Hot Ride in a MIG 31.

[Bill Cravener]

I believe the Lockheed SR-71 is still the fastest air-breathing, manned aircraft in the world. It holds the current record speed of 2,242 mph set in 1990 and a service ceiling of over 85,000 feet. Now that would be one hell of a ride!

[vanjast]

That's for sure... I vaguely remember the SAM missiles having a problem keeping up with this one.  :U

[MichaelW]

I vaguely remember the SAM missiles having a problem keeping up with this one.  :U

Yes, the throttle provided a very effective anti-missile defense. What is most amazing to me is that the initial design of the SR-71 was done in the early 1960's.

[vanjast]

Ja.. I think that type of 'collective' thinking has moved over to the Russian side of late, The stuff coming out of there is innovative, and a lot of lessons can be learnt by the west, as always.. :wink

[vanjast]

Van, the new Sukhoi looks like a great gadget but the old one has more sex appeal.

Sex is always better with the older models  :green2

[hutch--]

The SR 71 is a clever number. I have seen photos of it on the tarmac and it leaks like a seive as it must cater for expansion while flying at very high speed and at high altitude. I gather they are specialisd for very high altitude and not suitable for much under about 60000 feet but at their working altitude and at the speed they travel there is not much that can touch them. I gather they are mainly used for intelligence gathering at a world level as they have very long range as well.

[Bill Cravener]

The SR-71 was in service with the U.S. Air Force from 1964 to 1998. The plane was permanently retired in 1998. The Air Force quickly disposed of their SR-71s, leaving NASA with the two last flyable Blackbirds until 1999. All other Blackbirds have been moved to museums except for the two SR-71s and a few D-21 drones retained by the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. I think the main reason it was retired is high altitude spying is done by satellites with high definition cameras these days.

[MichaelW]

I think the main reason it was retired is high altitude spying is done by satellites with high definition cameras these days.

I think the reason also included the very high cost of maintenance and support. At the end of service the aircraft were 30 to 34 years old, and at least one of them had logged ~1000 flights. And in addition to the stress cycles that would be expected for a very high-performance aircraft going very fast, there were the stress cycles caused by the "unstarts", and for most of the structure the stress cycles induced by what were for an aircraft very large thermal cycles. And each mission required at least two in-flight refuelings, involving a bunch of infrastructure and people.

[hutch--]

Much the same problems with our F111s, they are just about perfectly suited for the distances they have to work over, are fast and have low radar profiles but they are near 50 years old and even with multiple refits and some very high tech stress and fatigue analysis the costs are getting too high to keep them going.

[clive]

We have a guy in town here with a former Polish MIG 22, he's been trying to sell it for a while, but you certainly know when it's up and screaming around overhead.
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