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Surviving in-flight breakup of an SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3.18

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Re: Surviving in-flight breakup of an SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3.18

#3
"As an outgrowth of Bill Weaver's inability to see out of his faceplate from the ice buildup, futre SR-71 ejection seats incorporated a battery pack that continued to keep the glass faceplate heated during the frigid descent."

The amount of engineering and refinement that goes into these safety systems really amazes me. They learn from everything in aviation and put it to good use.

Re: Surviving in-flight breakup of an SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3.18

#5
Amazing reading this. Especially his thought process. After he comes out of "blackout", he goes right to work running a checklist and taking inventory of his assets. The part about the seatbelts, in this context, is a priceless example of how to keep your cool. Sometimes you don't want to know or need to know everything.

Re: Surviving in-flight breakup of an SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3.18

#9
post #8

I own a print copy of this book, it's good stuff. I picked it up soon after reading Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed [1], an incredible book which recounts development of the U2, SR-71 and F-117A. 1: http://amzn.com/0316743003

Skunk Works is a great read. It's enlightening how advanced these guys were in the 60's, I tend to think of the 80s and 90s as being the time when we raced forward technically but it was probably the 60s and 70s were the fastest pace.

Re: Surviving in-flight breakup of an SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3.18

#10

"As an outgrowth of Bill Weaver's inability to see out of his faceplate from the ice buildup, futre SR-71 ejection seats incorporated a battery pack that continued to keep the glass faceplate heated during the frigid descent." The amount of engineering and refinement that goes into these safety systems really amazes me. They learn from everything in aviation and put it to good use.

Then again, they had a brilliantly working "don't panic" mechanism built in :-)
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