Who Likes Aircraft ?

[Photon440]

January 1959 - AA's first scheduled jet transcontinental service begins.

 

[MoparLeo]

A little faster ride from NY to London..........



Actually an SR-71 on the right side picture and the A12's are on the left. Not many people know that the NASA model was different from the CIA models.

 

[Slap Stick]

Those are actually A-12s. Notice the second in line has a second raised and offset cockpit. That is a YF-12 trainer, one of two built.

 

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[Slap Stick]

A-12s were all single seat as pictured except the two trainers and SRs were all dual seat cockpits. And I don't think any SRs were painted that way. They were all black, hence the name Blackbird. SRs had longer fuselages than A-12s.

I'll confirm with a friend who used to work on em.

 

[snakeyes]

wonder who has all ridden in this at one time if only it could talk

 

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[MoparLeo]

The A-12 was actually faster than the SR-71 as well.

The key word here is "Documented speed." Not actual top speed. This aircraft was never pushed to it true top-end. Only went fast enough to set speed records over the Russians. No one will ever know the true capability of these fantastic aircraft.
Only in the USA. And they did it with slide rules and pencils ! Imagine if they had today's computer power..

 

[Slap Stick]

The SR was larger and heavier than the A-12. Max takeoff weight on the SR was about 50 k lbs higher than the A-12.
Max DISCLOSED speed was 3.32 Mach vs 3.35. About a 20 mph diff.

 

[DeltaV]

Source:
https://www.cia.gov/news-informatio...atured-story-archive/oxcart-vs-blackbird.html

 

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[Dipstick]

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[Slap Stick]

View attachment 981066

Source:
https://www.cia.gov/news-informatio...atured-story-archive/oxcart-vs-blackbird.html

And you trust the cia?

Those numbers for the A-12 are not documented.
According to the FAA SR-71 #61-7958 set the official documented speed and altitude record in level flight of 2,193+ mph and 85,000+ in July, 1976, piloted by Eldon Joersz.
Brian Shul claims he went Mach 3.5 out running a missile.

 

[Photon440]

 

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