Uh... you do WHAT for a living?
02-13-2003, 08:12 PM
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REDZMAN:
The SR-71 Blackbird. Fastest plane ever.
Here's some notes on that plane...
Weapontry: None
Speed: Classified. The pilots wear a patch that says "Mach 3+" It's belived to go at least Mach 6. The replacement for the Blackbird, the Aurora is belived to go at least Mach 12. On announced flights the 71 makes it from NY to LA in about 1 hour.
Ceiling: (How high it flies) Stratosphere, the crew has to wear the same suits as astronauts. Something near 300,000 feet.
Some interesting facts...
Fuel: The SR-71 leaks fuel from it's wings the entire time it's on the ground. If you look closely, you can see some hanging under the engines. When the plane takes off it is almost out of fuel from the leaking and takeoff and has to be immediately in flight refueled. After it's been flying for a few the skin heats up and the holes in the wings seal. You also cannot light this fuel with a match, it takes a chemical reaction to start combustion.
Heat: It flies so fast and creats so much heat that the metal structrure is re-tempered every time it files. No 2 planes are the same because of this. Every replacement part must be custom made.
If I remember any more I'll post em.
http://www.wvi.com/~lelandh/srqt~1.htmThe SR-71 Blackbird. Fastest plane ever.
Here's some notes on that plane...
Weapontry: None
Speed: Classified. The pilots wear a patch that says "Mach 3+" It's belived to go at least Mach 6. The replacement for the Blackbird, the Aurora is belived to go at least Mach 12. On announced flights the 71 makes it from NY to LA in about 1 hour.
Ceiling: (How high it flies) Stratosphere, the crew has to wear the same suits as astronauts. Something near 300,000 feet.
Some interesting facts...
Fuel: The SR-71 leaks fuel from it's wings the entire time it's on the ground. If you look closely, you can see some hanging under the engines. When the plane takes off it is almost out of fuel from the leaking and takeoff and has to be immediately in flight refueled. After it's been flying for a few the skin heats up and the holes in the wings seal. You also cannot light this fuel with a match, it takes a chemical reaction to start combustion.
Heat: It flies so fast and creats so much heat that the metal structrure is re-tempered every time it files. No 2 planes are the same because of this. Every replacement part must be custom made.
If I remember any more I'll post em.
By the way, the site there says service ceiling is 85,000 feet or so. at 300,000 there's no air to run the engines.
The fuel doesn't require a chemical reaction to fire, it's just heavy. Once you put it in a 3200 degree airstream inside the engine though...
I still like that they designed this airplane with *a slide rule*. No computers. Late 1950's-Early 1960's. And they expect us to believe there's no successor? Hah!
02-13-2003, 10:21 PM
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Sorry, but I was right. It DOES require a chemical reaction to start the fuel.
6th Paragraph down.
The fuel is unique in that it has a high kerosene base and has to be ignited by a catalyst, tetraethyl borane.
Tetraethyl Borane(TEB) ignites fuel during start
For some reason I was thinking about the Columbia flying apart at 200 to 300 thousand feet, don't know why I wrote that.
Keep in mind also, this is a Ramjet powered plane.
The "Aurora", the replacement plane for the 71 is said to be a Scramjet.
Goodness gracious.
6th Paragraph down.
The fuel is unique in that it has a high kerosene base and has to be ignited by a catalyst, tetraethyl borane.
Tetraethyl Borane(TEB) ignites fuel during start
For some reason I was thinking about the Columbia flying apart at 200 to 300 thousand feet, don't know why I wrote that.
Keep in mind also, this is a Ramjet powered plane.
The "Aurora", the replacement plane for the 71 is said to be a Scramjet.
Goodness gracious.
QUOTE
SR 71-A Blackbird serial no. 64-17960 during the Mildenhall Air Show in 1986. Every demonstration by the Blackbird is very impressive, but this one was incredible, and a little frightening as well. It was pulling a little to much G's (SR 71's aren't fighters and it has a limit of 3 G.) at moment the oxygen by the inlets is cut off. At that moment the engine is without oxygen but not without fuel, this is given an enormous quantity of fuel inside the engine without ignition. The pilot released the pressure on the joystick a little and one split second later fresh oxygen flowed into the engine again, so the engines could run again. But the quantity of fuel for the engine is at that moment to much and it's exploding with some enormous shooting flames. After the explosions the engines were running perfect again.
