THE 456th FIGHTER INTERCEPTOR SQUADRON

T PROTECTORS OF  S. A. C.

 

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Courtesy Of Lockheed Martin

The Blackbirds

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From The

LOCKHEED SKUNK WORKS

 


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 1       Was The U-2 The First Blackbird? 2      The U-2's Intended Successor
 3       The U-2, Oxcart, And SR-71 4      The Oxcart Story
 5      The Blackbirds 6      The Blackbird's Acronyms
 7      What is Titanium ?  8      Blackbird Engines
 9      The A-12 10      Project Black Shield
11      The YF-12 12      NASA & The YF-12
13      Building The Blackbirds 14      Projects Tagboard & Senior Bowl
15      Project Tagboard 16      Project Senior Bowl
17      The D-21 Drones 18      The M-21
19      The SR-71 The Inside Story 20      Blackbird Details
21      The Fall and Rise Of The Blackbirds 22      Blackbird Maintenance
23      Blackbird Starter Carts 24      Fly The SR-71 Simulator
25      SR-71 Mission Profile 26      Blackbird Ejection Seats
27      Blackbird Drawings 28      The Mig-25 Vs The SR-71
29      All Of The Blackbird Records 30      SR-71 Speed Records
31      Reactivation Of The SR-71 32      The SR-71 And NASA
33      SR-71 & NASA LASRE Project 34

     Why The SR-71 Was Retited
35      The SR-71 Program Closes Down 36      SR-71 Questions & Thoughts
37      Personnel Who Flew The Blackbirds 38      Blackbirds Myths & Facts
39

     The Lockheed Blackbirds

 40      The Crash Of SR-71 953
41      Blackbird Locations 42      Aurora Project
43      Project Aurora / Senior Citizen 44

    The Blackbird Ejection Seats
45     The Lockheed SR-71 46  
47 48

 

Blackbird Losses By Type

 

Model

Built

Lost
A-12

13

5
M-21

2

1
YF-12

3

2
SR-71A

29

11
SR-71B

2

1
SR-71C

1

0

The SR-71C

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The sole SR-71C, 61-7981 on static display at the June 27, 1992 Hill Air Force Base airshow. After the loss of the first SR-71B trainer, the rear fuselage of YF-12A, 60-6934 was mated to an engineering mockup of the SR-71A to create another trainer. The result was dubbed the "Titanium Bastard". It is in the collection of the Hill Air Force Base Museum.

 The SR-71C was given a raised rear cockpit similar to the SR-71B.

The trainer variants of the SR-71 have ventral fins under each engine nacelle, similar to those on the YF-12A. They offset the increase in area of the raised rear cockpit located forward of the center of gravity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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At blackbird speeds and temperatures, oxygen becomes explosive and can spontaneously ignite in the tanks and fuel lines.  In order to prevent this, all 6 fuel tanks are purged with pure nitrogen before being filled.  The blackbird also carries 260 liters of liquid nitrogen in 3 dewars.  This nitrogen expands into its gaseous form as it is pumped into the fuel tanks to top them off as fuel is consumed.  Without the nitrogen, the empty fuel tanks would cavitate from the increased pressure when returning to lower altitudes to refuel.   Courtesy Of Lockheed Martin

 

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SR 71-A Blackbird serial no. 64-17960 during the Mildenhall Air Show in 1986. Every demonstration by the Blackbird is very impressive, but this one was incredible, and a little frightening as well. It was pulling a little too much G's (SR 71's aren't fighters and it has a limit of 3 G.) at moment the oxygen by the inlets is cut off. At that moment the engine is without oxygen but not without fuel, this is given an enormous quantity of fuel inside the engine without ignition. The pilot released the pressure on the joystick a little and one split second later fresh oxygen flowed into the engine again, so the engines could run again. But the quantity of fuel for the engine is at that moment to much and it's exploding with some enormous shooting flames. After the explosions the engines were running perfect again. 

This air craft is now on display at the CASTLE AIR MUSEUM in Merced / Atwater California.

 

 

Last Updated

06/06/2009

 

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