The SR-71 Blackbird: The Fastest Plane on Planet Earth (And Its Sitting in a Museum)

[rangerrebew]

The SR-71 Blackbird: The Fastest Plane on Planet Earth (And Its Sitting in a Museum)
[1]
Main Image

Why?
Dave Majumdar [2]

As the Air Force’s budgets declined toward the end of the Cold War, the service could no longer justify keeping the expensive SR-71 in its inventory—especially as new threats started to emerge. The service expected that a combination of satellites and other technical means would replace the venerable jet.

Capable of cruising at speeds in excess of Mach 3.2, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft to ever to see operational service. But even though its performance has never been matched, the SR-71 was retired as the Cold War drew to a close.

The Blackbird was initially retired in 1990, even before the fall of the Soviet Union. Eventually, however, three of the jets were reactivated by the Air Force—at the insistence of Congress—for a brief period between 1995 and 1998. Meanwhile, NASA flew research missions with the aircraft until 1999. In the end, the Blackbird was retired without a true replacement. But why?
 
Source URL (retrieved on January 29, 2017): http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-sr-71-blackbird-the-fastest-plane-planet-earth-its-19213

[EC]

Why?

It was perfectly designed for the job it was intended to do. That's usually enough reason to kill any aircraft (see the ongoing A10 saga).

[Cripplecreek]

Why?

It was perfectly designed for the job it was intended to do. That's usually enough reason to kill any aircraft (see the ongoing A10 saga).

It may be perfectly designed for its intended purpose but flying fast and high while taking pictures is a pretty limited role in the age of satellites. Also sounds like its expensive to operate.

[GtHawk]

Shouldn't that be the fastest plane on planet Earth that we know of? Does anyone doubt that the aliens that gave us the tech for the SR-71 have given us better tech since the 50's?

[Wingnut]

Shouldn't that be the fastest plane on planet Earth that we know of? Does anyone doubt that the aliens that gave us the tech for the SR-71 have given us better tech since the 50's?

I think they cut us off.  They saw how screwed up we are.

[EC]

It may be perfectly designed for its intended purpose but flying fast and high while taking pictures is a pretty limited role in the age of satellites. Also sounds like its expensive to operate.

Can't jam an aircraft.

You can take a picture anywhere in the world in a matter of a couple hours - sats can take days to change orbit (most aren't even capable of doing so).

Sats can't come down for a closer look if it's really needed.

$200,000 an hour sounds like a massive amount, but when I take my girl up with a full loadout, I'm carrying nigh on half a million dollars of bang. None of that is expected back.

[Wingnut]

The Blackbird was 60's tech.  It was all analog. Prolly could still fly in one of those Nuke e burst scenarios no problem at all.  It was a flying bad ass HiPro 57 chevy in a Elon Musk Tesla world.

Damn Shame.

[Cripplecreek]

Can't jam an aircraft.

You can take a picture anywhere in the world in a matter of a couple hours - sats can take days to change orbit (most aren't even capable of doing so).

Sats can't come down for a closer look if it's really needed.

$200,000 an hour sounds like a massive amount, but when I take my girl up with a full loadout, I'm carrying nigh on half a million dollars of bang. None of that is expected back.

I know some incarnations of the U2 are still in use but it can loiter at extreme altitudes. I think NASA uses them.

[EC]

They were designed to be two halves of the whole - the Blackbird gets in and out quick and relies on raw speed and razzle dazzle to stay out of trouble. The U2 can hang around for days, pilot discomfort permitting, but it's slow and it's only defense is that very little can actually reach it.

Of the two, it's the U2 role that was replaced by satellites. 

[SZonian]

I know some incarnations of the U2 are still in use but it can loiter at extreme altitudes. I think NASA uses them.

U2S models built in the 80s and some 60s era airframes updated/upgraded to glass cockpits and other "options" are still flying...a few dozen of them in fact.

U2's aren't just used for picture taking anymore...that's about all I'm free to say, but you're welcome to search the interwebs for information on a lot of what we're doing with the plane.

[Cripplecreek]

U2S models built in the 80s and some 60s era airframes updated/upgraded to glass cockpits and other "options" are still flying...a few dozen of them in fact.

U2's aren't just used for picture taking anymore...that's about all I'm free to say, but you're welcome to search the interwebs for information on a lot of what we're doing with the plane.

I think it would probably be most accurate to say that the SR-71 was the fastest manned aircraft. Plenty of much faster unmanned experimentals out there that we know about and that we don't know about. We've seen the launch of hypersonics on national news and there's the experimental space plane that was recently landed after an extended period in orbit.

[endicom]

I think it would probably be most accurate to say that the SR-71 was the fastest manned aircraft.

X-15 was an aircraft but rocket powered.

[thackney]

Can't jam an aircraft.

Tell that to Gary Powers.

[Cripplecreek]

Tell that to Gary Powers.

They jammed a missile up his butt.

[Wingnut]

They jammed a missile up his butt.

A big Russian enema from Comrade Khrushchev

[Frank Cannon]

The service expected that a combination of satellites and other technical means would replace the venerable jet.

And they were right. Pretty much sums up why there are velvet ropes around the plane now.

[SZonian]

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-news/interceptor-version-12-spy-plane-yf-12.html