The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
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The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
1–10 of 358 posts
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#2Interesting that it’s not confirmed if the SR-71 flew in the Southern Hemisphere. Would be a very bold design if it didn’t and the system wasn’t designed for it.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#3Simply amazed by the fact that something similar to "star trackers" as we know them today goes back to the 60s...
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#4You can see one of these up close - both the device, and the airplane! - at the Evergreen Aerospace Museum in McMinnville, OR.
They also have on display another Blackbird payload labeled DEF-H. It’s a nondescript white box which you are allowed to look at, but not allowed to know what it does. XD
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#5Simply amazed by the fact that something similar to "star trackers" as we know them today goes back to the 60s...
um, doesn't the sextant go back much much further than the 60s?
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#6Interesting that it’s not confirmed if the SR-71 flew in the Southern Hemisphere. Would be a very bold design if it didn’t and the system wasn’t designed for it.
The F22 had an unintentional problem of being unable to cross the international date line, which was discovered when attempting to fly from Hawaii to Japan.
Given that it may very well be better to assume that anything untested doesn't work at all and to live within those restrictions.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#7Interesting that it’s not confirmed if the SR-71 flew in the Southern Hemisphere. Would be a very bold design if it didn’t and the system wasn’t designed for it.
The F22 had an unintentional problem of being unable to cross the international date line, which was discovered when attempting to fly from Hawaii to Japan. Given that it may very well be better to assume that anything untested doesn't work at all and to live within those restrictions.
“Unable”? How did this manifest?!
> Given that it may very well be better to assume that anything untested doesn't work at all and to live within those restrictions.
There are an infinite number of untested cases though. Figuring out the important ones is the hard part, otherwise they likely would have been identified and fixed in development.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#8Interesting that it’s not confirmed if the SR-71 flew in the Southern Hemisphere. Would be a very bold design if it didn’t and the system wasn’t designed for it.
It says they did have capability to navigate in Southern hemisphere though it might be implied one had to use two stars only visible in southern hemisphere.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#9You can see one of these up close - both the device, and the airplane! - at the Evergreen Aerospace Museum in McMinnville, OR. They also have on display another Blackbird payload labeled DEF-H. It’s a nondescript white box which you are allowed to look at, but not allowed to know what it does. XD
I got to see an SR-71 on display in New York several years ago. What really struck me was how BIG it was, seeing pictures of it doesn't really give you sense of scale, it was a massive plane.
Re: The SR-71 Blackbird Astro-Nav System worked by tracking the stars
#10Interesting that it’s not confirmed if the SR-71 flew in the Southern Hemisphere. Would be a very bold design if it didn’t and the system wasn’t designed for it.
Is it true that military branches (navy, airforce) from around equator use a grid-square reference system for radars and have issues when going further north, while triangle-based reference systems are a really good model in polar countries that doesn’t scale well when going South?
It’s a problem so predictable that I can’t believe I have been told the truth, and it’s impossible to find the right keywords to search that on Google ;)