SR-71 - Once in awhile a good website is made. :ro:

[jwanck11]

http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/SR-71/index.htm

[dingleberry]

Awesome plane. I would love to hear more of the stories about what they really accomplished. Damn secret classification.

[Fit to be Tige]

Definitely more stories. I have seen the one out by Dulles at the museum. It is simply amazing.

[Fast1911]

sweet

[Tequilasun]

All the really cool spy plane stuff is simply amazing. I have been told ( not sure it's true) that they built these suckers so that the panels on the outside could expand and contract because the friction of the air made them expand quite a bit.

[dingleberry]

All the really cool spy plane stuff is simply amazing. I have been told ( not sure it's true) that they built these suckers so that the panels on the outside could expand and contract because the friction of the air made them expand quite a bit.

Yup. In fact, they expand so much at speed, that they have large gaps when they are on the ground. Including the fuel tank/lines. They put some fuel in just before takeoff, and the stuff just drips out of the plane. So they don't fill it full before takeoff - they takeoff nearly empty on fuel and have to immediately perform an aerial refueling. Once topped off, they accelerate to speed and everything seals up properly.

Also, the fuel they use is used by no other aircraft in the world. The stuff is not flammable like regular jet fuel. You can hold a match to a puddle of it, and it won't ignite. Cool chit.

[Timmy!]

Crazy to think they created that thing so long ago! Sometimes it's hard to believe that we had that technology back in the 60's!

[NICKYPOO]

They had one do a couple of passes at the races one year. Phenominal aircraft.

I didn't know you were an aircraft buff Tequilla.

[Tequilasun]

I'm not whole hog like you Nicky. But I do get geeked up on the stealth aircraft. It the technology that hooks me. I can tell you the exact moment it happened. We had a guy who graduated a few years before me go into the Air Force... He was a machinist for them and was telling me that he was primarily in charge of making a piece for the landing gear on one of the plane because the broke a lot when the landed. He was a smoke blower, but it was interesting to me.

My dad was also an aircraft mechanic on Carriers and he has some cool stories about stuff from the Vietnam era.

[NICKYPOO]

My dad was also an aircraft mechanic on Carriers and he has some cool stories about stuff from the Vietnam era.

Those were crazy times. I'm sure he's got some crazy stories.

[kenr08]

The stealth stuff is pretty cool. I use to work for an aircraft company that did some testing out at Andrews Air Force base in the desert. We would service the plane we were testing on at night because the testing was during the day. We shared the hanger with an F117 Stealth Fighter. Very cool plane by the way....anyway, back to the story. One night while we were working on the plane we kept hearing these "thuds". We asked the Air Force Technicians what the sound was and they told us it was the bats in the hanger running into the tail of the F117. No lie!! You could see the bats on the ground. Very, very cool stuff.

[Tequilasun]

The stealth stuff is pretty cool. I use to work for an aircraft company that did some testing out at Andrews Air Force base in the desert. We would service the plane we were testing on at night because the testing was during the day. We shared the hanger with an F117 Stealth Fighter. Very cool plane by the way....anyway, back to the story. One night while we were working on the plane we kept hearing these "thuds". We asked the Air Force Technicians what the sound was and they told us it was the bats in the hanger running into the tail of the F117. No lie!! You could see the bats on the ground. Very, very cool stuff.

That's hard to believe. But the coolest things abou these planes often is. I've read that the radar signature of the 117 is about the size of a kiwi. So it makes sense. Very cool, btw.

[NICKYPOO]

That's crazy about the bats.

[Oklahoma Breakdown]

Hey Tequila, Sorry for the slight hijack. My Dad worked on the Midway and Enterprise back in the day. Any chance your Dad was on either of those?

[Domsz06]

LA to DC, 64 minutes, that's freaking AWESOME!!!

they out ran the missle at 2250 MPH, that's freaking hauling balls!!

almost Mach 3. I wonder how fast it REALLY went?