S2-71 Blackbird???

[akiboy]

Well , My query is :- Does the USAF have a plane capable of reaching Mach 7-8 speeds called the Blackbird?? I have heard so much about this plane in books and other sources. Is it a rumour or has the USAF finally created such a plane??? And what about the new Space Weapons Program of the U.S military ??? Is the U.S going to send nukes on space to bomb cities from there ??? Well , there has been a lot of speculation on the above topics but very little info.

Akshay

 

[dmp]

The plane was created in the 60s and 70s. While it's ultimate top speed is classified, it set several public speed records. The plane is now mothballed - retired, as it were. It's obsolete.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR-71

 

[Mr. P]

The plane was created in the 60s and 70s. While it's ultimate top speed is classified, it set several public speed records. The plane is now mothballed - retired, as it were. It's obsolete.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR-71

And its' replacement is so secret I bet even psycho doesn't know about it.

 

[CSM]

And its' replacement is so secret I bet even psycho doesn't know about it.

Psycho designed it...just ask him!

 

[Mr. P]

Psycho designed it...just ask him!

Thanks for reminding me. As I recall now, he also designed the skunk works too.

 

[KarlMarx]

And its' replacement is so secret I bet even psycho doesn't know about it.

Do you mean the "Aurora"?

 

[Mr. P]

Do you mean the "Aurora"?

If I tell ya, I gotta kill ya.

 

[theHawk]

Well , My query is :- Does the USAF have a plane capable of reaching Mach 7-8 speeds called the Blackbird?? I have heard so much about this plane in books and other sources. Is it a rumour or has the USAF finally created such a plane??? And what about the new Space Weapons Program of the U.S military ??? Is the U.S going to send nukes on space to bomb cities from there ??? Well , there has been a lot of speculation on the above topics but very little info.

Akshay

.....dude....its a SR-71, you can see one at the National Air and Space Museum annex just outside Dulles Airport, its parked right in front of the Space Shuttle Enterprise...so I doubt its going to be used to "send nukes on space to bomb cities"....thats what we have ICBMs and submarines for.

An internet search can work wonders sometimes! :tears1:

 

[Hobbit]

The SR-71 was originally designed as an attack plane, but is worthless in that role, as it outruns its own munitions, and is (was) instead used as a spyplane. While its actual top speed is classified, seismic monitoring stations that pick up the sonic booms have clocked it going mach 4. I'm sure we've got something better, but the SR-71 was ultra-classified for decades.

 

[sitarro]

The SR-71 was originally designed as an attack plane, but is worthless in that role, as it outruns its own munitions, and is (was) instead used as a spyplane. While its actual top speed is classified, seismic monitoring stations that pick up the sonic booms have clocked it going mach 4. I'm sure we've got something better, but the SR-71 was ultra-classified for decades.

The original attack aircraft was designated the YF-12 that was morphed into the SR-71.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YF-12

 

[KarlMarx]

The North Koreans shot a missile at one once. Not only did the missile fail to gain the same altitude as the aircraft, but it was outrun by the SR-71 as well.

BTW... if we were going to nuke cities on the other side of the globe, we might not be sending an aircraft to do the job, that's what ICBMs are for.

 

[dilloduck]

The North Koreans shot a missile at one once. Not only did the missile fail to gain the same altitude as the aircraft, but it was outrun by the SR-71 as well.

BTW... if we were going to nuke cities on the other side of the globe, we might not be sending an aircraft to do the job, that's what ICBMs are for.

I watched SR-71s fly in and out of Kadena AFB on Okinawa often in the late 60's. Breathtaking machines !!

 

[Eightball]

SR-71 got a short re-use a few years back and then officially was retired.

There still is the speculation about an aircraft, code named, Aurora. Aurora, was supposedly a military budget name-slip, boo boo with the name accidently being used in a congressional request from the military for general, non specific funding years ago.

The Art Bell and George Norrey fan clubs have latched onto Aurora, as the possible SR-71 successor.

This time these folks may not be too far off. Aurora is speculated to have been spotted a few years back near a North Sea oil platform flying with a gaggle of smaller U.S. fighters at low altitude. It was described as wedge shaped.

It is believed that it's main propulsion will be Ram jet Powered for roughly 80,000 foot altitude cruising. This will make it fairly safe from enemy fighter contact as the standard jet turbine can't handle the thin atmosphere at 80K feet.

It's estimated top speed is Mach 5-6.:shocked:

Renewed interest by the military may be that present technologies have allowed an aircraft of an Aurora type to be more reality and less science fiction.

Apparently one solution for surface skin heating at high speeds is the possibility of circulating aircraft's fuel throughout the critical heat areas as a heat dissipater.

Popular Science's latest issue has a small article on Aurora, and some other possible future U.S. Skunk Works aircraft coming up.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviationspace/index.html

 

[Yurt]

I would not worry about the speed of that plane. Last month the dishwasher went out, and when the missus would mention that the dishes are piling up and it was my turn, heck, I couldn't even see my front side I was movin so fast :

When I was an education major in undergrad I was watching the kids at recess in Walla Walla and it was foggy with patches though and all of a sudden we hear this awesome roar, my kids run over to me and excitely say, whats that, we look up and I "kid" thee not, a B-2 bomber was maybe 1500-2000 feet up from the school and majestically gliding through the breaks in the clouds. Absolutely heart pounding awesome. It was 1996 and that thing just had not been seen much.

Read the news the next day and apparently WW was the only airport in the region that had fogged in conditions that the B2 needed testing on. WOW

 

[KarlMarx]

I would not worry about the speed of that plane. Last month the dishwasher went out, and when the missus would mention that the dishes are piling up and it was my turn, heck, I couldn't even see my front side I was movin so fast :

When I was an education major in undergrad I was watching the kids at recess in Walla Walla and it was foggy with patches though and all of a sudden we hear this awesome roar, my kids run over to me and excitely say, whats that, we look up and I "kid" thee not, a B-2 bomber was maybe 1500-2000 feet up from the school and majestically gliding through the breaks in the clouds. Absolutely heart pounding awesome. It was 1996 and that thing just had not been seen much.

Read the news the next day and apparently WW was the only airport in the region that had fogged in conditions that the B2 needed testing on. WOW

B-2s are cool. We had one fly over the plant about 1997. I first seemed like a line black line it the sky, then, wedge shaped as it flew overhead, and just as quickly, disappeared back into the sky. I seemed very quiet, though

 

[Yurt]

B-2s are cool. We had one fly over the plant about 1997. I first seemed like a line black line it the sky, then, wedge shaped as it flew overhead, and just as quickly, disappeared back into the sky. I seemed very quiet, though

Cool. Yeah, come to think about it, the sound was not exactly "on" or aroudn the B2, maybe it had an escort?