SR-71 panoramic image

[Orionblamblam]

A panorama of the SR-71 on display at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Nebraska:

While this image is tiny, the one here is hugenormous:
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=4301

[Jelle H.]

What a beautiful plane..

[Ivan le Fou]

Unique and beautiful.

[Yoram777]

Definitely one of my favourites.

[Martial]

Could you imagine how that thing would perform if it were rebuilt entirely in carbon fibre? Oh, my god.

[Prowler129]

too hot for carbon fibre.

[NUCKINFUTS]

Originally Posted by Martial

Could you imagine how that thing would perform if it were rebuilt entirely in carbon fibre? Oh, my god.

It's engines were capable of Mach 5 but due to over heating of the surface it was limited. They say if was to be rebuilt today with our current technology and new inlet designs it would exceed it's old records.

[Orionblamblam]

Originally Posted by NUCKINFUTS

It's engines were capable of Mach 5 but due to over heating of the surface it was limited. They say if was to be rebuilt today with our current technology and new inlet designs it would exceed it's old records.

A common misconception. Take a look at Figure 105 in Suhler's new book "From RAINBOW to GUSTO," published by the AIAA, which details the development of the SR-71. You can quickly see that the SR-71 geometry would not make it much past Mach 3.2 before things start to get pretty dicey.

[Far]

Nothing like it...

[eATS]

i love this plane, i remember building the model kit when it came out and trying to take phoney photos of it with fishing line.

the wind shields would glow red from the friction, carbon fiber would start burning...

Mig25 vs. SR-71

Good Reading

http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/mig25.html

[Martial]

Originally Posted by Prowler129

too hot for carbon fibre.

Right. For some reason, I thought carbon fiber could handle the heat.

[curlyboy]

A thing of menacing beauty.

curlyboy

[quellish]

Originally Posted by Orionblamblam

A common misconception. Take a look at Figure 105 in Suhler's new book "From RAINBOW to GUSTO," published by the AIAA, which details the development of the SR-71. You can quickly see that the SR-71 geometry would not make it much past Mach 3.2 before things start to get pretty dicey.

Obviously a 'flaming pumpkin seed' configuration is called for.

[Orionblamblam]

Originally Posted by quellish

Obviously a 'flaming pumpkin seed' configuration is called for.

[NUCKINFUTS]

Originally Posted by Orionblamblam

A common misconception. Take a look at Figure 105 in Suhler's new book "From RAINBOW to GUSTO," published by the AIAA, which details the development of the SR-71. You can quickly see that the SR-71 geometry would not make it much past Mach 3.2 before things start to get pretty dicey.

I remember reading one of Brain Shul's short stories and he said that after receiving SAM warnings he pushed the throttle as far as it would go and he looked up at the stars for the first time and got distracted, by the time he remembered he looked at the gauges and the plane was doing 3.5 if I can recall correct. The government set the unclassified speed at 3.2, I don't think it was.