man thats so bad ass
hey? whyd you down vote me?
Your were probably down voted because your comment added nothing to the discussion and those types of comments are generally discouraged on HN.
SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower
41–50 of 75 posts
Re: SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower
#42The SR-71 flight manual is (mostly) online, if anyone is interested: http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/manual/
Re: SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower
#43Same pilot, different anecdote, "how slow can it go?" http://tailspinstales.blogspot.com/2010/01/slowest-blackbird...
The Blackbird is full of amazing stories. Skunkworks - Ben Rich's memoirs [1] is full of ridiculous stories, both of making the SR-71 as well as stories from pilots (as well as a lot of other projects). Not every thing in there can be taken at face value (his rant against the paint locker on the Sea Shadow for example... it's really the 'toxic solvents and chemicals locker'), but still full of gold. For example, they…
I second the recommendation for Ben Rich's book. It's a great history lesson and explanations behind the thinking of some of the greatest aerospace hackers & out-of-box thinkers.
I thought the passage about "600 mph birds" was particularly humorous because that was the first thing my young hacker mind thought of during a training section on the radar cross-section of the aircraft I was working on. It went something like this:
Instructor: "So the radar cross section is reduced considerably to approximately the size of a small bird"
Me: "So why don't they just look for a small bird going 600 mph?"
Instructor: "..."
Some years after, an F-117 was shot down during the Kosovo War, reportedly using this method (I had nothing to do with it :). I think this was probably a big learning lesson in regard to stealth technology.
And no disrespect to my instructor, he was a professional and a god of his domain.
Re: SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you please explain what is meant by "get out in front of you"? I have very limited flying experience and am not familiar with what this means, in pilot terms: i.e. what would you experience as a pilot, and what would be happening to the airplane. Google didn't help in this matter.
The aircraft is flying faster than it is taking you to process the changes that are occurring during the flight. There are a number of things you need to process as you fly, from radios to maps to situational awareness. For less experienced pilots, or when you have passengers than are pointing out all sorts of shit, this can take time. During all this time the aircraft is moving and the condition is changing. You nee…
Or for a geekier analogy, it's like StarCraft. When you first play, your APM is low, so you build things slowly, collect fewer minerals, and produce fewer troops. Then your opponent shows up on your doorstep with a much bigger force, micros them well, and before you can even control your dudes, they're all gone. And then you're like "Hey, what happened to my base? AAAAH I'm dead. GG."
As you gain experience, you can spend much less cognitive attention paying attention to what's going on in the game. So actions become reflexes, and suddenly you're catching up. And then you run up against an opponent who's like you were a couple months ago, and pwnage commences.
Re: SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
The story he touches on at the top about the libyan missiles is excellent as well, sadly I can't find a link. Pretty much anything Shul writes is excellent and readable.
The Libya story is here: http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/2007/11/19/sr-71-now-that-was-s... I love that he accidentally overshoots the refueling in Gibraltar -- and ends up next to Sicily. The more detailed Libya stuff is at the end, though he summarizes it in the beginning.
One of my favorite quotes:
"On a typical training mission, we would take off near Sacramento, refuel over Nevada, accelerate into Montana, obtain high Mach over Colorado, turn right over New Mexico, speed across the Los Angeles Basin, run up the West Coast, turn right at Seattle, then return to Beale. Total flight time: two hours and 40 minutes."
Puts the speed in such great perspective.
Re: SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Blackbird is full of amazing stories. Skunkworks - Ben Rich's memoirs [1] is full of ridiculous stories, both of making the SR-71 as well as stories from pilots (as well as a lot of other projects). Not every thing in there can be taken at face value (his rant against the paint locker on the Sea Shadow for example... it's really the 'toxic solvents and chemicals locker'), but still full of gold. For example, they…
I second the recommendation for Ben Rich's book. It's a great history lesson and explanations behind the thinking of some of the greatest aerospace hackers & out-of-box thinkers. I thought the passage about "600 mph birds" was particularly humorous because that was the first thing my young hacker mind thought of during a training section on the radar cross-section of the aircraft I was working on. It went something l…
>Some years after, an F-117 was shot down during the Kosovo War, reportedly using this method (I had nothing to do with it :). I think this was probably a big learning lesson in regard to stealth technology.
