AIX: The F-12

[Korg]

FOr those of you that are wondering where they got the "F-12" fighter that looks like an SR-71 Blackbird...

Here is a LockMart video of the original A-12 spy plane that Kelly Johnson and his Lockheed Skunk Works built back in the early 1960's
http://www.strategypage.com/military_videos/military_photos_201007010536.aspx

The Air Force, in order to cover up the fact that the SR-71 was to be a spy plane, built a few prototypes and it got the YF-12A number as 12 was the next number at the time in the new unified naming system the DoD started using at the beginning of the 1960's.

Unlike in AIX2, the F-12 was to be a pure interceptor aircraft. No gun (it would outfly it's own bullets) and the missles would be carried internally (too much drag otherwise) They had lots of problems launching the missiles at Mach 3+ speeds, so the program was cancelled. In reality, the YF-12A was just a cover story for the SR-71.

Of course the MIG-31 Firefox is pure fiction from the movie of the same name. It does look cool though.

Korg sends

[[Team] Kilemal]

The SR-71 was really cool. After they retired it lots of interesting information started popping up about it. 32 were supposedly built and 12 were lost in accidents, none were ever lost to enemy fire. The pilots didn't need to worry about surface-to-air or air-to-air missile launches because the plane could simply outrun them.

One could take a pretty detailed picture of your car while traveling mach 3 at 83,000 feet. After landing ground crews immediately pumped any remaining fuel out of its tanks because while on the ground all its fuel tanks leaked. This was because at the speeds it flew the heat generated over its flight surfaces required them to be able to expand considerable amounts. After landing and cooling off, all the panels would contract and open up the seams and fuel would start coming out. The fuel it used was not highly flamable though, strange as that might seem. I believe it was called JP-7 and had a flash point of 150 degrees or something crazy like that.

[Korg]

The SR-71 set a few all time speed records that have yet to be broken.

New York to London: 1 hour 56 minutes
London to Los Angeles: 3 hours 43 minutes (1 hour and 45 minutes of which was spent sub-sonic refueling)

The JP-7 fuel is also used as hydraulic fluid for the flight controls, coolant for the crew life support (air conditioner) and hydraulic fluid for the engines and intake nozzles. Before take off, the fuel tanks leak like a sieve. There are puddles of JP-7 everywhere under the plane. But you can't light it as it take a special catalyst to ignite the engines.

BTW at Mach 3+ the J-58 engine inlets provide 58% of the thrust with the turbojets and afterburners making up the rest. One unusual problem the flight crews had with the engines is holding them back less they melt the air frame from excessive speed.

[Korg]

Here is the cockpit of the SR-71.

[[Team] Kilemal]

Simple enough . . .
Gimme the keys - let's see what this puppy can do !


More useless trivia: The SR-71 engines (2) ran on afterburner all the time and actually ran more effeciently the faster they went. Each one produced 32,000 lbs of thrust. The starter motors for them were two GM big block V-8's mounted in a cart that was rolled under the plane. 750 horse starter motor - now that's cool !

[ElCazadorDiablo]

Using distance from London to LA, using 500MPH for 1 hour 45 minutes (probably much slower to refuel actually) and using altitude adjusted speed of sound for 80,000 feet...

... this bird flew in excess of Mach 3.5...

... top speed has still never been released is the rumor I've heard.


-ECD

[Teeeman2]

that means they are likey still using it but dont want other countries to know.

[Korg]

that means they are likey still using it but dont want other countries to know.

No, its been retired as the bird is VERY expensive to operate. The Global Hawk does the same job for a lot less money and can stay on station for over 12 hours.

NASA did use one (after it was retired) for research.

There is also a rumor that the successor was something called "Aurora" but that was based on a budget line item back in the 1980's for some 8 billion dollars that was in the "black" part of the budget. There were also reports of some strange contrails over the LA area headed toward Groom Lake (Area 51). They were described as "knots on a rope" contrail. There is was some research done on a jet engine called a "Pulse Detonation" engine that some say would leave that type of contrail.

There are also reports of seismometer readings in the Southern California area of what most likely was a sonic boom headed toward the same area. the ground track had a speed of (are you ready for this?) MACH 8!

Aurora, if its real, would be the top secret follow on aircraft (almost space craft) that would be able to recon any point on the planet with in 1 hour of take off.

[Korg]

Using distance from London to LA, using 500MPH for 1 hour 45 minutes (probably much slower to refuel actually) and using altitude adjusted speed of sound for 80,000 feet...

... this bird flew in excess of Mach 3.5...

... top speed has still never been released is the rumor I've heard.


-ECD

yep. The pilots have always said the most difficult part of flying the Blackbird is holding it back.

The SR-71 Blackbird is powered by two Pratt & Whitney J-58 turbo-ramjets, each developing 32,500 pounds of thrust with afterburning. The critical problems concerning supersonic flight with air breathing engines are concentrated in the air inlet area. The circular air intakes of the SR-71 contain a center body tipped with a conical spike. The spike is movable, forward for takeoff and climb to 30,000 feet after which, as speed builds up, it moves rearward, controlling the amount of air entering the engine. As it does so, Air Inlet Bypass Doors in the side of the nacelle close to establish the correct flow of air through the engine, holding the supersonic shock wave in it's critical position within the inlet. The engine itself operates at subsonic speed. At Mach 3+ the spike is three feet to the rear of it's takeoff position, slowing down the incoming airflow, establishing an area of pressure within the nacelle, which is now pushing the engine. This action is so powerful that it accounts for 58 percent of the total thrust, the engine providing only 17 percent, and the ejectors (surrounding the nacelle near the afterburner) is responsible for the remaining 25 percent. Should the shockwave be expelled from the inlet, a condition known as an "Unstart" occurs. Unstarts have been known to be so violent as to crack the pilots helmet from the severe yaw of the aircraft. If unchecked, the resulting yaw is described by SR-71 pilots as though the nose and tail are trying to swap ends. However, an automatic control system senses this problem and repositions the Spike in milliseconds, doing so with great accuracy even though air loads of up to fourteen tons are acting on the spike, dealing with the difficulty before the human brain becomes aware of the problem, and the Blackbird cruises on....faster than a rifle bullet.