It the Hilary Swank of planes. Its pretty hot but on the other hand there are a lot of sharp, odd angles that make it too lean and masculine. Does it make me a biplane enthusiast if I do like it?

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

Well, at least biplane curious. Not that there's anything wrong with that. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

The F-22 is a beautiful machine, but nothing has ever come close to the SR-71 for its combination of beauty and wickedness.

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If you are a Canuck that engages in gratuitous bashing of the US, you are probably on my Iggy List. So, save your self a bunch of typing a response unless you also feel the need to gratuitously bash me. If so, have fun.
"Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f___ things up" - Barack Obama, 2020

Very true.

Apparently, the SR-71 was designed and in the skies in an astonishingly short amount of time for such a high-performance platform. :-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

To paraphrase Neil de grasse Tyson, we would be to mars in 10 months if China said they were going to build a base there. Fear does wonders for motivation.

"Fear does wonders for motivation."


Well, any veteran of a military bootcamp can attest to the truth of that statement. ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

There are a number of astonishing things about the SR-71. One of the most ironic was that the US government formed a fake shell company to purchase all of the titanium it needed to build the fleet from Russia, the only supplier of that exotic metal at the time. The irony was that we intended to fly the planes built with their titanium over their country to spy on them. ;-P

Other astonishing factoids....
* The air inlets for the engines were engineering marvels in that they slowed down the incoming Mach 3+ air to subsonic speeds so the engines wouldn't be blown apart by shock waves
* The navigational system used star sights to determine the plane's location, even in the middle of the day
* The engines were significantly more efficient at Mach 3 than at subsonic cruise speeds and the plane actually got more 'MPG' at Mach 3 than at 700mph.
* Since there were no sealants that could withstand the intense heat generated by flying Mach 3, the fuel tanks in the wings leaked profusely until the titanium skin heated up
* There is an SR-71 displayed in the Udvar Hazy center of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport that set a new speed record from LA to Washington by arriving over Washington in 1 hour and 4 minutes. This was the flight that delivered the plane to the museum in 1990.

Greg

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If you are a Canuck that engages in gratuitous bashing of the US, you are probably on my Iggy List. So, save your self a bunch of typing a response unless you also feel the need to gratuitously bash me. If so, have fun.
"Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f___ things up" - Barack Obama, 2020

Simply Amazing, Greg. Thanks for sharing all of that knowledge with me. :-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Those very-same F22s visit my local base pretty regularly, so I get to see them occasionally. We're going to have an F35 squadron pretty soon which will be interesting.

The Anchorage paper had an interesting story about an off-course U2 recently:
https://www.adn.com/...early-triggered-war/

Check out those assless chaps!

F22 knife edge over U2 in AK.

As with design of the U2, the head of the Skunkworks facility not only insisted that the government keep their fingers out of the design & test, but also kept most of Lockheed's management out of the process as well. This book is good, Skunk Works.

That probably helped, too.

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king of the road says you move too slow
KING OF THE ROAD SAYS YOU MOVE TOO SLOW

My favorite SR-71 story:

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/...-71-story-1079127041

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LLLEEEEEEEEEEEERRRROOOYYY JEEENNNNNKKKIIINNNNNS!!!

I've read that, and it's an awesome story. Funny as hell.

About 25 years ago, I was at a National Glider meet in west Texas milling around a giant hangar watching the rain fall for the third straight day, grounding all of our activities. Guys were clustered in groups shooting the shit and talking about gliders, flying airplanes, politics, etc. just killing time. I found myself in a group of about four or five guys chatting. Turned out that one of them was a sled driver. Now, I had been soaking up knowledge about the SR-71 for years prior, but I had never met a pilot that had flown one. I was star struck and, even though I would have had a thousand questions floating around in my mind moments before I encountered this gentleman, at that moment I couldn't think of a damn thing. Finally, like a ten year old kid, I asked, "What's the coolest thing about flying the SR-71?" That was all I could come up with. He looked at me like he relished the question, though. He said the coolest thing for him was right after an AR track (air-to-air refueling with a tanker). The tanker's maximum altitude was down around 35,000' if fully loaded and the SR had to come down from around 80,000' to refuel. After topping off, the SR would bank right to clear the tanker and ease the throttles forward for the climb back to their 80,000' operational altitude. He said that Lockheed had thoughtfully provided a tiny periscope at the top of the cabin that the pilot could use to check for SAMs on his tail. However, he said a far better use was to use it at night to view the two 100-yard long streaks of blue flame coming from each engine as they pushed him back into the seat and climbed at 6,000-8,000 FPM. He looked at me and said, "There was nothing like that feeling and there never will be again."

Okay, that's cool. Question answered. Thank you, sir.

Greg

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If you are a Canuck that engages in gratuitous bashing of the US, you are probably on my Iggy List. So, save your self a bunch of typing a response unless you also feel the need to gratuitously bash me. If so, have fun.
"Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f___ things up" - Barack Obama, 2020

I love watching the F 22s take off from Hickam when I'm on Oahu. They don't sound as loud as the F 15s, but they climb like monkeys on meth.

Thanks! I did not know about that.

More info: http://www.thedrive.com/...t-not-as-a-spy-plane