[DeTomaso] NPC SR-71 story
Larry - Ohio Time Corp
larry at ohiotimecorp.com
Thu Apr 21 10:26:13 EDT 2011
A few weeks ago I was working in Dayton, Ohio. I made some time after my
call to stop in the National Air Force Museum. I took the self tour and the
guided tour, 4 hours of walking around, eeek! When we got to the SR-71 she
told us the plane had been in there for years, but was pulled out and flew
missions in Iraqi, then brought back.
This is a must see place when you are close. It was sad they did not get a
space shuttle to display.
Larry - Cleveland
-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of GW
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 9:06 PM
To: Kirk Evans
Cc: detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] NPC SR-71 story
Airplanes with a low aspect ratio (short wings, opposite of a glider)
can fly as slow as a high aspect ratio airplane such as a glider but the
difference being a low aspect ratio aircraft such as the SR71 (one of
the lowest) have a far higher angle of attack for the airfoil. Look how
high the nose is on the shuttle when it lands. The SR71 being about as
bad as anything.
Before real turbines became popular in model aircraft, jets were flown
with ducted fans. With ducted fans they built a few SR71's but they
never could get enough speed to get their nose down in flight and they
wallered around in the air like sick ducks. Only when they came out with
turbines did they get their noses down in flight; and boy do they
require a large area to fly them. They make big circles!
http://www.airmix.de/sunline/images/fliegerfilme_modellflug_3005_sr71.jpg
As another note non military aircraft are limited to 250knts below
10,000ft (unless it is unsafe for them to fly that slow). You will
notice when your airliner passes 10,000ft as they engines are pulled
back as they slow.
Gary
Kirk Evans wrote:
> I enjoyed this story---hope you do
>
> "What was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird?"
>
> by Brian Shull
> Retired SR-71 Pilot
> An article in "Plane and Pilot" Magazine
>
> As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question
I'm most often asked is "How fast would that SR-71 fly?" I can be assured
of hearing that question several times at any event I attend. It's an
interesting question, given the aircraft's proclivity for speed, but there
really isn't one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little
more speed if you wanted it to.
> It was common to see 35 miles a minute. Because we flew a programmed Mach
number on most
> missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it
run out to any limits of temperature or speed. Thus, each SR-71 pilot had
his own individual high speed that he saw at some point on some mission.
>
> I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max
power was in order. Let's just say that the plane truly loved speed, and
effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadn't previously seen.
>
> So it was with great surprise, when, at the end of one of my
presentations, someone asked, "What was the slowest you ever flew the
Blackbird?" This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded
of a story I had never shared before, and relayed the following:
>
> I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England , with my
back-seater, Walt Watson. We were returning from a mission over Europe and
the Iron Curtain, when we received a radio transmission from home base.
>
> As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF
base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 fly-past. The air
cadet commander there was a former Blackbird pilot, and thought it would be
a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low
approach. No problem; we were happy to do it. After a quick aerial
refueling over the North Sea , we proceeded to find the small airfield.
>
> Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment in the back
seat, and began to vector me toward the field. Descending to subsonic
speeds, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in a slight haze.
>
> Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a
small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were
close, and that I should be able to see the field, but I saw nothing.
Nothing but trees as far as I could see in the haze. We got a little lower,
and I pulled the throttles back from the 325 knots we were at. With the
gear up, anything under 275 was just uncomfortable.
> Walt said we were practically over the field, yet there was nothing in my
windscreen. I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver in
hopes of picking up anything that looked like a field. Meanwhile, below,
the cadet commander had taken the cadets up on the catwalk of the tower, in
order to get a prime view of the fly-past.
>
> It was a quiet, still day, with no wind and partial gray overcast. Walter
continued to give me indications that the field should be below us, but, in
the overcast and haze, I couldn't see it. The longer we continued to peer
out the window and circle, the slower we got. With our power back, the
awaiting cadets heard nothing.
>
> I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me
I better cross-check the gauges. As I noticed the airspeed indicator slide
below 160 knots, my heart stopped, and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed
two throttles full forward. At this point, we weren't really flying, but
were falling in a slight bank.
>
> Just at the moment, both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame
(and what a joyous feeling that was), and the aircraft fell into full view
of the shocked observers on the tower. Shattering the still quiet of that
morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their face, as
the plane leveled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the
infield, closer than expected, maintaining what could only be described as
some sort of ultimate knife-edge pass.
>
> Quickly reaching the field boundary, we proceeded back to Mildenhall
without incident. We didn't say a word for those next 14 minutes.
>
> After landing, our commander greeted us, and we were both certain he was
reaching for our wings. Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the
commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 fly-past he had ever seen,
especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could
only be described as breathtaking. He said that some of the cadets' hats
were blown off, and the sight of the plane form of the plane in full
afterburner, dropping right in front of them, was unbelievable.
> Walt and I both understood the concept of breathtaking very well, that
morning, and sheepishly replied that they were just excited to see our low
approach.
>
> As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight
suits, we just sat there. We hadn't spoken a word since the pass.
>
>
> Finally, Walter looked at me and said, "One hundred fifty-six knots. What
did you see?"
> Trying to find my voice, I stammered, "One hundred fifty-two."
>
> We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt said, "Don't ever do that to me
again!" And I never did.
>
> A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officers'
club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71
fly-past that he had seen, one day. Of course, by now the story included
kids falling off the tower, and screaming as the heat of the jet singed
their eyebrows.
>
> Noticing our Habu patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our
hands, he asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred.
Walt just shook his head and said, "It was probably just a routine low
approach; they're pretty impressive in that plane". Impressive indeed.
>
> Little did I realize, after relaying this experience to my audience that
day, that it would become one of the most popular and most requested
stories. It's ironic that people are interested in how slow the world's
fastest jet can fly. Regardless of your speed, however, it's always a good
idea to keep that cross-check up -- and keep your Mach up, too.
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