How Fast is SR-71 Blackbird? 

Alien tech

Should’ve said since you were a kid in 71

I saw one parked in Palmdale, California together with a U2.

Why did they retire it from the airforce

Mig31 shoots down SR-71 anytime , no more U2 missions over Russia otherwise the Americans risked WW3 in which we all lose.

My cold war vet dad always says this. 🇺🇲

They were freemasons and they didn't fly anything anywhere.

Fun fact: I was proudly the one who flew the original 1st blackbird in 87 nttv aviation back 90"

​@@skysky-sn7xt nope

​@@skysky-sn7xt mhm

Yeah, it could out run the rotational speed of the earth, by 1000mph I believe.

Great post Ji

Fuckin. Stunning.

yaah, a "beautiful" made to kill. Feel proud...

@@jano7772 The Blackbird was not made to kill. It didn't even have weapons.

I never thought about that.. ingenious!!

I once flew the Concord from London to NYC. The flight left Heathrow at 12 noon GMT, and arrived at JFK in NYC at 10:30 AM, an hour and a half BEFORE it left! No jet lag on that trip!

@@JCDofNYC well yeah, thats how timezones work

@@paw0960 really, I had no idea.

​@@paw0960 thanks captain obviuos

Not really , What is amazing is anything built today that is able to be built to last as long . That was an era of progress, which really stopped at the start of 2000. Elon musk has put us at 10 percent of level , 2020 we should have been to Mars , that was me in 2000 thinking of 2020s . Millionaires from fart RU-vid videos wasn’t even at the worst case , IQ has dropped sadly .

And with slide rules. Plus we had to deceive USSR to get the titanium ore out of Russia AND learn how invent the tools to shape and work that metal. Kelly Johnson and all those at The Skunk Works, 👏👏👏🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Makes you wonder what's going on that we don't know about.

​@@CandiedPage See, I normally wouldn't agree with the utter mess of ignorance and baseless conspiracy your comment is, but after reading it, I actually agree with the last part. IQ has definitely dropped, you're pulling down the average my guy.

Yes they started development in the late 50s

I saw one in person when I went to one of the Smithsonian museums. It was the first thing you saw when you walked in. My jaw dropped!!! She was big and beautiful...

American made

There's one here in Utah at the Hill Aerospace Museum. I've seen it at least 6 times.

​@@gumegoz2012using Soviet titanium. 'merica the bestest [sic]..🙄

Yes yes yes

If there is footage of that flight, then the only possible way to view it would be with a super high speed camera. Even so, it's probably kept under wraps for national security purposes.

Watch the documentary with a funny pilot talk and the pictures , one bad ass pic shows oil leaching over the wings. It has to, or it would blow up . 🫡

I want to see onboard camera footage.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ILop3Kn3JO8.htmlsi=SgAHEbeTC5O8zbW4 RU-vid vid of the trip from west to east.

Миг 31

There are lots of planes never to have been shot down by enemy fire.

​@@animaltvi9515 Such as???

@@bobbymorgret B1?

B2?

And that was the 70's?? With computer power growing exponentially we probably have fantastic technology today right?

@@Mustang-bk4ns 70's, engine design began mid-late 50's. First flew early 60's.

My dad was refueling them with his KC-135. That's why I was born there.

I saw the black bird on kadena in 1967. The Okinawans called it the Habu. It had to cool down before landing. My sons met 2 pilots and checked out the cockpit. 😊

Quite a site I used to travel from camp Hanson to kadina to get a glimpse.

Nowhere near as cool as watching the P3’s take off from Kadena.

@@itshendo6475 I could have been in one of those. That was my job for 20 years!

Thank WW2 for the explosion of technology in the late 1940s +

Sr71 Oxcart is my favorite.

Man, you have excellent taste. 👍🏻

Flew them both!😊

@@donb7474 Is this internet bullshit?

@@Norton1531 It is not BS. 480 hrs SR 1300+ F-4

I'm sure a good portion of retired aircraft are still airworthy like the sr-71 just in case we need them

I have been there twice!!!

I got to see the Concorde take off at Heathrow in London back in 1980. Even sitting in a 737 waiting to take off, the Concorde was so loud my chest was rattling and I had to plug my ears. Yeow!

Where

People forget about the a12 and it’s little drone cousin

Elon's son

​​@@diegok2245 heck I wish they would have proceeded with the x.25

@@demnbrown Please enlighten me. I want to learn more about this prototype

@@diegok2245 that was the M21, the 3rd variant. It launched the D21.

The AF requested the SR71 in 1962

Ya I’m thinking all those ufos pilots have seen moving all crazy and defying physics probably are man made

planes are actually getting built slower now. SR-71 and Concordes are retired, fighter jets are built with stealth rather then speed in mind. Jets from the 70/80s are faster then modern jets.

