A nod to my favorite aircraft- The SR71

EPS · Nov 22, 2017

Oh and if I remember correctly it didn't have after burners it was all or nothing it used what is called ram jet the air was forced through the engines hense the big points in the front of the Jets this is what makes it able to fly at high altitude and speed

EPS · Nov 22, 2017

A regular jet engine sucks air in and mixed with fuel and air is burned and expelled out the rear with a ram jet the faster you go means the more air and fuel you can burn lol lots of fuel used to go Mach 3 lot's of fuel

that guy · Nov 22, 2017

EPS said:
Oh and if I remember correctly it didn't have after burners it was all or nothing it used what is called ram jet

The Blackbird had Pratt & Whitney turbojets with afterburners that used some of the concepts of a ramjet at high speed.

Pratt & Whitney J58 - Wikipedia

A true ramjet can't take off on its own because there's no air moving through it.

EPS · Nov 22, 2017

that guy said:
The Blackbird had Pratt & Whitney turbojets with afterburners that used some of the concepts of a ramjet at high speed.

Pratt & Whitney J58 - Wikipedia

A true ramjet can't take off on its own because there's no air moving through it.

Ok thanks I just remembered something about ram jet engine I guess I should have known it had after burners because of the blue flame that you see in some of the pictures

JohnnyD · Nov 22, 2017

always my favorite too. I remember getting to see one as a kid. I wanna say the evergreen aircraft museum. it was still classified at the time and was locked up tight bit fell in love with the lines.

CamoDeafie · Nov 22, 2017

Ura-Ki said:
Never! Kelly was good, but his "fighters" really aren't that good! the only fighter he ever designd that really smoked was the 104 and then only when it was used as it should have been! It could actually out perform the F-16 in every thing but a turn and burn fight.

I keep thinking about if they had retrofitted a 104 with the petal style thrust vectoring paddles like the MBB X-31 project, if it would do awesome in a turn-burn fight...
I know the Russians had the SU-35? Something like that Flankers with the 3-d thrust vectoring, while the F-22 has 2-d (only up and down) thrust vectoring...

As for the Blackbird/Habu.. i love em. Grear planes. The D-21 Drone though.... well another what if. Had they made a single seat fighter with the shape of the D-21; basically a MiG-21 with Blackbird style chines and wings and the speed potential... it might have been an awesome interceptor, and again, 3-D thrust vectoring, maybe small canards on the chines, might also have been supermanueverable

Ura-Ki · Nov 22, 2017

The old F-104 could actually turn pretty well, only suffering from wing schrouding of the tail at high angles, I saw an excersize where the 104 actually held the advantage over the 16 all the way in to gun range where the 16 kicked it's butt! Even more impressve was against the-15 where the ONLY advantage the 15 had was superb radar, once the 104 was aware of the situation, it had the speed and acceleration to turn the fight in it's favour and the 15 had a real fight on its hands. Even the old F-4 wasn' as bad as folks claim it was, it could actually out turn the 15 and the 18 at low fighting speeds, it was at the higher speeds where structural weakness forced limits quite a bit less then the actual design, same with the Navy' F-14 airframe, design wise, should have smoked all others, and even today should it have had upgrades to eliminate the structural weaknesses, would prolly smoke the F-22!!! Arguably, the F-14 was the best American fighter design ever, and was used by the wrong branch, or at least in the wrong mission! Had the A.F chose to fly the 14, I think it could have really shown it' true potential, and with service upgrades and improvements, especially it' engine enlets, could have matched or bettered the 15s record!

Blackhawk357 · Nov 22, 2017

I had the good fortune of seeing an SR-71 on the tarmac at Cadena AFB in Okinawa. An impressive sight. If I remember correctly, there was also a U-2 there as well. That would be back in '78, so a few years ago. They had a lot of interesting aircraft going through that base.