<VV> DC Convention

[Tony Underwood]

At 03:25 AM 2/18/2011, Ray Rodriguez III wrote:

Also the SR-71 with the standing speed
>record sits right in the center.  The record was set on it's way to be
>parked there... Los Angeles To Washington D.C. (World Record): Distance:
>2,299.67 statute miles...Time: 1 hr 04 min 19.89 secs...Average Speed:
>2,144.83 mph.


This airplane holds the current cross-country speed record.

Another SR71 holds an unofficial speed record for a production air 
breathing jet powered aircraft which is considerably higher than 2144 
mph, set by default as it was run at full-tilt, throttles to the wall 
in an effort to outpace several SAMs which were launched at it during 
a photo-recon mission over territory which was owned by a 
nation-state not partial to airspace incursions.   Evidently the 
shots had been unexpected and were already "cooking hard" in the 
direction of the Blackbird in question which was already running hard 
itself and there were doubts as to whether they could stay ahead of 
the SAMs which had a Mach-4+ capability.

The Blackbird's RSO (guy in back) kept tabs on the incoming, and was 
reported to have said "OK Skipper, we've outrun them, you REALLY need 
to back off on the throttles right now".

He had been concerned about stress on the airplane because of 
"excessive speed causing overheating of the airframe" and engine 
temps well into the red.  When the mission logs were analyzed, the 
airplane's recorded top speed was withheld from release in the 
mission report.

SR71s returning to Kadena AFB from high speed recon missions 
routinely were so hot that parts of the airplane were untouchable, 
radiating heat "like a big bar-b-cue grill".

Undocumented remarks by some sources have suggested the SR71's 
airframe is structurally limited to appx mach-4 although the engines 
are not capable of pushing it that fast, at least not with the 1960s 
technology that remained in use through 1999.   Other sources have 
suggested that advances in engine tech and ramjet (SR71 engines 
behave as ramjets at speeds above Mach-2) inlet nozzle design could 
improve the engine efficiency to allow speeds (in a different 
airframe) as high as Mach-6 although no such airframe has been 
admitted to exist.

Ned...?


...oops, kinda off-topic for here, so anything else maybe oughta go 
to vv-talk.


tony..



--- "Yea, though I fly through the valley of death, I shall fear no 
evil for I am at 80,000 feet and climbing."