@@gr8crash the inception of the Oxcart Program was in 1957, and was the beginning of the early design phases to the development of the airframe. I was referencing the starting date of development, but you are correct with the first flights resulting from the program took place in 1962.

@@icer1249 yeah, I think my head was in the clouds thinking more related to the propulsion systems, but you are correct on all accounts.

SAMs were faster.

Nope

Yes, approx 93% of the structure is made of titanium alloys. As such new ways to mark, melt, meld and test these titanium fantastics. Something like a simple metal marker could cause stress corrosion in the area. If I'm not mistaken, and I could very well be mistaken, but the "Sharpie" brand TEC or Trace Element Certified" marker is a low halogen series that's safe for titanium alloy work. less than 200 ppm of chloride halogens. There's videos online showing the heating and forming of the skeleton of the airframes. The pieces are so large that a forklift was used to reposition the massive titanium forgings between forge strokes. When the finally dispoed the Blackbird stuff there was titanium of all sorts that was sold as scrap. There were 3 main titanium alloys used in their construction. Work like this emboldened designers to make some very strong titanium parts. The F-14 wing box is titanium and used the largest vacuum electron beam welders in the world at the time. Save thousands of pounds over a steel bolted wing box. The electron beam welders, each the size of a small house made a fairly indestructible wing box. Grumman had 3 such electron beam welders. Lessons learned from F-111 and the problems with wingbox durability??. The F-14 could carry the same missile load as the F-111B, but do so at a 10,000 pound advantage. Then drop the heavy launch rails and mount 4 AIM-7 semi recessed ubder the fuselage and be a decent dogfighter. Titanium comprised 25% of the Tomcat's structure, but also added greatly to its cost. Learning to work with titanium was very important to Lockheed and aerospace in general.

A12 with missles too

Bcoz its service was limited. Despite flying faster and higher than the SR-71, it was more vulnerable to being shot down, which is why it was retired just 2 years after service introduction.

Modern satellites have made spyplanes obsolete.

@@DElkan Have they? Is a satellite easy enough to be maneuvered into a idealized location? I also point out that spy aircraft can fly at any altitude lower than ~14 miles. Can a spy satellite camera compete with that at a MINIMUM 600 miles (realistically closer to 1,000 miles) altitude? Can an advanced camera be installed on a satellite say, tomorrow as can be done with a ground based airplanes? Can a satellite fly under clouds if an image is needed NOW?

​@@joewoodchuck3824 generally yes considering you have an array of satellites

​@@demnbrown ^

​@@DElkanwe haven't armed satelites have we?

It's retired and in museums

Decades ahead of it's time!!

@@andynorth3016 true

@@edwardburlas1110 yes but the fact holds. What’s scary is what they have replaced it with

Is that why it's been retired for years ?

I was always partial to the b-2 stealth bomber myself

Check out the on in dayton ohio at the air force museum

@@demnbrown I got to study the one in Huntsville Alabama at Redstone arsenal

F-16 is very pretty.

And don't forget the F-22 Raptor and F-35.

Always loved the tomcat, it's classic , but I have a soft spot for the f16 , I grew up down the road from Lockheed, got to get within 20 yards of a stealth fighter as a kid once, so cool.

​@@mr.emaaejae6058the f35 and f22 programs are a complete failure when compared to f14, f18, f16 , insanely expensive, tons of problems, reliability problems, parts shortages , software problems, the DOD froze the f35 program, theres 100 new f35 that nobody will buy, not even the us military, just sitting because the computer shuts off and has to be rebooted during flight, it's a pos

@@johnjames5842 Nice. :)

There's also one at Udvar-Hazy (the Smithsonian's second air & space museum in Chantilly, VA).

There is an M21 in a museum in Washington state.

I have been there twice and saw it. They also have one of the four remaining space shuttles on display. That thing is HUGE!!!

The maintenance cost was a million dollars per flight

The objective of this plane was to get intel without endangering the lives of pilots, at the time that meant flying higher and faster. Now they use drones and satellites

Look at tr3b craft

There are cheaper and safer ways to gather Intel nowadays. The A-10 just like the SR-71 is going to be retired because the role they filled is no longer needed.

Nasa bought 6 sr71...yrs back...low level atmosphere tests....

The narrator said cruise speed of mach 3.2, not top speed of mach 3.2.

Top speed was more or less limited by the air inlet temperature which was a max of 427 C. Fastest I've seen confirmed was Brian Schull's statements when he flew to observe the bombing damage vs. Qadhafi/Libya in the 1980's was mach 3.55, and over 105,000+ ft to evade the AA missiles. The high speed was allowed b/c of the very cold air at the time, along with lower fuel levels for the altutude.