It was a bit more complicated than that ;-)
The full account how they managed to shot down a "stealth" F-117A with some modifications to cold war era Russian missiles, microwave ovens as radar decoys and in-promptu installed landlines can be read here: http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=6376
Re: SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower
#47There is a similar one of an SR71 tooling around over Cuba at god-knows-what 1000s of feet being asked to move to make way for another airplane.
A Concorde goes past, with people in shirt sleeves happily sipping their champagne.
Re: SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I second the recommendation for Ben Rich's book. It's a great history lesson and explanations behind the thinking of some of the greatest aerospace hackers & out-of-box thinkers. I thought the passage about "600 mph birds" was particularly humorous because that was the first thing my young hacker mind thought of during a training section on the radar cross-section of the aircraft I was working on. It went something l…
>Some years after, an F-117 was shot down during the Kosovo War, reportedly using this method (I had nothing to do with it :). I think this was probably a big learning lesson in regard to stealth technology. It was a bit more complicated than that ;-) The full account how they managed to shot down a "stealth" F-117A with some modifications to cold war era Russian missiles, microwave ovens as radar decoys and in-promp…
Of course it was a bit more complicated than that, that's why I recommend the book :)
I can believe the rabbit story in that link. ECM radiation is nasty.
Re: SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower
#49I like the metaphor of being "ahead of the jet." as a term for mastery. I know that feeling exactly sometimes.
There is a plane called a Beech Bonanza that is nicknamed "The doctor killer." It gets this name because it's a single engine plane, which attracts wealthy hobbyist pilots (like doctors) but it's fast . Much much faster than what these hobbyist pilots are used to. This causes "the plane to get in front of them", and for them to crash.
Not really. It is an advanced design for a civilian airplane. Most Cessnas are capable of only 4g's at cruise speed. The Bonanza is capable of 11 or 12 g's. It has the potential to destroy itself due to the dynamic energy it has available at cruise speed. The V tail is very well designed. As airspeed increases the pull on the yoke is less rather than more for increased G. One design flaw was to increase the tail cord length starting with the C model without moving the front spar. This created a dynamic twisting which, under G load, causes the aircraft G load to increase without pilot input. The fix was to tie down the leading edge of the stabilizer. I have owned a Bonanza for 28 years and love it. It is an aircraft designed about fifty years ahead of itself. It is very, very safe when flown by pilots aware of the design. Unfortunately the FAA does not require owners to be trained in the capabilities of the design. Whose fault is that? I love the airplane.
Re: SR-71 Blackbird Communication to Tower
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
In fairness, the other part of the killer reputation has to do with apparent design instabilities as a result of the V-tail on the x35 models. Both these and the x36 models really are beautiful planes. Another airplane with the killer epithet because of its on average high power to wisdom of pilot ratio is the Piper Malibu and its later brother the Mirage. Again, a beautiful, fast, well-designed plane that gets out i…
I fly the right seat in a Bonanza pretty regularly too. A V-tail, no less D-: I worries me a little, but we're not doing anything nuts in the thing.
Here's the scoop... In turbulance slow down to "manovering" speed. Don't fly in IFR conditions unless you must. Stay VFR. The airplane is designed for VFR. You say, this is not true... how many backup instruments does it have? A turn and bank? How many "partial panel" non-prcision approaches has the pilot flown in the last six months... I will anwser. NONE! Can you do a timed turn using only the wet compass? NO! Can you fly an approach using only the altimeter, VSI and wet compass? NO! Remember... only one engine and one set of primary instruments without a standby horizon and power supply. It is just common sense.