SR-71 The Sled Driver..

[Eric Mc]

sidewayz said:

What I find amazing about about the SR71 was that it was designed by Kelly Johnson without any of the tools we take for granted today.No computers,no simulators and everything had to be designed to be right first time.Awesome achievement.

The use of computers to design and test aircraft is relatively recent. For the first 60 years of aircraft design the only way to really know if an idea was going to work was for someone to take the plane up and see what happened.

[Kitchski]

The best part of avation for me is reading stuff like that!

[JB!]

great read. job for the library!

[Mr E Driver]

Both books came yesterday, beautifully presented in their own box and both with personal note and signature and a badge. The photos are just awesome.............as they say

[speedtwelve]

That's the one, Timo. Didn't know about a reheat inhibitor on the engines. That pic must have been taken on the south side of the airfield, as I got a photo of the underside at exactly the same moment from the crowd line to the north of the runway. Nice vortices.

[rufusruffcutt]

speedtwelve said:

I'm lucky enough to have seen the Blackbird fly, at a couple of Mildenhall Air Fetes in the 80s. It was a spectacular, hugely noisy aeroplane.

I never saw this plane fly, how loud are we talking about here, Vulcan loud, Concorde loud or louder still?

Just really curious, as you can never judge from any video of it.

[speedtwelve]

rufusruffcutt said:

speedtwelve said:

I'm lucky enough to have seen the Blackbird fly, at a couple of Mildenhall Air Fetes in the 80s. It was a spectacular, hugely noisy aeroplane.

I never saw this plane fly, how loud are we talking about here, Vulcan loud, Concorde loud or louder still?

Just really curious, as you can never judge from any video of it.

Subjectively, the SR-71 was at the 'top-end' of loud reheated jet noise, i.e Concorde, B1 etc, but not any louder than those, as far as I can remember. Noise is caused by shearing forces as the (very high speed) jet efflux coming out of the nozzle attempts to mix with the ambient air.

Incidentally, after decades of watching and flying aeroplanes, for me the loudest is a B1-B with reheat selected x4. I remember watching a B1 'combat departure' at an airshow in which the jet got airborne into a spiralling climbing turn to gain height over the airfield while remaining within the protection of the (imaginary) missile engagement zone. It was Earth-shatteringly noisy, vibrating ribcage stuff, and set off half the car alarms in the place. It's an impressive aeroplane when being poled along at high-speed and with full power selected. I've seen clips of it being rolled during displays as well.

[poprock]

I used to get excited about air shows with a strong US presence because there might be a chance of a flying B1-B. It always was a stunning aeroplane.

[MiniMan64]

Jonny671 said:

Is it just me who thinks it looks Alien like..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N31eEXjNAUU

Such a good looking plane. Beautiful and kind of deadly at the same time.

[Boosted LS1]

speedtwelve said:

rufusruffcutt said:

speedtwelve said:

I'm lucky enough to have seen the Blackbird fly, at a couple of Mildenhall Air Fetes in the 80s. It was a spectacular, hugely noisy aeroplane.

I never saw this plane fly, how loud are we talking about here, Vulcan loud, Concorde loud or louder still?

Just really curious, as you can never judge from any video of it.

Subjectively, the SR-71 was at the 'top-end' of loud reheated jet noise, i.e Concorde, B1 etc, but not any louder than those, as far as I can remember. Noise is caused by shearing forces as the (very high speed) jet efflux coming out of the nozzle attempts to mix with the ambient air.

Incidentally, after decades of watching and flying aeroplanes, for me the loudest is a B1-B with reheat selected x4. I remember watching a B1 'combat departure' at an airshow in which the jet got airborne into a spiralling climbing turn to gain height over the airfield while remaining within the protection of the (imaginary) missile engagement zone. It was Earth-shatteringly noisy, vibrating ribcage stuff, and set off half the car alarms in the place. It's an impressive aeroplane when being poled along at high-speed and with full power selected. I've seen clips of it being rolled during displays as well.

I saw that video to, I wonder if it can be found again?

[rufusruffcutt]

speedtwelve said:

rufusruffcutt said:

speedtwelve said:

I'm lucky enough to have seen the Blackbird fly, at a couple of Mildenhall Air Fetes in the 80s. It was a spectacular, hugely noisy aeroplane.

I never saw this plane fly, how loud are we talking about here, Vulcan loud, Concorde loud or louder still?

Just really curious, as you can never judge from any video of it.

Subjectively, the SR-71 was at the 'top-end' of loud reheated jet noise, i.e Concorde, B1 etc, but not any louder than those, as far as I can remember. Noise is caused by shearing forces as the (very high speed) jet efflux coming out of the nozzle attempts to mix with the ambient air.

