SR-71 Blackbird: So Fast It Could ‘Make The Tires Melt’ (She Hit Mach 3.3)
ByBrent M. EastwoodPublished2 days ago
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The SR-71 Blackbird: The Fastest Plane, the Most Repairs Needed?: It was a mystery. The SR-71 Blackbird was built of titanium and other space-age alloys to handle the excessive heat caused by high-altitude and high-speed flight. But for some reason, some of the titanium parts were corroding. Various elements showed corrosion in the summer, but no problems were found during the winter months. This was just one of many odd problems found on the SR-71, still the fastest plane ever to fly. And, even stranger, it sits retired in a museum. Here are just a few of the issues the Blackbird encountered during its career:
How Did The Engineers Figure Out the Corrosion Problem?
Thankfully the engineers worked like present-day data scientists. They had evidence from the titanium scraps that were discarded during the production process. Engineers had kept track of each scrap and described its condition in a database. They then devised a trend analysis and found something that shed some insights into the problem.
Summer Versus Winter – a Whodunit
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/12/sr-71-blackbird-fastest-plane-on-earth-but-a-repair-nightmare/
