During the height of the Cold War, the United States was vigorously conceiving a top secret weapon that would give them the upper hand. The Lockheed Skunk Works took the project and the product of their painstaking planning was the SR71 Blackbird. The aircraft was a reconnaissance air vessel whose technology was way ahead of its time.
Reconnaissance operations are military missions wherein the main objective is to gather valuable information about enemy territory characteristics. Data gathered from these operations are then used for planning of future operations. Reconnaissance is very useful in providing a country with an advantage over the opposition and the Blackbirds were built for this.
The main material used in the construction of a Blackbird was Titanium. And it is an interesting fact that the C. I. A. Made a number of fake companies to purchase Titanium for the construction of Blackbirds. Imagine the irony of selling the materials to your enemy that they need for the construction of a weapon they will use against you.
Speed and stealth are the main weapons of a Blackbird that make it very successful. The aircraft travel at speeds that exceed that of sound by up to 3.5 times and it could travel at very high altitudes that add to its stealth. It was also designed such that Soviet radars could not detect it easily and it is able to survive missiles simply by outrunning them.
But at these kinds of flight velocities and altitudes, measures had to be taken to ensure the safety of pilots. At very high altitudes there is a chance that the pilots will lose consciousness which could be disastrous. The bodies of pilots could also be strained during emergency ejections while the aircraft is travelling at a high velocity. The solution to these dilemmas was to protect the pilots using a pressurized suit.
Blackbirds travel at very high velocities such that wheel brakes will not be enough to stop it during its landing. Thus the engineered used a parachute as an aid to the wheel brakes in stopping the plane. After landing, the pilots are not allowed to immediately get off the plane because the heat of the plane generated from its high speed flight could injure the pilots.
The design of the aircraft was so radical the technologies needed to create it do not exist yet. Because of this, new technologies were created to be able to complete the aircraft and some of those breakthroughs are still used today.
It is amazing that in spite of the obstacles that faced the designers of the aircraft during that time, they were still able to create a highly sophisticated aircraft. But the SR71 Blackbird was note created free from flaws. During that time, the engineers were not able to solve the problem of fabricating a material that could resist the effects of temperature differential due to high speed flights. So the engineers opted to install an open fuel tank such the fuel even leaks out of it. Its purpose was to maintain a constant temperature throughout the tank and when it gets hot, it will expand it will seal itself to stop the leakage. Even with this imperfection, the Blackbird has still served its purpose excellently.
Reconnaissance operations are military missions wherein the main objective is to gather valuable information about enemy territory characteristics. Data gathered from these operations are then used for planning of future operations. Reconnaissance is very useful in providing a country with an advantage over the opposition and the Blackbirds were built for this.
The main material used in the construction of a Blackbird was Titanium. And it is an interesting fact that the C. I. A. Made a number of fake companies to purchase Titanium for the construction of Blackbirds. Imagine the irony of selling the materials to your enemy that they need for the construction of a weapon they will use against you.
Speed and stealth are the main weapons of a Blackbird that make it very successful. The aircraft travel at speeds that exceed that of sound by up to 3.5 times and it could travel at very high altitudes that add to its stealth. It was also designed such that Soviet radars could not detect it easily and it is able to survive missiles simply by outrunning them.
But at these kinds of flight velocities and altitudes, measures had to be taken to ensure the safety of pilots. At very high altitudes there is a chance that the pilots will lose consciousness which could be disastrous. The bodies of pilots could also be strained during emergency ejections while the aircraft is travelling at a high velocity. The solution to these dilemmas was to protect the pilots using a pressurized suit.
Blackbirds travel at very high velocities such that wheel brakes will not be enough to stop it during its landing. Thus the engineered used a parachute as an aid to the wheel brakes in stopping the plane. After landing, the pilots are not allowed to immediately get off the plane because the heat of the plane generated from its high speed flight could injure the pilots.
The design of the aircraft was so radical the technologies needed to create it do not exist yet. Because of this, new technologies were created to be able to complete the aircraft and some of those breakthroughs are still used today.
It is amazing that in spite of the obstacles that faced the designers of the aircraft during that time, they were still able to create a highly sophisticated aircraft. But the SR71 Blackbird was note created free from flaws. During that time, the engineers were not able to solve the problem of fabricating a material that could resist the effects of temperature differential due to high speed flights. So the engineers opted to install an open fuel tank such the fuel even leaks out of it. Its purpose was to maintain a constant temperature throughout the tank and when it gets hot, it will expand it will seal itself to stop the leakage. Even with this imperfection, the Blackbird has still served its purpose excellently.
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