Starting SR 71-71 Engines

[Richard Cranium]

There is one on static display on the USS Intrepid, on the Hudson River, N.Y., N.Y.. The aircraft carrier also houses inside its hull the space shuttle, Enterprise.

If your ever in Manhattan, talk a walk on over.
It’s well worth it.

With all the violence going by on in NYC, who needs to get mugged, or worse?

 

[rumblefish360]

With all the violence going by on in NYC, who needs to get mugged, or worse?

Over rated BS. Stop watching democratic woke TV.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

 

[kiwigtx]

I guess that "kick-starting" an SR-71 could spawn a whole new "Your Mom" joke.

 

[69a100]

View attachment 1360028

Is that Castle air patch?

 

[Slap Stick]

Timely thread. i'm having lunch today with an old friend who worked on U2s and SRs.

 

[RRGTX]

You can see an SR-71 up close at the Smithsonian

 

[hemi71x]

The Staff Sergeant that trained me to be a crew chief on the F-4 Phantom, while stationed in Germany, was a crew chief on the SR-71 at Beal Air Force Base, in California for 6 years.
He never talked about it at all while he was training me, as that plane was considered top secret, and wasn't mentioned at all.
One day I'm walking out to the flight line, and an old German guy sold the Stars And Stripes Newspaper, in front of the base movie theater.
Plastered on the full front page of the paper was a picture of the SR-71.
They de classified it sometime back in 74 or 75, my tour of duty in Germany.
Showed the paper to my trainer and a big grin came on his face.
Then from then on, he could talk about that aircraft, without getting in any kind of trouble.
Learned a lot about it.
Very interesting aircraft, to be around, back in the day.

 

[hemi71x]

Is that Castle air patch?

Ya, that one's on display at the old Castle Air Force Base.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Is that Castle air patch?

Yeah, we were coming home from the Madera show & stopped for the photo op.... Pops was stationed there in 68-69 after returning from Vietnam, we had allot of fun there.... Then Torrejon & Incirlik... And finally Nellis before retiring after 27 years

 

[AR67GTX]

It’s kind of a coincidence this was posted. There was a related post on Corvette Forum a week or two ago. The poster theorized that Chevrolet named their big block TurboJet after the Air Force switched from the Buick nailheads to Chevy 454s for starter power in the SR-71 program. Only problem with this was the TurboJet 396 came out in 1965 and apparently the Air Force moved to Chevy 454s sometime in the mid-70s. Thanks - this thread is a very interesting piece of history.

 

[hemi71x]

Start Cart Article.

Starting the SR-71 Blackbird's J58 Engines - AG330 Start Cart

 

[hemi71x]

*

 

[Richard Cranium]

If I was President, I’d make an executive order to give me a ride in one. Anyone who told me I couldn’t would be fired.

 

[Photon440]

Here's a video of the SR-71 starting up and taking off. The start carts are shown here.

 

[moparedtn]

As a kid I thought the SR-71 was the baddest thing on the planet.

It was - and still is.

 

[moparedtn]

Here's a video of the SR-71 starting up and taking off. The start carts are shown here.

As many times as I've watched that (and 100 other videos of the plane), I still get goosebumps.
Damn, what a machine.

 

[moparmarks]

There is one down in Tucson too. Soooooooooooo badass.

 

[Geff McCarthy]

The gray black delta in formation is 1 of 2 F-16XL prototypes, an expansion of the "day desert dogfighter" into a more capable interdiction penetrator. I was on an evaluation mission, comparing it to the F-15E, which won, and is still being produced. (Why "desert"? Any significant moisture in cold temperatures would form ice around the "lip" break off and damage the compressors. I aborted several missions in N Japan for this problem: no anti-ice!

 

[XS22J8R]

As an engineer and aviation enthusiast, the most fascinating book I ever read was Skunkworks by Ben Rich.
Amazon product ASIN 0316743003Rich worked at the Skunkworks in the 50s, 60s and 70s so he was deeply involved in the U2, A12, SR71 and F1117 projects.
His accounts of how the design process worked were incredible, how they used a number of off the shelf components to create the U2 (if I recall correctly the fuselage was was basically an F104 or maybe it was an F102?).
The technical breakthroughs in the A12 were even more incredible.
All on a relatively shoestring budget.
That was certainly the golden age in aircraft development.
Contrast that to the cluster the recent F35 project was with massive cost over-runs and long delays.
I was able to see a SR71 fly at Oshkosh in ‘89. Saw it come in on a Friday, made a return trip on Monday to see it leave.
A NASA SR71 did a flyby there in the late 90s. It was supposed to do a supersonic flyby later but broke and had to do an emergency landing in Milwaukee. I am glad I got to see them fly several times. The Mach cone from the afterburners is really something!