Striker's Aviation Thread - Page 7 - The Drunken stepFORUM - A place to discuss your worthless opinions

Striker · #61 04-13-2010, 08:34 PM

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Ahh the mighty SR-71 Blackbird. The fastest air breathing manned aircraft ever built. Official top speed of 3.2mach, or 2,372mph @ 80,000ft. Unofficially, it could go faster than that. I remember seeing a History Chanel show one time wherein a former pilot was talking about a mission over Israel. He punched the throttle forward to outrun a missile and, in his words, "saw mach numbers I've never seen before." He flew over Egypt so fast that by the time their missile radars locked on he was already out of their airspace/range.

mr.brownfella · #62 04-13-2010, 08:39 PM

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freaking , sweet! Goes to show you we can build great things!

Striker · #63 04-13-2010, 08:56 PM

Rep points for whoever can identify this beast.

mr.brownfella · #64 04-13-2010, 09:01 PM

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XB-70 Valkyrie

Delta Wing?

Striker · #65 04-13-2010, 09:14 PM

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Yep. Only 2 were ever built. One crashed after a mid-air collision during a photo shoot. The other is at the National Museum of the USAF at Wright-Patterson AFB.

Striker · #66 04-13-2010, 09:16 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz-b05dQ430

mr.brownfella · #67 04-13-2010, 09:26 PM

I did not know that one crashed. My dad always says that planes has a learning curve...

The Godfather · #68 04-13-2010, 09:41 PM

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Try building them to spec in a Union house.

#69 04-15-2010, 04:11 AM

I just wanted to say i found this on another forum so who knows who it was written by and what his experience or knowledge on the subject is.... i make no claims to the validity or accuracy but i thought i'd post it here just in case it was interesting to any of you (might be old news).
--S666

SR-91 Aurora aircraft - Replacement for the SR-71 Blackbird

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SR-91 Aurora

A British Ministry of Defense report released in May 2006 refers to USAF priority plans to produce a Mach 4-6 highly supersonic vehicle, but no conclusive evidence has emerged to confirm the existence of such a project. It is believed by some that the Aurora project was canceled due to a shift from spy planes to high-tech unmanned aerial vehicles and reconnaissance satellites which can do the same job as a spy plane, but with less risk of casualties.

Does the United States Air Force or one of America's intelligence agencies have a secret hypersonic aircraft capable of a Mach 6 performance? Continually growing evidence suggests that the answer to this question is yes. Perhaps the most well-known event which provides evidence of such a craft's existence is the sighting of a triangular plane over the North Sea in August 1989 by oil exploration engineer Chris Gibson.

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SR-71 Blackbird

The outside world uses the name Aurora because a censor's slip let it appear below the SR-71 Blackbird and U-2 in the 1985 Pentagon budget request. Even if this was the actual name of the project, it would have by now been changed after being compromised in such a manner.

The plane's real name has been kept a secret along with its existence. This is not unfamiliar though, the F-117a stealth fighter was kept a secret for over ten years after its first pre-production test flight. The project is what is technically known as a Special Access Program (SAP). More often, such projects are referred to as "black programs."

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There was one problem, the USAF made no opposition towards the plane's retirement, and congressional attempts to revive the program were discouraged. Never in the history of the USAF had a program been closed without opposition. Aurora is the missing factor to the silent closure of the SR-71 program.

Testing such a new radical aircraft brings immense costs and inconvenience, not just in the design and development of a prototype aircraft, but also in providing a secret testing place for aircraft that are obviously different from those the public are aware of.

Groom Dry Lake, in the Nevada desert, is home to one of America's elite secret proving grounds. Here is Aurora's most likely test location. Comparing today's Groom Lake with images of the base in the 1970s, it is apparent that many of the larger buildings and hangars were added during the following decade.

Also, the Groom Lake test facility has a lake-bed runway that is six miles long, twice as long as the longest normal runways in the United States. The reason for such a long runway is simple: the length of a runway is determined either by the distance an aircraft requires to accelerate to flying speed, or the distance that the aircraft needs to decelerate after landing.

That distance is proportional to the speed at which lift off takes place. Usually, very long runways are designed for aircraft with very high minimum flying speeds, and, as is the case at Edwards AFB, these are aircraft that are optimized for very high maximum speeds. Almost 19,000 feet of the runway at Groom Lake is paved for normal operations.

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Sightings

In late August 1989, while working as an engineer on the jack up barge "GSF Galveston Key" in the North Sea, Chris Gibson and another witness saw an unfamiliar isosceles triangle shaped delta aircraft, apparently refueling from a KC-135 Stratotanker and accompanied by a pair of F-111 fighters.

On March 23, 1992, near Amarillo, Texas, Steven Douglas photographed the "doughnuts on a rope" contrail and linked this sighting to distinctive sounds. He described the engine noise as a strange, loud pulsating roar, unique ... a deep pulsating rumble that vibrated the house and made the windows shake, similar to rocket engine noise, but deeper, with evenly timed pulses.

The distinctive "doughnuts on a rope" contrail and pulsing sounds reported by many have given rise to the speculation that the aircraft might use pulse detonation propulsion technology originally patented in the 1950s but not used on any acknowledged non-research project.

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maxbailey · #70 04-15-2010, 04:26 AM

Striker, have you flown in a fast jet in your time in the Air Force?