aumber
Member 195
18 entries
139585 views

 RSS
Contributor to project:
ET2 Architecture?
Adam Umber
Immortal since Nov 1, 2007
Uplinks: 0, Generation 1
  • Affiliated
    •  /  
  • Invited
    •  /  
  • Descended
    • aumber’s project
    ET2 Architecture?
    This research studio will focus on architectural horizon and ground in a new way; from the perspective of what was called the big blue marble in...
    Now playing SpaceCollective
    Where forward thinking terrestrials share ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe, living the lives of science fiction. Introduction
    Featuring Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames, based on an idea by Kees Boeke.
    From aumber's personal cargo

    SR71 Blackbird
    Project: ET2 Architecture?


    The Blackbird series planes: A12, YF12A and the SR-71 were developed as reconnaissance planes, taking images from an altitude of 85,000+ feet. The birds were first developed in the late 1950's, and decommissioned in 1990. They were brought back from 1995-1999 for additional usage.






    STRUCTURE & SKIN:
    The skin created a volume for fuel. It would contract at high speed and altitude, and would actually leak fuel until in flight. It would then have to be refueled in the air, giving the plane a range of 2,000 miles unrefueled. Fuel weight accounted for 57% of vehicle weight.

    Gross vehicle weight: 140,000 lbs
    Fuel weight: 80,000 lbs

    Skin Diagrams



    Skin Analysis



    Operable Skin




    The frame was made of Titanium and Titanium alloys.



    Construction


    COCKPIT:
    The reconnaissance aircraft was meant for one pilot; trainer planes were two-seaters





    ENGINES:
    SR-71s are powered by two Pratt and Whitney J-58 axial-flow turbojets with afterburners, each producing 32,500 pounds of thrust. Studies have shown that less than 20 percent of the total thrust used to fly at Mach 3 is produced by the basic engine itself. The balance of the total thrust is produced by the unique design of the engine inlet and "moveable spike" system at the front of the engine nacelles and by the ejector nozzles at the exhaust which burn air compressed in the engine bypass system.




    'Shock Diamonds' were created by overexpansion & underexpansion conditions:

    Overexpansion

    Underexpansion


    The SR71 would fly at speeds of Mach 3.2, or 2200 mph. It set air speed records from New York-London as well as London-Los Angeles. The plane would sustain Mach 3 speed for an hour, resulting in heat soak temperatures of 600 degrees (F).

    New York to London Speed Run Data is:
    Time Flown: 1hour, 54min, 56.4sec
    Distance Flown: 3,461.528 statute miles
    Speed Flown: 1,806.957368 statute mi/hr.

    London to Los Angeles Speed Run Data is:
    Time Flown: 3hour, 47min, 39sec
    Distance Flown: 5,446.87 statute miles
    Speed Flown: 1,435.59 statute mi/hr.






    Thu, Dec 6, 2007  Permanent link
    Categories: Aircraft, Speed, Altitude
    Sent to project: ET2 Architecture?
      RSS for this post
    2 comments
      Promote (4)
      
      Add to favorites (1)
    Create synapse
     
    Comments:


    stone2065     Wed, Dec 12, 2007  Permanent link
    Excellent post.

    About the only thing I can add, is from a friend of mine that I was in the USAF with. He used to work the flightline, in avionics (i.e. he worked on just about anything that flew into our TDY base at Torrejon AFB in Spain in the early 80's). He had told me that the "war" specs for the SR-71 were more like a top end of Mach 10. By the way, "war" specs would also do scary stuff to other planes, such as the F-16 (Mach 3.5 to Mach 4, depending on fuel, conditions, and general flight worthiness of the aircraft). For all of those that think I'm full of it... the guy that told me this was a good friend of mine, who had no reason to brag about the machines he knew about.

    I have also found that as a rule of thumb, the military always skews the data from aircraft. For instance, the aforementioned F-16... if you check most stats for the plane, it makes it sound like it's a pretty decent size bird. Sorry, but it's small... really small, at least for a front like fighter. Like overall length is around 25' or so, not the well over 40' the military tries to shove down the public's throat. Height to top of runner (they say) is around 16'. THAT made me laugh. It's more like 10', maybe 12' at most. Yeh, gotta love the military... couldn't give a straight answer if the question were "will the sun rise tomorrow?".
    Christophe     Thu, Dec 20, 2007  Permanent link
    The last use of this plane was for high speed experiment for NASA (the white thing at the back of the plane here was added for this experiment).

    You can find a lot of good images on the Dryden flight research center site.

    Also more informations on www.sr-71.org and www.blackbirds.net/sr71.
     
          Cancel