SR71 Blackbird

[Another Ahab]

Let's not forget the D-21 Drone that rode atop the SR-71 for launch and penetration into "no man's land" ......

Don't know this story, ColdWarrior. Interested to hear more. Any more detail? What conflict was this?

 

[Kloakndagr]

I met that pilot when I was stationed overseas stationed at an SR-71 detachment, his story is amazing, as is the blackbird. The pilots stand out among other pilots as they wear orange flight suits.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Don't know this story, ColdWarrior. Interested to hear more. Any more detail? What conflict was this?

Here's what WIKI has to say about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_D-21

I could tell you more, but then I'd have to kill you.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Unclassified YouTube Videos.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP52txSyd3w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMyC2urCl_4

 

[Another Ahab]

Sorry to learn about the loss of life. That is sad.

But thank you for the videos.

 

[steelypip]

I might add, some of you are confusing the SR-71 Blackbird with the A-12 Oxcart. Of course similar, but indeed different planes with different missions and characteristics as well as history. Much of the A-12 program remains classified.

Missions were actually pretty similar, which is why a nearly-identical airplane was used for both. CIA provided all the seed money and startup contracts for the U-2 and, when they became vulnerable, project Oxcart.

Project Oxcart was an enormous technological risk. The U-2 did exotic things, but was a pretty straightforward step from the work that led to the RB-57F. It was made of normal materials and, except for an extra engine compressor stage, weird fuel, and lots of crew life-support, was a pretty straightforward piece of engineering. Probably the most exotic piece of technology on the entire U-2 (during its CIA days) was Dr. Land's camera.

Not so the blackbird: Chief engineer and Skunk Works boss Kelly Johnson's memoirs mention that they were initially considering liquid hydrogen as fuel and built the world's largest (at the time) liquid hydrogen plant to make enough fuel to test with, before they eventually decided on a more conventional hydrocarbon fuel (the same stuff that fueled the U-2, later known as JP-7) and the complex, exotic, and fussy beast that eventually was knows as the Pratt & Whitney J-58.

Basically nothing on a blackbird, any blackbird, was available as a stock item when the plane was designed. Hydraulic fluid, structural materials, paints, fasteners, glass, even the tires were all specially made parts for this one airplane. Nobody knew how many Oxcarts were to be built (the initial order was for 12), but it might be as few as five. Dr. Land's new-and-improved camera tied into the navigation computer was now one of the least exotic components of the essentially hand-built airplane.

If you give the 1960 US DOD the mission of developing strategic reconnaissance information with an airplane they come up with something like an RB-57F or maybe an RF-104. They can't justify (to Congress or to the executive branch Secretaries) the stupid amounts of money required to build the infrastructure the blackbird requires, never mind the amount of money required to build the plane itself.

CIA had fewer masters, a narrower mission, and their budget was opaque to most of Washington and essentially all the USA. If Oxcart failed, few would ever know.

But Oxcart didn't fail, and Lockheed was now in the position of being tooled up to produce the worlds fastest airplane. They sold USAF three of them in the initial production run as fighter interceptor prototypes. They added a weapons operator cockpit and a missile bay beside the nose landing gear: the AF-12/YF-12A. After flight testing, USAF put production orders in for 93 F-12s. Sec. Def. McNamara sat on approving the order for three years and eventually cancelled it in 1968 because the Viet Nam war was too expensive and air breathing bombers were a steadily decreasing threat compared to ICBMs and SLBMs. I've often wondered what our tactical air assets would be like today if USAF had bought 96 F-12s between 1966 and 1969. The blackbird was, among other things, shockingly stealthy by the standards of its era. It would have been a game changer if TAC could have kept it in the air. There was also very brief talk of a bomber variant...

The YF-12 was heavier and a little slower and lower than the A-12 because of its additional weight. USAF and Lockheed had trouble selling it to Washington as the ultimate air defense fighter because it was so expensive and exotic, but figured out that the F-12 was a dandy reconnaissance platform with a lot of payload space that somebody else (CIA) had paid all the R&D costs on. Enter the RS-71 (there was a political fight over the name of the thing during the 1968 election, SR-71 was the second name) Total production was about 30 units, compared to the 15 CIA Oxcarts (the three YF-12s were also built under the Project Oxcart program). Further, CIA was proving about then that, while they were pretty good at spying, they weren't so good at managing very exotic airplanes doing exotic things. The A-12s and M-21s had many more casualties (aircraft and crew) per flight hour than USAF had with their blackbirds. USAF also owned the tankers that were vital to the blackbird's operations. In 1968, Project Oxcart was shut down and its assets went to USAF. The only CIA oxcart that flew USAF recon missions that I know of is the mutant built of half of a test article and half of an A-12 that had a bad landing - it was finished out as an SR-71 and went to work.

