Everything You Wanted To Know About The J58 Engine

[togor]

Retired test engineer dishes on the SR-71 engine.

[dryheat]

What a great informative presentation. What I know about jet engines is, don't walk behind them even if they are just in idle. Music to a gearheads ear.

[togor]

Hard to believe that the SR-71 originated as an interceptor concept, in the USAF's days of "faster, higher, further".

The Soviets had their MiG-25, which was Mach 2.5+ and with huge wings that suggested a highly maneuverable fighter, which scared the bejeezus out of the West, until they finally got a chance to weigh one.

Then there was this new airplane, "Aurora", that was rumored to replace the SR-71, but then again maybe not. Or maybe they just built a couple of them and officially it doesn't exist.

[dryheat]

As I recall, the captured MiG was a surprise to the US. When they put a magnet up to it, it went "clunk". They were still using round gauges. The migs and our F-14/15 had a similar look. We had a pilot visit our plant and give a talk about how the ejection seat we contributed to saved his life when the long snoot of his plane snapped off. The F-16 kind of has that, but I think they're better at it now.
The British Vulcan (with it's huge wings) never impressed me looks wise. It looked like flying plywood. But so did the Concorde a little. Those aren't fighters. The SR-71 was easy on the eyes. I saw one at the Tucson Museum and honestly I was a little disappointed. I expected it to be bigger.

[Ltdave]

A-12, YF-12, SR-71. the Blackbirds...

Kelly Johnson was born in Ishpeming Mi in the upper peninsula and graduated from Flint High School and then University of Michigan. director of Lockheed's Skunk Works. he was also the brainchild behind the P-38, F-104, U-2, P-80, C-130, F-117 and a handful of Electras and all of the Constellations.

i was at Beale AFB and worked on mission related support items for the SR-71 and U-2 platforms. i was there when it was retired...badge retirement.jpg

[barretcreek]

Mustang worked at the hardware store was at (Kadena?) when a pilot took off on his last flight before retiring. Randy said the guy was 'screw the regs' and didn't climb until after he'd flown low and fast (very) over the Russian 'trawler' parked at the end of the runway.

[Major Tom]

As I was returning home from 'Nam, our plane landed on Okinawa to fuel up. As we stood in an open air upper platform, we saw this big plane taking off. Everyone with a camera took photos of it. Then some little Okinawan officer type came running over and demanded we remove our camera film. Turned out the pilot of our plane told us we had photographed a SR-71. I still have my photo.

[lyman]

we had a small aviation museum here in RVA at RIC,
at one time, it had a Blackbird on a static display for a few years, then it went away,

basically a frame , no engines, no interior (Windows were grayed out)

[Allen]

There's an A-12 parked outside at the Space and Rocket Center at Huntsville, AL that you can walk around.

There's another A-12 parked inside the USS Alabama Memorial Park Museum at Mobile, AL.

I believe the last picture is at the USS Alabama Park while the museum is being repaired from hurricane damage. The USS Drum submarine is shown in the background.

[Ltdave]

the last remaining SR-71B (956) is in kalamazoo michigan at the Air Zoo. they just had a 'spy-posium' there last week with crew, squadron personnel, lockheed peeps and maintainers...

[Allen]

Do any still fly?

[dryheat]

I believe some are still(were) used for some experimental stuff.
I heard that right after they got discontinued.
Really, you have to wonder who could come up with the money and talent to keep them flying in the private sector.
Is anyone painting Mona Lisa's anymore?

[Ltdave]

Do any still fly?

No

I believe some are still(were) used for some experimental stuff.
I heard that right after they got discontinued.
Really, you have to wonder who could come up with the money and talent to keep them flying in the private sector.
Is anyone painting Mona Lisa's anymore?

after the initial retirement in 1990 (see my Media badge in a post above) 3 were on loan to NASA for conducting high altitude/high speed experimentation. Dr Marta Bohn-Meyer became the first and only woman to pilot the SR-71. around 1994 Clinton authorized the 3 planes in SoCal under 'control' of NASA to be funded and restored to mission status. the 9th Reconnaissance Wing (that flew them via the 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing) in NorCal operated a detachment down south instead of trying to reconstitute the squadron at Beale AFB. Clinton then killed them in 1997 using line-item veto in the budget.

in 1974 (?) the Air Force ordered all of the tooling and fixtures and jigs for the airframe destroyed so there were no more spare parts being sourced, and i believe it was around 2010 that all remaining stocks of the 'starter fluid' if you will, Tri-Ethyl Borane were destroyed. it was obviously highly flammable and it was toxic as well TEB was needed to ignite the JP-7 fuel because the fuel had such a high flash point that an open flame would not ignite it. TEB was carried in a dewar on board to be used in the event of a flame out, the crew would have 16 attempts to relight, each 'shot' of TEB being around 1 fl oz. TEB ignited in plain air.

my wing commander Col Richard Graham (ret) worked the halls of the pentagon and congress pushing for continued use. there were plans for a real-time data down link from the SR-71 to tactical theaters but it hadnt been deployed yet. Allegedly Gen Schwartzkopf asked during a briefing in DS/DS, "dont we have the SR-71 that can get us the information we need, and not wait for the U-2, to get back and process its intel?" i wasnt there so i dont know what the General said, if HE was even there. again during Bosnia, the commanders wanted to know if materials were moving or just being stockpiled and the good ol' dependable/reliable satellite imagery didnt give a 'look back' in time.

quoted by columnist Rowland Evans, Air Force Chief of Staff, Larry Welch said, ‘The Blackbird can’t fire a gun and doesn’t carry a bomb, and I don’t want it.’ Welch had ben CincSAC and wanted SR-refurbishment funds to go towards the B-2 bomber's development. he also spread the lie that he could fly and entire wing of F-15s (typically 15-20) for what it cost to fly an SR-71 mission. he claimed in certain congressional offices and before congress with then CincSAC Gen John Chain that it was $400 million a year to operate the program and needed to go away. after the fact it was found the true cost was only around $260 million

[Allen]

Thanks for the reply and info Dave.

[togor]

Stories of Pentagon intrigue are always interesting. It's a wonder that any of our weapons work at all, but clearly (from Ukraine proving ground test results), at least some do.