YF-12 and SR71 Blackbird

Mike Polay "Seminole North" weather recons MikeD?
smile.gif
 
The CIA funded and operated the A-12 program, and Lockheed proposals also included RB-12s, AF-12s and even B-12s. The YF-12 fired variants of the AIM-47 Super Falcon, and also trialled the USA's first pulse-Doppler lookdown shootdown radar. It was very accurate against its intended targets - bombers. It hit 6 out of 7 in trials. The first live shoot hit a QB-47 flying 60000 feet lower and the AIM-47 flew through the target's horizontal stab!

The big external difference between the YF-12 and the SR-71 is the nose. The chines on the SR-71 extend much further forward than on the YF-12, and the nose of the latter is rounded to house the radar etc.

The Blackbird also flew as M-21 motherships launching the D-21 drone. That's a whole other story.

I will regret forever that I never had a chance to see a Blackbird flying.....
 
[ QUOTE ]
Dosen't NASA still have a couple used for research?

If so they are the only two left.
frown.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

I thinkthey are down to one now
 
I have an old video all about Test Pilots and it says that the YF-12 Program was cancelled due to the aircraft's lack of manueverability
 
In his book SLED DRIVER, SR-71/Blackbird, pilot Brian Shul writes:

I'll always remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day as Walt and I were screaming across southern California 13 miles high. We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft as we enter Los Angeles Center's airspace. Though they didn't really control us, they did monitor our movement across their scope. I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its groundspeed. "90 knots", Center replied. Moments later a Twin Beech required the same. "120 knots", Center answered. We weren't the only one proud of our speed that day as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted, "Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests groundspeed readout." There was a slight pause. "525 knots on the ground, Dusty." Another silent pause. As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation this was, I heard the familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my back-seater.

It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison as Walt inquired, "Center, Aspen 20, you got a groundspeed readout for us?" There was a longer than normal pause.

"Aspen, I show one thousand seven hundred forty-two knots." No further speed inquiries were heard on that frequency.
 
[ QUOTE ]
YF-12 was to be an interceptor, SR-71 a recon plane only.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mike,

Interesting story about the name, i.e. "SR" vice "RS" as in Reconnaissance, Strategic.

Apparently when the very existence of the plane was announced it was by then President LBJ. He apparently transposed the "RS" to "SR". Rather than contradict the President's error they merely used it from that time on.

Can't verify the truth of the story but it's been around for a long, long time.

Kind of like the story that I actually know how to fly! Woo Hoo!
 
That story about LBJ was in the book "skunk works" about Lokheed and creating the stealth fighter, U-2 and SR-71.

The author was Ben Rich an engineer and director after Kelly Johnson retired. Therfore I assume it's true.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
YF-12 was to be an interceptor, SR-71 a recon plane only.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mike,

Interesting story about the name, i.e. "SR" vice "RS" as in Reconnaissance, Strategic.

Apparently when the very existence of the plane was announced it was by then President LBJ. He apparently transposed the "RS" to "SR". Rather than contradict the President's error they merely used it from that time on.


[/ QUOTE ]

Later, they tried to rename the U-2 to the TR-1 for "Tactical Reconnaisance" and I believe it had that moniker in the 80s and early 90s before they scrapped it and went back to U-2.

Something similar happened with the JSF. The X-32 and the X-35 were both competing to be the F-24, but when Secretary Rumsfeld announced the X-35 as the winner, he called it the F-35, and the name has stuck. But there were several planning documents in the system already that had funding set aside for the F-24 etc.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Later, they tried to rename the U-2 to the TR-1 for "Tactical Reconnaisance" and I believe it had that moniker in the 80s and early 90s before they scrapped it and went back to U-2.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that was because of how much differences there were between not only the planes mission, but the actual aircraft. The TR-1 while basically a U-2, was greatly modified i.e. wing pods, hence it was a "new" plane.

Made no difference to most folks as they still called it the "U-2"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top