The power carts originally had hot-rod Buicks to start the blackbird's engines. These were worn out with years of use, so they were reengined with hot-rodded 454 Chevies. Always tubular headers and nary a muffler in sight. I can confirm that the power carts were an item of pride among the habus just like the airplane itself was - they were always shiny with great paint jobs and bright chrome on the engines and part of the SR-71 experience was definitely the light and sound show of an engine start.

 

[Another Ahab]

Missions were actually pretty similar, which is why a nearly-identical airplane was used for both. CIA provided all the seed money and startup contracts for the U-2 and, when they became vulnerable, project Oxcart.

and air breathing bombers were a steadily decreasing threat compared to ICBMs and SLBMs. I've often wondered what our tactical air assets would be like today if USAF had bought 96 F-12s between 1966 and 1969. The blackbird was, among other things, shockingly stealthy by the standards of its era. It would have been a game changer if TAC could have kept it in the air. There was also very brief talk of a bomber variant...

A very informative piece of background, steelypip; thank you.

And risking being skewered for an opinion, I'm sticking my neck out to question if any "game changing" outcome would have followed from Air Force adoption of the aircraft.

Korean War was the last real conflict that saw the now archaic phenomenon of dogfights, and likely the last vestige of combat-by-champion between aerial "knights of the sky". I wonder if that's all just yesterday's war now.

There were Mig encounters during 'Nam, but those were mostly aerial missile exchanges from afar weren't they? I confess I need to do more homework there.

With the current level of drone expertise, computerization, and missile technology now, I even wonder what is the point of designing and building any more human-piloted "fighters" and "bombers"?

I might be up for a pummeling; this might hurt a bit...

 

[steelypip]

Well, I was thinking more of changing the game of building the next fighter-interceptor for USAF, and, yes, changing mission profiles. Remember, the B-52 was built as a stratospheric nuclear bomber, but was (and is) famous for being an air truck full of low-level tactical pain of many different types. Just because you bought a platform to do X doesn't mean that it's not going to be much more useful for Y and Z five years later.

The F-12B was to be armed with the GAR-9 / AIM-47 Falcon, which had originally been developed for the canceled F-108 mach 3 fighter-interceptor. The missile was a pretty solid performer on the YF-12, delivering six kills out of seven launches in testing. You've probably never heard of the AIM-47, but you might have heard of its more famous descendent: the AIM-54 Phoenix, which was the tool of choice for the F-14 for decades. There's no reason not to assume that the AIM-54 would have gotten a rocket motor upgrade and been mounted to the F-12B with its matching radar once it was proven on the F-14. The F-14 was universally regarded as having the best air superiority weapons control and weapons package in the world until the 2nd generation digital targeting system on the later F-15s came along 10 years later. That sort of air supremacy package strapped to a blackbird is a very interesting tactical tool.

The Falcon missile was a mach 4 design with a dual-mode seeker head - radar return from the mother ship for launch orientation and closing and infrared for terminal guidance. The airplane was sold as a fighter-interceptor. The role was steadily shrinking in importance everywhere but Alaska; USAF in 1970-72 would have had 90+ blackbird tactical assets that needed a new job.

Given the long legs and good stealth the blackbird fighter would have had, it could have been used to create pockets of air supremacy half a world away with a few hours' notice just as easily as it could defend the USA from bomber attack over the pole. Think of something like a Migcap except available anywhere in the world on as few as 4 hours notice. The stealth and performance characteristics of the blackbird make it a difficult platform for an adversary to deal with in this role. And when you've created a pocket of air supremacy, you can drive lots of A-6s, F-111s, or even B-52s through it.