3.2 was cruising speed, top speed is classified, I ask them if a pheonix missle could catch the SR71 they said never catch us, I said the missle goes mach 5 they then said top speed classified

@@raymondpexton5440 Nothing is classified on the Blackbird anymore. Top speed is limited by the inlet temp of 427C. They may have said that but nowhere near mach 5 with what is known today.

@@honkbob if you only knew what you were talking about.

Yeah it still holds the record for the fastest jet powered aircraft iam not sure about the highest flight but speed for sure only thing faster are rocket powered one time use aircraft

I got that reference lol

A man of a culture

That is a horrible estimate of it's true top speed. The plane would grow about 16 inches at speed so fuel fasteners would be left loose because the heat would expand and tighten the fasteners. once it reached an altitude where it could start the mission the plane would then need to be refueled via tanker. Landing the plane would require a considerable amount of time as well, usually a corkscrew type flight pattern until it could land on the runway.

​@@peasantsarerevolting9343 a cruise speed is not a top speed Even then i highly doubt it could go past Mach 2 without engaging the afterburner (cruise speed usually refers to how fast a jet can fly without the afterburner, hence the term "supercruise" given to aircraft able to break the sound barrier without using the afterburner)

@@otaviom6480 okay... Um... Sure, I'll agree. But I never said anything to the contrary. I only stated what could affect the total time it took to fly from point "A" to point "B", even fair well cost to cost flight. Cheers...

@@peasantsarerevolting9343 yes i know, i was just pointing out that cruise speed refers to non-afterburning top speed, I'm sort of glad that you agree with my point, though.

@@otaviom6480 Sounds good, peace mate.

You don’t just hear it - you feel it too!

Gotta love brute force

The Russian pilot that defected with the 25 n flew to Japan he said it’s nothing compared to the 71

​@@johncarnes9803 because the pilot didn't know about the speed of the SR 71 that's why he said that

comparing the a mig 25 or 31 is like comparing a moped to a corvette

@@Nbmstr2000 he said it couldn’t catch the 71 cause it was too fast n flew too high I’m aware I’ve read the article on it don’t know why you’re telling me something I already said but whatever

Maybe not. When he dies, he "wakes up" again after a certain amount of time. I saw it in a movie -- it must be true!

Realistically he would have gotten evaporated by the sheer speed when the aircraft disintegrated at mach 10

@@Stryker_1 Not Tom Cruise though. He is probably the only qualified pilot who could-and did-survive such an accident.

@@MrTangent Hell Yeah Brother

@@MrTangent Realistically Tom Cruise would be flying something cooler than the Darkstar

Exactly! When it landed, fuel was dripping out of it's "orifices" and the maintenance was a night-mare. However, it was dealt with. Quite impressive for a 60+ year design.

Im the same i wake up in the morning. Find ive expended as well . 7".1😒

It also had inertial navigation. When they were using the radar nose, there would be a small secondary radar antenna that fed into the RCD which would heat-develop the film and run it thru a laser collator to develop a rough picture of shorelines, etc. The back seater could use that known location to update the INS position.

Every single jet fly at a speed of sound which most bullets doesn't achieve

​@@theidiotictroublemaker2281 Most rifle calibers will have a speed of 800 meters per second or higher which is Mach 2.3+, so no.

@@theidiotictroublemaker2281 Many bullets are supersonic. The SR-71 is a little faster than a fast bullet.

​@@r.yuksel9774 most jets at the time could go around Mach 3 it was just not for long a couple of minutes actually because they were not built for cruising at those speeds

@@user-pk3eo6pq6m Most jets can't go Mach 3 at all, it's only a few. Most can go Mach 2-2.5 and that's only when they are clean(no external weapons or fuel).

The SR-71 blackbird was a manned reconnaissance aircraft utilised by the US Air Force and broke the speed record and is the fastest aircraft to date. The SR-72 Darkstar is a proposed unmanned replacement to the SR-71 which was featured in Top Gun Maverick, but with a cockpit. Please double check your sources and make sure that you know the difference between the SR-71 and the SR-72.

@@darkofthearmy The Tom Cruise aircraft is fictional. I know what an SR-71 it, and it has nothing to do with the work of fiction "Maverick"

@@darkofthearmy “Darkstar” is fake, the SR-72 UAV is real though. Plus there’s major differences in the SR-72, then the fictional Darkstar

​@@thatkidfromsmartsville2012 correction, the sr-72 is currently not even flying (that we know of). The concepts are real, and darkstar is probably one of their More sophisticated concepts (like a-12 was the concept for the sr-71). Both of those aircraft are technically "fake" as both do not exist, yet (again that we know of).

