SR-71 Blackbird: How the World's FASTEST Plane Became Irrelevant

Comments · 1.6K

• ME

  @megaprojects9649 · 3 years ago · pinned

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• SP

  @spamuel98 · 3 years ago

  Getting titanium for your super secret spy plane from the people you&apos;re spying on has got to be one of the ballsiest moves in history.

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• AF

  @afterthefact6708 · 1 year ago

  Why is the thumbnail a crappy AI version of the SR71 when there are tons of actual pictures of it XD

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• AI

  @Ai-dz7ys · 3 years ago

  A mega projects about how they procured the Titainium off the Russians would be awesome. Please Simon.

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• CH

  @chipman1589 · 3 years ago

  Santa has refused to give me this for 22 years and counting

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• TH

  @TheMartuksxxxx · 3 years ago

  According to SR71 pilots, USSR Mig pilots, and US radar officer of that time in an interview. USSR had capabilities to shoot down blackbird. But only with MIG31. According to interviews 2 times soviets flew &quot;relatively&quot; close to SR71 to get a missile lock. Missiles were just never fired. Why? Because funny enough, not a lot of people know this. SR never few over russian airspace. It would hug the border. (Specifically to prevent an incident like with U2.) <br>Altho SR71 was indeed shot at by ground launchers multiple times they all were unable to hit.

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• TH

  @theshadowoftruth7561 · 3 years ago

  I worked on The SR-71 in the late 70&apos;s at Beale AFB. I even sat in the cockpit once and ran the flight controls. We had to get ALL the air bubbles out of the Hydraulic Fluid.

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• TI

  @tigbcs · 3 years ago

  Even after being retired for ~30years, it still looks like it came from 100 years in the future. What a sexy machine 😍

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• FO

  @Fortunes.Fool. · 3 years ago

  This plane is just enormous in person. It must&apos;ve looked like a spaceship to the people who saw it for the first time.

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• YU

  @Yuvattar · 3 years ago

  For the love of all that is holy and pure, the video&apos;s thumbnail is not an SR-71. Amazing video though, thank you.

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• DE

  @deathstrike · 3 years ago

  If I may? Actually there was a highly modified MIG-25 Foxbat that briefly exceeded the speed of the SR-71. However, since the record attempt was unofficial and therefore not sanctioned, it remains as the &quot;unofficial&quot; record holder at 2193 mph (Mach 3.2). It&apos;s pilot complained that the Kuznetsov engines it used were pushed to the point they burned completely out and the aircraft was scrapped. The &quot;production&quot; MIG-25 Foxbat and it&apos;s successor the MIG-31 are technically capable of exceeding Mach 3, but will have engine damage. They are limited to Mach 2.8 (1864 mph) and stand as the fastest, continuous production aircraft. <br><br>As for the SR-71, there are still MANY things we do not know about this aircraft. There are &quot;Officer Club&quot; rumors that there have been times the SR-71 has pushed beyond 2200 mph, and well over 120 thousand feet. But they can never be proven, nor substantiated. Their cadre of pilots were know as the Naja as in the designation for the cobra. Cobra in Hindu I believe it is Naja. Also, many of it&apos;s innovations can still be seen in aircraft such as the B-1B Lancer Bomber, The B-2A Spirit Stealth Bomber, and the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II Fighters and the former F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter. Kelly Johnson&apos;s eye for curves and stealth shapes paved the way for these aircraft to exist.

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• RA

  @RageDavis · 3 years ago

  The black paint was not intended to absorb heat, quiet the opposite, actually: it was meant to radiate heat away from the aircraft.<br>Triethylborane was not &quot;mixed in&quot; the fuel, it was used as &quot;liquid sparkplug&quot; during startup of the engines and for igniting the afterburners, since it is hypergolic <br>(burns sponaneously in contact with air).

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