Once you own lots of tactical blackbirds, you start thinking of other things to do with them. The AIM-47 and AIM-54 are BIG missiles, which is why Phoenixes were never hung on anything but an F-14, despite being so very good at their job. A blackbird with weapons bays big enough to hold one of these can carry lots of other interesting weapon systems instead. Factor in the (steadily improving) stealthiness of the platform and you have something that makes the F-117 look like a very weak sister almost 20 years before the F-117 actually flew. I think the bays might also be big enough to hold a HARM, which would put a whole new level of 'wild' in 'wild weasel.'

So having talked about all the interesting things a plentiful blackbird fighter might have meant, let's consider some of the unintended consequences:

1. It's 1972 and you're McDonnell-Douglas trying to sell the F-15 to the USAF as their new air supremacy fighter. Your competition is a block buy of upgraded blackbirds with better stealth and Phoenix missiles. Good luck with that.

2. Digital flight controls. What finally tamed the blackbird's justifiably feared inlet unstart condition was DAFICS - a digital computer that managed the powerplants better and faster than the several preceding generations of analog engine controls. With 150 blackbirds in circulation it gets a lot more important to fix this problem quickly. DAFICS might have been developed and deployed years sooner, resulting in a much more rapid adoption of fly-by-wire technology in US aircraft.

3. General awareness of stealth technology decades before it was publicly discussed. Lots of interesting side effects there, too.

 

[phil2968]

Let's not forget the D-21 Drone that rode atop the SR-71 for launch and penetration into "no man's land" ......

View attachment 463839View attachment 463840View attachment 463841

The Air Museum in Warner Robins Georgia did have a SR71 and a Drone sitting next to it. You could actually walk up and under this plane. There not as tall as you would think. If your in Macon it is a great place to kill some time.
http://www.museumofaviation.org/
http://www.museumofaviation.org/sr71.php

 

[B3.3T]

A D-21, YF-12A and SR-71 are all at the USAF Museum at Wright-Patt

 

[11Echo]

This engine was


started by these twin 454's.

 

[steelypip]

A D-21, YF-12A and SR-71 are all at the USAF Museum at Wright-Patt

That's not 'a' YF-12, that's the YF-12, I believe. There were only three: One was destroyed, one was damaged in a fire and rebuilt as SR-71C 61-7981.

The Smithsonian gets the flashiest airplanes, but NMUSAF in Dayton gets most of the coolest ones. The only surviving YF-12, B-36, and XB-70 are all there. So is Bockscar, which is the only original and intact aircraft ever to drop a nuclear weapon in wartime.

 

[mutt_kahuna]

Sr-71

Here's a cool pic...the only time all remaining blackbirds pictured together

 

[B3.3T]

That's not 'a' YF-12, that's the YF-12, I believe. There were only three: One was destroyed, one was damaged in a fire and rebuilt as SR-71C 61-7981.

The Smithsonian gets the flashiest airplanes, but NMUSAF in Dayton gets most of the coolest ones. The only surviving YF-12, B-36, and XB-70 are all there. So is Bockscar, which is the only original and intact aircraft ever to drop a nuclear weapon in wartime.

That's "Bocks Car"

 

[steelypip]

That's "Bocks Car"

Not according to the nose art or Wikipedia.

 

[Castle Bravo]

The only surviving YF-12, B-36, and XB-70 are all there.

There is a B-36 in Tucson, AZ at the Pima Air And Space Museum.

http://www.pimaair.org/collection-detail.php?cid=58

The exhibit opened a few weeks after I was there last, so I didn't get to see it but from very far away.

 

[hndrsonj]

The Smithsonian gets the flashiest airplanes, but NMUSAF in Dayton gets most of the coolest ones. The only surviving YF-12, B-36, and XB-70 are all there. So is Bockscar, which is the only original and intact aircraft ever to drop a nuclear weapon in wartime.

There is also a B36 at Lockheed in Ft Worth, TX. The Enola Gay is the other B29 to drop a nuclear weapon and it is together and on display.

 

[steelypip]

There is also a B36 at Lockheed in Ft Worth, TX. The Enola Gay is the other B29 to drop a nuclear weapon and it is together and on display.

I'm surprised and pleased to see that at least three B-36s missed being turned into sauce pots, city buses and canoes. I knew that the XC-99 had survived, but didn't know about the Pima and Fort Worth B-36s (I would like to hear the story of the Fort Worth airplane, as I lived there in the '70s and was at the F-16 production rollout ceremony and never heard about the airplane).