China thought Tom Cruises fictional hypersonic aircraft was real enough that they moved spy satellites over the filmsite to get pics.

X15 was a rocket powered aircraft. SR was turbo jet powered.

currently that is, but are we talking about current times?

Sorry but the pics from the China CHINA balloon were taken from this very plane. And yes they still in service. Shhhhh don’t tell the others.

This plane out flew a missle that was shot at it and it went vertical and the missle just stopped and ran out of o2 and this plane watched it fall back to earth that’s how fast it goes

​@@garyjimenez3690 I never heard about an SR-71 going vertical to avoid a missle.

​@@garyjimenez3690 I've heard stories of it being at its "max" speed of Mach 3 plus, with a missle gaining on it, and the pilot pushed the throttle down and it slammed him back in his seat with the acceleration, leaving the missle behind, easily. The pilot said he could have kept accelerating, but didn't because it wasn't necessary. Mach 3.2 was not the SR-71 top speed.

SR-71 cruises at 3.2. That’s probably max speed for the 25.

@@icey2203 SR cruises at 3.14 dummy, check out all the merch😃 MIG 25 max speed was 2.85, but can push past 3.4 and destroy its engines

@@icey2203 MIG 31 outran the SR and was more maneuverable and had missile payload and had better air to air tech and...

@@FIVE_LIKES the SR-71 is not made for air to air combat the what are you on? It’s for reconnaissance it’s not made to have missiles or be maneuverable it’s made to outrun and fly higher then any threat. And how are you gonna say a planes “faster if it blows its engines” it can only do that once and is useless after so it really doesn’t matter that it can do that because they never will do that to catch a 71 in real life. Ans I looked it up it says multiple places the Sr has hit 3.2 and the google says mig is set to max out at 2.8 because the engines fail if it pushes to 3.2. And also I have no idea why you’re so offended I put “probably” and your commy ass blew your lid

@@icey2203 the MIG 31 intercepted the SR71 easily, the SR71 had no maneuverability or weapons, thus rendering it obsolete and it was retired. What is your question?

The MiG-25 can fly to Mach 3, but it was limited to Mach 2.8 due to the risk of engine damage.

If Mig-25 flew faster than Mach 3 or Mach 3.2 -- the engines were ruined. Destroyed. Neat idea, just bad design, junk airplane. Blackbird could fly Mach 3+ all day. All the time. Blackbirds started flying Mach 3.2 in 1962. Read that? 1962!

@@honkbob Finally someone who knows this

@@honkbob миг 25.выпустился в одно время как и блэкберд. Первый миг отдали США что бы успокоились.тем временем были миги модернизированые. Не из железа а титана и нержавейки. Жаропрочная краска и изменена форма лопаток. 3.5 маха летал. Было не меньше 8 модернизаций миг 25.а потом решили на этом остановится. Пилоты не выдерживали.

@@user-ib6ep5wq2m The first Blackbird (CIA's A-12 single seat blackbird) flew in 1962. Mach 3+ in 1963. Mig-25 did not fly until 1964, a year later. If any of the Mig-25s flew faster than mach 3, the engines were destroyed and had to be replaced. The Mig-25 was very fast, and could zoom climb but could not sustain the speed or altitude -- flew at Mach 3 for hours? No.

Yeah but, the SR-71 hasn’t been shot down and has been known to outrun missiles whereas two MiG-25 fox bats where shot down by some F-15s. They also have very different purposes, the Foxbat being an interceptor and the Blackbird being a reconnaissance aircraft, although I am aware that the Foxbat did do reconnaissance missions. In short, Foxbat isn’t as fast as Blackbird. It is still a cool and interesting aircraft that terrified the western world for a long time.

​@@darkofthearmy similar models of the SR-71 (I don't remember the actual designation) were also fitted as interceptors, although the project didn't last very long. Also, the foxbat is slower, as you said, but also had a big problem in realizability, making it not safe for the pilots to hold the plane max speed for longer than minutes (5 to 10 if I'm not mistaken). Anyway, awesome looking plane also, and very interesting concept and approach.

​@@juancarlos-hf7bjThe fighter variant was the YF-12A. Y designated it as prototype, it was never placed in service. While it was obviously super fast, it took several states to execute a turn at those speeds. Might as well just use a missile.

The fastest and the most biggest ATA missile: yeah i am waiting

Mig 25 would break apart trying to intercept it 😂

@@EasyPeasy_Japanesey but the fastest missile wouldn't

@@EasyPeasy_Japanesey SR-71 would break apart trying to escape the R-40R…

We did