Old Film and Old pics

[olroy2044]

A while back we had a thread here about the old 5247 film that was distributed by Seattle Film Works, and Dale's Lab. I found a bunch of slides that I took a long time ago on that film. Here is one that y'all might find interesting.

This was taken while the SR 71 Blackbird was still in front-line service. I was visiting the museum at Beale Air Force Base, the home of the Blackbird. This aircraft had evidently been undergoing maintenance, then was test flown, doing touch and goes (bumps and circuits for those of you across the pond ). He was a long way away when the shot was taken. Shortly after the picture was taken, the pilot fired the afterburners, and disappeared on a tongue of fire. The shot was taken with my old Mamiya 1000 DTL, on 5247, with a 400mm stovepipe and a 3X converter, while standing right alongside the flight line. I'm a little surprised that I didn't loose my camera, film, and freedom! Not one of my smarter moments!



I still have the lens and the converter.

Roy

[photax]

Roy, I like the Blackbird Had a model of it when I was a child. We have the same date of birth: 1964 Must have been a splendid view.

MIK

[daveh]

Roy,

Well at least he didn't fire the afterburners straight at you: it would have made an interesting shot though. It certainly wouldn't have been easy to get a picture at all of the plane moving that fast.

Dave.

[nikonbob]

Roy

No need to tell you that is one ell of an airplane. I sure wish I could have seen that flying. Thank you for posting that photo and for taking risk for getting it in the first place.

Bob

[Deleted]

I met a fellow who was a crew chief on the Black Bird. He said they didn't usually fuel them until just before takeoff because the tanks leaked at normal temperatures. When they got up to speed they generated so much heat the metal swelled and the tanks sealed up. Also, they usually put in just enough fuel on the ground for them to get up to altitude and fuel from a tanker. The Blackbird was to far ahead of its time that even aircraft today would have trouble dealing with it.

The Blackbirds were based in the Philippines during the Vietnam war. The crew chief said you could always tell when one was about to land because the base was totally locked down. It would taxi to a special totally secure hanger area.

The BBirds overflew a lot of places they technically weren't supposed to go but the governments of the countries never complained publicly because it would be an admission they didn't have the technology to stop the flights.

W.

[Randy]

Seemed so futuristic for the times. That was quite a catch Roy. Wonder if that one's in a museum or in a desert parking lot?

[daveh]

Plenty of detail about the plane on Wiki en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird

The SR-71 was in service with the U.S. Air Force from 1964 to 1998. Twelve of the 32 aircraft were destroyed in accidents; none were lost to enemy action.

also:

15 December 2003: SR-71 #972 goes on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

[nikonbob]

The SR-71 left a real impression on me as a youth and I remember reading about Viktor Belenko who defected with his Mig 25 to Japan. I seem to recall that he claimed that in a stern chase the Mig 25 could not catch the SR-71 nor would any of his missiles catch it if he had of fired them. The Mig 25 was no slouch, either being capable of 3.2 Mach but unfortunately at that high speed for prolonged periods the engines had a tendency to destroy themselves. Talk about going _alls out with your hair on fire, impressive.

Bob

[Deleted]

Bob:

The guy I knew said the only way someone could shoot down the SR-71 with the missiles of that era would be to "fire the missile before you knew the Blackbird was coming." Pretty much what the MIG 25 pilot said.

BTW I think that's the MIG 25 I saw in a hanger at Nellis AFB in the Fall of 1979. The people who had been studying it pointed out that although it was fast, some of the welds on the airframe looked like they had been done in a high school shop class. That was pretty much standard for Soviet Bloc military gear. It had a lot of rough edges but most of it was very functional.

W.

[olroy2044]

The gentleman who is in charge of our outdoor display at the Chico Air Museum is a retired United States Air Force veteran, I have the privilege of counting him as a good friend. He was the senior engineer and very senior non-com of the entire SR 71 maintenance program, from before the first deployment until the bird was retired. He knows that airplane inside and out. He got to fly in the two-seat, dual control version on several occasions, actually logging some stick time!..........................................Now that you mention it, I think I hate him! ;D He said that it was a fantastic machine, but a maintenance nightmare. I don't remember the number, but he told me that on several occasions, missiles, both ground-launched and air-to-air, were fired at the Blackbird. When the on-board sensors detected the launch, the pilots simply notched up the power and outran the missiles! Now that's a hot-rod!

Roy

[barbarian]

The ironic thing is, the blackbird was originally conceived as an interceptor to handle the mythical capabilities of the Foxbat, which was unknown, but rumored to be unbelievably fast.

Turns out the YF12A (interceptor version) was far faster and could fly far higher than the Foxbat, which turned out to be really fast, but very little else.

[Deleted]

If you look close you'll see the SR-71 was the original "Stealth Aircraft." The fuselage is very similar to some of the later stealth planes and it's my understanding that the SR71 is where some of the design ideas came from. At the time it was built I don't think they were trying to be stealthy. It just came out that way. There's a book--can't remember the title now, written by one of the Chief Designers at the "Skunk Works" when they were brainstorming the Blackbird. It's very interesting reading.

W.

[olroy2044]

The more you learn about the SR 71, the more you realize what an aeronautical marvel it was. It's the only aircraft I can think of that used less fuel as it went faster. Don explained, or attempted to, that it had something to do with the heat generated by the engine moving through the air, and somehow harnessing that heat and using it to develop thrust, with just enough fuel added to maintain the heat. Just his very simplistic description was enough to make my brain swell!! ;D. I thought I would catch him off guard once, and asked him how fast that thing would go. He just grinned and told me, "Roy, you know I can't tell you that!"

Then he told me that they really didn't know, because the engine had more power than the airframe and aerodynamic controls could handle.

P.S. Don's got a high quality audio recording of the starter cart that was used to fire the BB up. It was powered by 2 455 CID Buick engines that were really souped up and making a ton of horsepower. They would start up and rev like the dickens to drive the starter units. They were running through open exhausts, and literally S-C-R-E-A-M-E-D!! The tape is ear-shattering!

P.P.S.S.

Wonder if that one's in a museum or in a desert parking lot?

I have no way to find out, the pic is too grainy to read any identifiers at all. Roy

[daveh]

Presumably it was flying so high there was little atmosphere to 'slow it down when it was really opened up.

[Deleted]

The SR71 has a unique intake on its engines that changes the amount of air being ingested and the flow pattern of the air, depending on the throttle setting and speed.. It's my understanding that the change in the air flow pattern is a critical part of the high performance.