I did, of course, know about the Enola Gay, which is why my choice of words should be noted: "original and intact." Bockscar was flown home, flown to the boneyard in 1946 (and immediately put on display) and flown to Dayton in 1961 to NMUSAF where it got painted back to its original markings. Very little restoration has ever been necessary. Enola Gay, after its moment of fame, was dismantled into shippable components and carried home by the Navy. After a fair amount of somewhat destructive analysis on the effects of radiation on aircraft components and materials, the remains of the aircraft were crated up and sat outside for some years. Then came 'no nukes' protests and revisionist history of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings which made the airplane into a political football. NASM didn't start restoring and assembling what was left until about 1987. I saw the forward fuselage in 1988 at Silver Hill as it was being restored for display on the National Mall for the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. There's about as much NASM in that airplane as there is Glenn L. Martin Co. and I suspect that, by weight, no more than 50% of it was over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

On topic: it's worth mentioning that this 'bitsa' phenomenon is not unfamiliar to blackbirds either. They were always rare, valuable and exotic. President Johnson ordered the tooling destroyed in 1968, so from that moment on there was an understanding at Beale and Lockheed that any salvageable blackbird part was a national treasure and was to be preserved for possible future use.

Here's what Hill AFB's homepage says about "The Bastard," the one and only SR-71C:

This SR-71C, "The Bastard" S/N 61-7981, was the only C model Blackbird ever built and was the last SR-71 to be manufactured. It was nicknamed "The Bastard" since it was a hybrid comprised of the rear fuselage of the first YF-12A (S/N 60-6934) and a functional engineering mockup of an SR-71A forward fuselage built for static testing.

The plane was built to replace the second of the two B model trainers after it crashed on January 11, 1968. The C model made its first flight on March 14, 1969 from the Lockheed plant at Palmdale, California, with Blackbird Chief Project Pilot Robert J. Gilliland at the controls and Lockheed test pilot Steve Belgeau as Reconnaissance Systems Officer. After flight testing it was delivered to the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, California, on September 3, 1970.

So '981 is half an oxcart and half a test article. I've seen it noted by several habus that each blackbird was a unique creature with its own particular configuration and behaviors. Preflight briefing work included noting aircraft details as well as mission details. Knowing that the trainers were odd beasts even among blackbirds, one can only imagine what a strange fish '981 was.

 

[hndrsonj]

Apparently the one in Ft Worth got moved to Pima after I left in 99.
http://www.cowtown.net/proweb/last_one.htm

 

[decodeme2]

Hey Guys,
Thought I would share a photo of my Dad Charles Mclean and his Buddy Ted Moller, They flew the SR-71 Together At Edwards AFB. They got together at my moms Birthday Party on the eastern shore of Maryland. Ted was the Pilot and Dad was the Navigator. I got some great pics of them suiting up and climbing into the SR. Anyway, Ted just told me about when he was on a Accident board when they lost another bird after Bill's accident. I got Ted and Dad to Sign a model of a SR-71 I took to the party. They got alot of neat stories!. Both are in their 80's...They were Majors in the Air-force where we were stationed at Edwards...Both were Vietnam Vets. Ted Flew F-105's and then F16...I remember his BIG- Handle BAR mustach...when he and dad flew the Sr-71...They stayed friends after making it back from the war..Dad flew Goony Birds to track the Congs radio transmissions, and Other prop planes...
Ted is on the left, Charles(dad) on the right.
Dad and Ted told me they delivered a SR-71 to NASA...and set a record, which was broken later..
Kevin..

Kevin
I had read this previously years ago, but reading again brings in vivid focus of how catastrophic this accident was---Bill was sure lucky to have survived. The Good Lord was watching over him.
Interesting enough we lost another S-71 at Edwards when your Dad and I were there. I worked on the Investigation Board as the pilot member. We worked for months---including through Christmas day that year trying to figure out what happened---Both our boss, Joe Rodgers (pilot) and the backseater---Garry Hidlebaugh survived. It was an interesting investigation, which we determined was caused by the same thing as Bill's accident in the fact it was caused by an aft CG. They had just come off an in-flight refueling, started to accelerate and went into a high cloud cover. Evidently, Joe brought the nose up too high, causing an aft CG and the airplane pitched up and they lost total control. Both bailed out successfully. There is more to this accident, but basically very similar to Bill's accident.

Regards
Ted