Not SR-71 Blackbird

Originally posted by Zaphod58
There WAS an MD-21, which was the Blackbird with the drone attached, however there was never a successful launch of the drone. There were, I believe, three attempts, one resulting in the loss of both aircraft, and two resulting in the loss of the drone, and the near loss of the SR71.

The M-21 was a 2 seat conversion of the A-12 and it carried a D-21 drone piggy back. Two M-21 were built with the loss of one during a drone launch. The SR-71 never carried the D-21 Drone.

Thanks for the correction, it's been awhile since I heard the stats about that program.

The D-21, after the collision with the A-12, was moved to the B-52 bomber, where it was used extensively for another 10 launches, after that it was decomissioned. I think the A-12 had 6 flights with the D-21, when the 6th, the D-21 collided with the A-12, killing one of the pilots(forgot his name, but it started with 'Tom').

Shattered OUT...

The D-21 had an engine on it I think but, what was its top speed?

Here ya go. Some good info on the D-21 program.

www.wvi.com...

So everybody came to the same solution about the plane...?

Above some people were talking about the proper gear to survive high velocities and I just thought that, since somebody brought this topic back to life, I'd add that the astronauts survived reentry into the Earth's atmosphere at speeds of up to Mach 25.

With the SR-71/U2 programs it was the altitude that was the problem. If they had a decompression at 80,000 feet they'd die pretty quickly, which is why they wear space suits. I've gotten to watch some U-2 drivers suit up, and it's an interesting process, but takes a long time. They have to prebreathe for a couple of hours before they can suit up, then it takes about an hour to get the suit on. After they get the suit on, there's a guy who has to follow them around carrying a small airconditioning unit that attaches to the suit so they don't overheat. Once they get ready to get in the cockpit, it's almost like they have to pry them in. They have enough room to move their arms around to get to the switches but not much more than that.

If you can get your hands on a copy of Sled Driver by Brian Schull, he has some absolutely incredible pictures in there from the cockpit of the SR-71, including one gorgeous one where he did a self portrait and you can see the curvature of the earth reflected in his helmet. What was rather amusing about his attempts to take pictures was that he'd put the camera up on the instrument panel, and it would start to overheat from the friction on the airframe, so he'd take it down and put it by his leg, where it would start to freeze, so every few minutes he'd have to put it back up on the instrument panel to warm it up again.

Murcielago!?!?!?!

Please do not lie to us! Please tell us the truth We are your friends! Did you have sumpin ta do with "Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE)!!





DOH!!

[edit on 18-6-2005 by Ohio_Ron]