Could this be used for space launch?
No more than any other air breathing engine driven plane.
SR-72
21–30 of 60 posts
Re: SR-72
#22Could this be used for space launch?
See Pegasus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(rocket)
Unlikely though. Pegasus benefits from the exceptional payload capacity of the B-52 and L-1011 airframe and power plant.
Re: SR-72
#23The SR-71 was developed using 20th century technology. It was envisioned with slide rules and paper. It wasn’t managed by millions of lines of software code. And it wasn’t powered by computer chips. All that changes with the SR-72. Oh oh.
When I read that I was not so sure what the person who wrote that actually wanted to say.
Cause it sounds a bit like:
The SR-71 was built with solid engineering and hard work, this on the other hand is a pice of shit.
Re: SR-72
#24I am genuinely curious. Didn't satellites and drones make this obsolete as a concept?
Re: SR-72
#25SR-71 was built for one mission only: Fly-over the Soviet Union and take pictures. At the speeds that it operates, you can't really do much else. And recon satellites do this much more effectively now, and are extremely hard to take down. Proponents of hypersonic aircraft research have been fighting an uphill battle for this very reason.
The other thing you can do at that speed is intercept enemy planes. The SR-71 was developed from an interceptor project:
Re: SR-72
#26The SR-71 was developed using 20th century technology. It was envisioned with slide rules and paper. It wasn’t managed by millions of lines of software code. And it wasn’t powered by computer chips. All that changes with the SR-72. Oh oh.
When I read that I was not so sure what the person who wrote that actually wanted to say. Cause it sounds a bit like: The SR-71 was built with solid engineering and hard work, this on the other hand is a pice of shit.
[deleted]
Re: SR-72
#27What's the deal with all the SR-71 posts in the past few days? They're a cool relic of the cold war age but what has happened recently with them that's warranted all the attention? Also if you're really enamored with them you should definitely check out the national airforce museum in Dayton, OH: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/ You can see one up close, along with all kinds of other planes, jets, and missiles. Admi…
It's just the snowball effect. Every post about SR-71 encourages more people to learn something about it and that sometimes results in another post to HN.
Re: SR-72
#28I mean hey if we're going to be throwing away huge sums of money on useless military gear, it may as well look cool. OTOH maybe we'd be better served by underwriting all college tuition?
Or both? I mean, that's what government boondoggles are for, right? Maybe if we send the under/unemployed grads with all the expensive military gear to war, we'd solve more problems?
Re: SR-72
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
They expect delivery 'by 2030'. I wonder if satellites and newer weapons wouldn't be able to intercept its flight path by then. You probably wouldn't have to match its speed to bring it down, just throw up a cloud of junk in its way.
Or heat its skin. A laser defense weapon, coupled with the black titanium skin, likely already close to its thermal limits, might produce results of interest to a defender.
In the meantime, its going to take a lot of time and money to develop those weapons as well. I mean, you're talking about hypothetical countermeasures that don't even exist as a solid concept yet.
Re: SR-72
#30SR-71 was built for one mission only: Fly-over the Soviet Union and take pictures. At the speeds that it operates, you can't really do much else. And recon satellites do this much more effectively now, and are extremely hard to take down. Proponents of hypersonic aircraft research have been fighting an uphill battle for this very reason.
The other thing you can do at that speed is intercept enemy planes. The SR-71 was developed from an interceptor project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YF-12
That's not an accurate description at all. Both the SR-71 and the YF-12 were developed from the A-12, which was purely a reconnaissance aircraft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12
The whole concept of using the "Blackbird" family of planes as interceptors was an experimental offshoot that was quickly cancelled, the SR-71 certainly wasn't developed as some byproduct of an interceptor, it it was the other way around, the interceptor was a failed offshoot of the reconnaissance aircraft.