip to Washington DC last winter just to see the one in the Udvar Hazy museum. Even after decades of its design, it's still amazing.

I would say it's the second most impressive engineering feat of mankind.  The Apollo program would be first.

That's a great little museum!



 

I haven't stopped by in years, but there is a GREAT exhibit at the Alabama in Mobile. Ohio Class Destroyer, Sub, and a shitload of aviation. B-52, F-4 from the road, Blackbird, many others, Helios also. Cobra.

FIFY

FIFY

I pass one everyday on my way to work.

I saw one at the Dayton Airshow years ago.  It was watched by armed guards and dogs as it sat there dripping fuel.  Pretty neat to see it but I really wanted to see it fly!

Smithsonian Dulles Annex

Yes. It's the most beautiful man-made creation of all time.

West Coast to the East Coast in under an hour. New York to London in under 2 hours even with slowing to AR with a KC-135 in the middle of it. Over 40 years ago.



Incredible aircraft.

pretty amazing engine, Just the fact that they thought to bypass large amounts of air from the compressor into the afterburner to provide thrust at high mach thus making the engine a quasi-ramjet, They also used the inlet spike to compress the air/ heat it up where it was then for the most part bypassed resulting in large amounts of thrust at high mach,  the rest of the air was used to feed the engine.  If I remember correctly performance at speed was limited to intake temps and not turbine temps like most jet aircraft. The engine had horrible efficiency at take off but just kept on getting better and better the faster it went, its one of the few aircraft to use less fuel ( in terms of km/Lb) the faster it goes.

That's a gun with a plane attached.


A jet without weapons, but with cameras, is more refined speed and finesse as in the case of the SR-71 - and it was a tool that did a lot more to prevent and stop wars than the A-10.  The ability to say "I see what you're doing, let's be reasonable and not break things", between non-crazy adversaries allowed things to not go crazy.  A jet that doesn't need to break shit is more elegant, and one that allows adversaries to carry on like civilized men rather than resort to war is an eloquently badass thing.  If it has to resort to war it will find the weaknesses and allow for the other jets to break shit in the most effective manner.


Everyone knows the most badass jet ever as far as breaking shit goes is the "I will devastate your life, your house, your street, your town, your county, and three neighboring counties you've thought about relocating to until your world is a goddam moonscape" B-52 Stratofuckingfortress.



It's such a pleasant and unassuming plane.  It looks like it could be perfectly happy hauling passengers to and fro, or dropping retardant chemicals to save people from forest fires.  It could easily transition to civilian life and be perfectly happy, but it chose to serve, and it chose to serve in the most destructive capacity possible.  It comes from a long line of worldcrushing asskickers, but it doesn't need to be painted up all garishly or have Dos Gringos sing songs about it.  It's not glamorous nor is it amazing on the outside.  It's got a copy of "Flight of the Old Dog" setting in its den, but it doesn't have an "I love me wall" like other planes full of Hollywood glamour shots.  It's a calmer, quieter plane that's been serving since other planes were just model prototypes or not even dreamt of.  It's mellow like that, but when asked to do what must be done - the job it chose - it quietly picks itself up and reminisces on the old days and how some things never change.

That's when the zippy cold war kids and xth-gen rebuilds and refits and things with a service life not measured in half-centuries start paying attention, because the old buff is getting up to fuck shit up, and when he fucks shit up, it's the stuff legends are made of, and the young ones know to get out of the way because he's going to make a sequel to the Chicxulub crater somewhere.

At night in the hangar sometimes he reminisces on how his family used to have to get together to break shit and he wishes how he could go back just to make his dad and his grandpa proud by leveling Dresden or Tokyo by himself.  He thinks of how he doesn't have any kids because he is the last of the earth-shaking giants.  His old fast little friends have all retired, one by one, and his slower, smaller bomber buddies have all gone out to pasture.  The closest things he has to kin anymore are fast or sneaky, but neither of them makes the sky fall like he does.  So he rests, quietly keeping his own company because no one can comprehend what he brings to the fight until he arrives, and that when he arrives, the fight is over and woe betide the foolish, vile land whose deeds require his attention.  They will remember his name and they will see the marks he makes for centuries to come in the cavernous abysses he creates and the myriad bloodlines he extinguishes.

That was beautiful.



 

It's the heat not the pressure.  The jet grows a few(don't remember exact number) inches from the heat at high Mach.  They had to make it leaky so there would be room for things to expand when hot.

Bravo!

The SR-71 is credited with stopping a war in progress, without firing a single shot. That's pretty damn badass in any book.




SR-71 images of the battle field situation were given to both the Egyptians and the Israelis during one of the wars and as a result, both sides backed down.

nope, it is an air breather...

I  stand corrected....

Holy crap what a story.  "I didn't think ejecting at Mack 3+ would be a good idea".  Yup.

Hes thinking of the x-15, another badass peice of machinery.

I guess I need to read my copy of Sled Driver again, and then put it in the safe deposit box.

Sled Driver book on Amazon

OMG... epic indeed!!

X-15 flew much higher and faster. The SR-71 was pure airplane.
If you get a chance to read Col. Graham's books he dispels a lot of the myths surrounding the SR-71. It did not go nearly as high as people think it did.
 

The SR-71 is that blackbird that brings omens to belligerents.  It grants augurys and scries upon what may become of the world.  The Blackbird is a wise being that others fortunately often heed.  For those who wish peace without war, it saves suffering and pain and destruction.  For others, he would be a harbinger of consequences.



When he returned to let the B-52 and the rest of the crew know that war would not come, they rested, and the B-52 returned to his hangar to dream of flying happy romantic couples to romantic destinations, to dream of open skies and green hills and shining cities, not choked skies of flak and poisoned forests and cities reduced to cinders.

And when the Blackbird returned instead with news of foolish leaders who would not heed the course of peace without war, the Buff would shoulder his burden and go to find the enemy.  When the enemy stood, he would crush them, slaying entire divisions where they stood; when the enemy hid, his friends would find them, and the Buff would come to eradicate them; when the enemy dug holes to cower in the earth, the Buff would bluntly smash their mountains flat and bury them in the convenient graves they excavated for themselves.

When the enemy threatened more, the B-52 would earnestly take to the air and circle patiently with his payload of the wrath of a thousand suns and calmly wait for the enemy to realize the error of such a confrontation.

He neither fears war nor wishes it, he will do what will be done, and he will do it so well and with such steadfast and collected determination that even the most brutish of minds will understand the message he conveys in uncomplicated terms.

Yeah I always liked the B-52... Watched thing on youtube about it one of the crews took 2 direct SAM hits before having to eject, one tough son of a bitch.  The thought of being that high and getting hit by one missile seems like you would instantly go down.