Incidentally, after decades of watching and flying aeroplanes, for me the loudest is a B1-B with reheat selected x4. I remember watching a B1 'combat departure' at an airshow in which the jet got airborne into a spiralling climbing turn to gain height over the airfield while remaining within the protection of the (imaginary) missile engagement zone. It was Earth-shatteringly noisy, vibrating ribcage stuff, and set off half the car alarms in the place. It's an impressive aeroplane when being poled along at high-speed and with full power selected. I've seen clips of it being rolled during displays as well.

Awesome stuff thanks for the detailed answer.

[rhinochopig]

speedtwelve said:

rufusruffcutt said:

speedtwelve said:

I'm lucky enough to have seen the Blackbird fly, at a couple of Mildenhall Air Fetes in the 80s. It was a spectacular, hugely noisy aeroplane.

I never saw this plane fly, how loud are we talking about here, Vulcan loud, Concorde loud or louder still?

Just really curious, as you can never judge from any video of it.

Subjectively, the SR-71 was at the 'top-end' of loud reheated jet noise, i.e Concorde, B1 etc, but not any louder than those, as far as I can remember. Noise is caused by shearing forces as the (very high speed) jet efflux coming out of the nozzle attempts to mix with the ambient air.

Incidentally, after decades of watching and flying aeroplanes, for me the loudest is a B1-B with reheat selected x4. I remember watching a B1 'combat departure' at an airshow in which the jet got airborne into a spiralling climbing turn to gain height over the airfield while remaining within the protection of the (imaginary) missile engagement zone. It was Earth-shatteringly noisy, vibrating ribcage stuff, and set off half the car alarms in the place. It's an impressive aeroplane when being poled along at high-speed and with full power selected. I've seen clips of it being rolled during displays as well.

It's impressive how loud the typhoon is. Where I live we're under where all of the UK's fast jets, prop drivens and helos practise. We also get a lot of F-15s. When the typhoons first came over they stopped the village such was the noise they made - and that was at high altitude too. Much much louder than an F-15.

[Oakey]

I'd like to read this book (Sled Driver). However, I'm not rich enough to afford the asking prices. Has no one converted this to an ebook / PDF?

Don't get me wrong, I'd support the author, but not to the tune of £300-£800

[The real Apache]

Oakey said:

I'd like to read this book (Sled Driver). However, I'm not rich enough to afford the asking prices. Has no one converted this to an ebook / PDF?

Don't get me wrong, I'd support the author, but not to the tune of £300-£800

Get your local library to get it.....cost me £3

[Oakey]

The real Apache said:

Oakey said:

I'd like to read this book (Sled Driver). However, I'm not rich enough to afford the asking prices. Has no one converted this to an ebook / PDF?

Don't get me wrong, I'd support the author, but not to the tune of £300-£800

Get your local library to get it.....cost me £3

Cheers, will give them a try. Was it much hassle? I'd have thought some unscrupulous persons would have cleared their stock out given the premium the book commands.

ETA: Can search the (local, I think) libraries catalogue online and they have nothing for Sled Driver or the author Brian Shul. Does that mean it's not in the system full stop or I'll have to go in and ask them to get it?

Edited by Oakey on Thursday 23 December 20:07

[Traveller]

That has to be Darth Vader's own recon aircraft, both beautiful ans sinister at the same time.

[The real Apache]

Oakey said:

The real Apache said:

Oakey said:

I'd like to read this book (Sled Driver). However, I'm not rich enough to afford the asking prices. Has no one converted this to an ebook / PDF?

Don't get me wrong, I'd support the author, but not to the tune of £300-£800

Get your local library to get it.....cost me £3

Cheers, will give them a try. Was it much hassle? I'd have thought some unscrupulous persons would have cleared their stock out given the premium the book commands.

ETA: Can search the (local, I think) libraries catalogue online and they have nothing for Sled Driver or the author Brian Shul. Does that mean it's not in the system full stop or I'll have to go in and ask them to get it?

Edited by Oakey on Thursday 23 December 20:07

yeah, it won't be on the shelf so they do a local search, then a national one, no hassle, pay £3 and Bobs your auntie. The book is a bit of an anticlaimax, big print, few words and read in an hour or so but still interesting

[JVaughan]

Oakey said:

I'd like to read this book (Sled Driver). However, I'm not rich enough to afford the asking prices. Has no one converted this to an ebook / PDF?

Don't get me wrong, I'd support the author, but not to the tune of £300-£800

I picked up a set of 3 SR-71 books on ebay a few years ago for £20.

[Mattt]

I just ordered: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SR-71-Revealed-Untold-Rich...

For £7ish posted, worth a read I figured.

[Flintstone]

Caruso said:

I saw an excerpt where the Author requests permission to pass through controlled airspace at 60,000ft. The tower replies asking how in hell he hopes to get to that sort of altitude? "Descending from 80,000ft" was the answer!

I think that's one of 'those' stories which has also been attributed to the U2. "Flight level 600? If you can get there, you can have it". "Roger ma'am, descending flight level 600".

Edited by Flintstone on Saturday 25th December 15:42