pilots vs. ground crew

[Steve K]

The speed of a SR-71 is staggering to consider. If you figure that whole radio exchange took 5 minutes, and they were traveling 2000mph, then they had covered about 166 miles in that time!

Does Air Traffic Control even track military aircraft operating that high?? They certainly aren't going to be interfering with civilian traffic.

How old is the story, I wonder? Aircraft haven't been permitted to fly supersonic across the continental USA since I was a kid (late 60's or so). It's been a long time since I've heard a sonic boom rattle the school windows.


Steve K.

 

[Illum]

I hear booms that rattle windows every once awhile, here theres alot of hydrogen powered supersonic aircrafts, and you can only hear them when they are cleared for reentry:nana:

 

[Black Rose]

When I used to live in Nova Scotia, I used to hear the Concord go supersonic out over the ocean on it's way back to England.

 

[chmsam]

The YF12A/SR71 was a wonder from the Kelly Johnson Skunk Works (a name and a design team you want to know about). It was in service from '64 through '98 and was designed so that the skin of the aircraft expanded when it flew. The friction on the skin was enough to make it very hot to the touch for quite awhile after landing. Since the way the fuel was stored was a factor of all of this, it basically leaked fuel like a sieve when it was on the ground -- not what you would expect of a mach 3 plus aircraft. Some of the records include a top speed record of 2,242 mph, a coast to coast average speed of 2,124 (but hey, that did include mid air refueling so it had to slow down for a bit), and an altitude record of 85,068 feet (and a few inches but who's to quibble, right?).

The plane was unarmed, the defense against a missile launched at it was pretty straightforward (just go faster, duh). In a word, the SR71 is sexy.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

P: Something loose in cockpit
S: Something tightened in cockpit

That's my favorite one! At my previous job, there was one guy who always filled out repair requests by just scrawling the word "BUSTED" across the form and tacking it to the defective equipment. I always wanted some kind of a clever comeback for that.
:huh:

 

[climberkid]

I hear booms that rattle windows every once awhile, here theres alot of hydrogen powered supersonic aircrafts, and you can only hear them when they are cleared for reentry:nana:

yeah, i went for a camping trip on the florida trail (big mistake) and somewhere about 10-15 miles north of juniper springs here in central florida there were 3-4 jets flying overhead and it was very loud. and there were definitely some sonic booms a few times. mostly they were just circling around the base near there.

 

[aussiebob]

HAHHAHAHA LOL