02-15-2003, 02:22 AM
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i've said it before, and i'll say it again. redzman is the closest thing to accurate information most of us have access to. when it comes to things like this, unless i know, 100% that he's wrong, i'm not gonna say anything. oh, and as far as the sr-71 being designed with a straight-edge, it's still a remarkable plane, and the radar deflection technology is awsome. so who cares if it's a tad antiquated, as long as it still serves its purpose, i see no problem.
[ February 15, 2003, 09:23 AM: Message edited by: turbulence ]
[ February 15, 2003, 09:23 AM: Message edited by: turbulence ]
02-15-2003, 04:37 PM
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QUOTE
turbulence:
i've said it before, and i'll say it again. redzman is the closest thing to accurate information most of us have access to. when it comes to things like this, unless i know, 100% that he's wrong, i'm not gonna say anything.
*Hands turby a $20*i've said it before, and i'll say it again. redzman is the closest thing to accurate information most of us have access to. when it comes to things like this, unless i know, 100% that he's wrong, i'm not gonna say anything.
lol lol
I wonder if there's a way to get my quote to auto change every day. I'm building up a list of good ones.
EDIT: BTW, that second one got you 5 stars Turby.
[ February 15, 2003, 11:41 PM: Message edited by: REDZMAN ]
02-16-2003, 01:09 AM
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turbulence:
i've said it before, and i'll say it again. redzman is the closest thing to accurate information most of us have access to. when it comes to things like this, unless i know, 100% that he's wrong, i'm not gonna say anything. oh, and as far as the sr-71 being designed with a straight-edge, it's still a remarkable plane, and the radar deflection technology is awsome. so who cares if it's a tad antiquated, as long as it still serves its purpose, i see no problem.
not a straight edge, a *slide-rule*. Calculators and useful computers just didn't exist.i've said it before, and i'll say it again. redzman is the closest thing to accurate information most of us have access to. when it comes to things like this, unless i know, 100% that he's wrong, i'm not gonna say anything. oh, and as far as the sr-71 being designed with a straight-edge, it's still a remarkable plane, and the radar deflection technology is awsome. so who cares if it's a tad antiquated, as long as it still serves its purpose, i see no problem.
ALL the math for this machine was either done in someone's head, on paper, or with a slide-rule. Impressive, yes?
02-16-2003, 01:14 AM
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REDZMAN:
Sorry, but I was right. It DOES require a chemical reaction to start the fuel.
That's not what I meant. You said "to start combustion". it doesn't require a chemical reaction to start the fuel, just to start the engine because it's cold... once the engine is running it burns just fine.Sorry, but I was right. It DOES require a chemical reaction to start the fuel.
It's like the poly-chain kerosene that FAA and NASA was researching in the early eighties... wouldn't burn cold unless it was "broken" in a centrifuge before the engine recieved it, but was fine once the heat was there. That's the source behind that NASA video of the 737 crashing in the desert in a gigantic fireball, it was loaded with the special fuel... but by chance they went in a little sideways, popped an engine full of processed fuel, which exploded, and supplied the heat that lit off the rest of the spilling fuel. If the "cutter" on the ground had missed that engine, there wou;dn't (shouldn't) have been any fire. Once the heat's there, it lights off.
I think I'll call this as we're both pretty much right, with errant details.
02-16-2003, 02:07 AM
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I thought the Aurora was pretty much a figment of everyone's imagination, meaning that the government has not admitted to having it, nor a scramjet engine.
Also, the speed is not classified. It is known that it flies at just over mach 3.
The radar cross section however is classified.
Sorry I had to add my piece but I dedicated most of my childhood worshipping that jet.
[ February 16, 2003, 09:24 AM: Message edited by: AllBlackTibby ]
Also, the speed is not classified. It is known that it flies at just over mach 3.
The radar cross section however is classified.
Sorry I had to add my piece but I dedicated most of my childhood worshipping that jet.
[ February 16, 2003, 09:24 AM: Message edited by: AllBlackTibby ]