Post amazingly cool pictures of aircraft (Volume 3)

[havoc]

OK, I am NEVER flying with a Turkish airline.

...that looks very much like nosewheel first, and was probably only a foot or two from losing at least one of the starboard engines.

[MartG]

havoc said:

OK, I am NEVER flying with a Turkish airline.

...that looks very much like nosewheel first, and was probably only a foot or two from losing at least one of the starboard engines.

Dust behind the sbd inner looks like the engine hit the ground

[havoc]

MartG said:

Dust behind the sbd inner looks like the engine hit the ground

You may be right. Althought probably not the 3-point landing that the pilot was aiming for!

On reflection, the runway has a slight slope down towards the camera, so the nosewheel might not have touched first (bloody close if it didn't though...and almost certainly the main gear shocks won't have absorbed the downward velocity before it did). But that was still a sneeze away from giving the AAIB some work to do.

[DodgyGeezer]

[Still Mulling]

Oh my. Just..just perfect!

[Eric Mc]

That picture seems to get posted every couple of weeks.

[Still Mulling]

Thank goodness!

[MartG]

Eric Mc said:

That picture seems to get posted every couple of weeks.

Probably the most posted pic of the SR-71

[Eric Mc]

It is a bit repetitive though.

I prefer the alternative Blackbird variants myself as they are a bit different -

A-11




A-12




YF-12



M-21

[wolfie28]

Love this one and if the internet is to be believed I was there when it happened.

[Eric Mc]

I was at Mildenhall one year when the SR-71 had an "unstart". I'm always a bit puzzled as to why it's called an "unstart". Surely it's really just a "stop"?

[Still Mulling]

Lovely!

What's M-21 carrying, and why does YF-12's circumferential flange stop short of the nose, please?

[hidetheelephants]

Reconnaissance drone before they were fashionable, innit?

[CanAm]

Eric Mc said:

I was at Mildenhall one year when the SR-71 had an "unstart". I'm always a bit puzzled as to why it's called an "unstart". Surely it's really just a "stop"?

It's an Americanism; why use a short word when you can come up with a longer, meaningless one?

I saw a clip from a US News bulletin reporting that premises had been burglarized (I assume they'd spell it with a 'zee') No doubt the noun for that would be a burglarization.

[xeny]

Still Mulling said:

Lovely!

What's M-21 carrying, and why does YF-12's circumferential flange stop short of the nose, please?

The M-21 is carrying a D-21 drone

The chine stops short of the nose as the nose is modified to house a large radar antenna. This impacts stability so the YF-12 has additional ventral fins under the rear fuselage and engine nacelles.

[xeny]

Eric Mc said:

I was at Mildenhall one year when the SR-71 had an "unstart". I'm always a bit puzzled as to why it's called an "unstart". Surely it's really just a "stop"?

I wonder if the process of correctly capturing the supersonic shock wave by positioning the spike was called "starting" the inlet, and hence losing the capture is an "unstart" ?

[Still Mulling]

Thanks xeny, hidetheelephants.I really need to get the SR-71 books on my Amazon wishlist bought!

[xeny]

Still Mulling said:

.I really need to get the SR-71 books on my Amazon wishlist bought!

Just read the instructions: https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/manual/

The set of side views at https://www.reddit.com/r/WarplanePorn/comments/nvn... is also helpful for seeing how the different variants compare.

Edited by xeny on Tuesday 15th April 14:44

[Richie Slow]

wolfie28 said:

Love this one and if the internet is to be believed I was there when it happened.

Mike Smith was flying the display that day. He said that it was the hardest burner light that he'd ever experienced in the SR and the nose dropped to the right with the stick shaker activated until they were both alight. I believe the flames were caused by a leak of the TEB used to ignite the afterburners.

[Richie Slow]

DodgyGeezer said:

That's the trainer with the raised rear cockpit. It made little difference to the top speed because at 80,000 feet the indicated airspeed was often only around 320 knots at mach 3