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The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

theaviationgeekclub.com

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Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#131

Post by jacquesm »

rocqua wrote: post #124
jacquesm wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fixed mast? Here in NL we have a type of mast that can be dropped under sail and re-set right after crossing under a bridge. This is a pretty exciting operation best practiced a large number of times without the presence of a bridge before you try it for real. Failures tend to be fairly spectacular. Here a demo on a very small boat, I've seen this done with a big Tjalk and that was most impressive (but I can't find a…

My uncle developed something similar for his boat but only the top. The idea was to have a 15-ish meter high mast fit under the Hollandse Brug (12.8 meter high bridge). He put a hinge in the mast and added a lot of stays to allow this to happen. He is a maritime engineer, so he had it all calculated out to ensure it would hold up in rough weather. And knowing how racy he sails, I am pretty sure its been put to the te…

That sounds super cool :) Interesting that he special cased it for that one bridge, and good that the water level there is reasonably stable, but that would definitely require some checking before making a run at a later date because the waterschappen are known to occasionally change their policy and suddenly you'll find that your 'known depth' is off by a meter either way. Lower wouldn't be much of a problem I guess but higher very well could be.

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#132

Post by sleepysysadmin »

Isamu wrote: post #112
perl4ever wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people, which includes me, think this parody captures the cringeworthy-ness of the original. It always sounded so fake to me. Even if someone proved it did happen. That's not because I don't think pointy planes are cool! I went to a school with an F-104 lawn ornament.

I find comments like this interesting - what is so implausible about this? It’s just a bit of radio chatter, nothing amazing happens, just a funny anecdote that a pilot tells when speaking to an audience. Maybe because it’s a polished story that he told over and over? Maybe one of the planes was an added embellishment to make the story longer? The last part is the most plausible- that they would do an unnecessary spe…

>I find comments like this interesting - what is so implausible about this? It’s just a bit of radio chatter, nothing amazing happens, just a funny anecdote that a pilot tells when speaking to an audience.

The original story has an SR71, Navy F18, multiple general aviation on the same frequency. This doesn't happen and won't happen. The military has their own frequencies, their own ifr paths, and their own air traffic control.

That's not to say the military planes cant go to GA frequencies but the story is entirely false.

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#133

Post by mnw21cam »

dan_hawkins wrote: post #127
mnw21cam wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the coffin corner is something else, and it doesn't apply to the SR71 (or any aircraft capable of supersonic flight). The coffin corner is where an aircraft is flying as slow as it possibly can, but that slow speed is also very close to its maximum mach speed. So the aircraft is both in severe danger of stalling and losing lift because the speed is too low, and in severe danger of getting supersonic airflow over…

Like Air France Flight 447?

No. Commercial airlines generally don't fly in the coffin corner. That's just asking for trouble.

AF447 had nothing to do with the coffin corner - that accident was caused by the aircraft flying through icing conditions, the speed-sensing equipment icing over, the computer detecting that and switching the autopilot off and handing control over to the pilots, who then flew the aircraft into a stall and couldn't work out what they were doing wrong.

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#134

Post by retzkek »

Anyone else notice that in the picture of the model at the bottom of the article, the stand says "Lockheed YF-12 Wikipedia Blackbird"? Likewise if you click through to the airmodels.net product page... bad copy and paste?

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#135

Post by [deleted] »

Isamu wrote: post #112
perl4ever wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people, which includes me, think this parody captures the cringeworthy-ness of the original. It always sounded so fake to me. Even if someone proved it did happen. That's not because I don't think pointy planes are cool! I went to a school with an F-104 lawn ornament.

I find comments like this interesting - what is so implausible about this? It’s just a bit of radio chatter, nothing amazing happens, just a funny anecdote that a pilot tells when speaking to an audience. Maybe because it’s a polished story that he told over and over? Maybe one of the planes was an added embellishment to make the story longer? The last part is the most plausible- that they would do an unnecessary spe…

[deleted]

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#136

Post by [deleted] »

missedthecue wrote: post #68
notahacker wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this the aviation version of the "your call, I'm a lighthouse" legend?

The pilot of the Blackbird maintains that it's true. Not sure you're going to find any confirmation other than that. But it isn't some joke or story cooked up by a random person for laughs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyHH9G9et0

[deleted]

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#137

Post by loonster »

jshier wrote: post #110
GekkePrutser wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it sounds like a tall tale. "Falling at a slight bank" sounds like ideal conditions for onset of a spin. Which a pilot would be very wary of when close to the ground because it means certain death. Also, would it be possible to fly level at such a speed in an SR71? And isn't there a HUD and vertical speed warner? On the other hand their expectation of being grounded sounds pretty accurate :) Oh well I never flew…

The human mind, even one highly trained, is capable of ignoring all sorts of inputs when conditions don't match expectations. For an SR-71 pilot I can easily imagine flying low and slow could create such an issue. It's scary in general just how many airline crashes are "controlled flight into terrain". In 2009, Air France flight 447 crashed off the coast of Brazil after the pilots flew it at a stall from 35,000 feet.…

Thanks, this was a good read. I decided to search HN, and this [0] is the most popular thread on "Air France 447".

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3327202

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#138

Post by randomswede »

belter wrote: post #15
macintux wrote: post #4

SR-71 stories are legendary. Here's another classic from the same site: https://theaviationgeekclub.com/sr-71-blackbird-pilot-tells-...

"The Day the Swedish Air Force Saab 37 Viggen Saved the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27164816

The JA37 Viggen is probably one of the few planes that managed to get a missile lock on the SR-71. This was mainly to try to push the northern flight path (over Norway, then onwards over Russia) to pass north of Sweden, instead of crossing Sweden. Take a route of JA37, ascending on full afterburner at about 45 degrees, coordinating with fighter control (military ATC, also trained to assist fighters during air-to-air combat), so as to enable the missile targeting systems when the SR-71 would be in an optimal position in the cone.

Most probably, the SR-71 would've been safe even if the missiles had been fired, but the goal was never to take it down, just to make them shift the overflight pattern to no longer be in Swedish airspace.

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#139

Post by belter »

randomswede wrote: post #138
belter wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The Day the Swedish Air Force Saab 37 Viggen Saved the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27164816

The JA37 Viggen is probably one of the few planes that managed to get a missile lock on the SR-71. This was mainly to try to push the northern flight path (over Norway, then onwards over Russia) to pass north of Sweden, instead of crossing Sweden. Take a route of JA37, ascending on full afterburner at about 45 degrees, coordinating with fighter control (military ATC, also trained to assist fighters during air-to-air…

Note the story is not about Sweden trying to shoot down the SR-71 ...But about saving it from the Russian jets.

Re: The slowest SR-71 Blackbird fly-by

#140

Post by randomswede »

belter wrote: post #139
randomswede wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The JA37 Viggen is probably one of the few planes that managed to get a missile lock on the SR-71. This was mainly to try to push the northern flight path (over Norway, then onwards over Russia) to pass north of Sweden, instead of crossing Sweden. Take a route of JA37, ascending on full afterburner at about 45 degrees, coordinating with fighter control (military ATC, also trained to assist fighters during air-to-air…

Note the story is not about Sweden trying to shoot down the SR-71 ...But about saving it from the Russian jets.

I am aware. The JA37 has thus been one of the extremely few models in a position to both escort an SR-71 to safety and get a missile lock on it (although would with almost certainty have been unable to shoot it down).
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