Everything You Wanted To Know About The J58 Engine

[Ltdave]

Thanks for the reply and info Dave.

youre welcome. we sat in our graphics shop or photo lab (i did both) and debated the situation and the 'solution' and whether or not we had an confidence in Welch and Chain (i was out of SAC at that time, all of their AV assets transferred to MAC and Aerospace Audio-Visual Squadron aka AVVS -avis-) for many a day...

[Allen]

Things I have heard or read but can't verify is the first ones were painted white or not painted.

Also, the Mach 3.3 top speed is determined by the max G-force a pilot can tolerate w/o passing out. Actual top speed is unknown or classified. Speed was also limited by heat and static on the air frame along with rivets coming loose and so forth.

The SR-72 is an unmanned aircraft so the G-force is not a human issue and is estimated to be good for Mach 6.0.

Then there's the TR-3B flying triangle from the 1980's that we're not suppose to know about.

Interesting detailed article here. A lot of info backs up what Dave has mentioned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird

[Ltdave]

never heard about them being painted white. the photo above is of a YF-12 interceptor version that was considered. it is evidences by the nose section with the round cross section allowing the chine to be modified for the Hughes something/something 18 radar. it was a 2-seat version of the A-12. the A-12s were left in natural titanium bare metal. SR-71s are a different plane than the A-12/YF-12. the SRs were painted in 'black' although the actual color chip if you will, was Indigo Blue. it had micro-beads of iron in the mix to help absorb radar energy and give it a bit of stealth before the term was put into play with the F-117

interesting note about the titanium. first, they had to have special tools/drills (100% certified cadmium free) for working on it because even a tiny bit of contamination from the dissimilar metal would cause corrosion.

second, there wasnt anywhere near enough titanium in the US to build the planes (whose framework as well as skin was Ti). the CIA created a couple of black-op shell companies to purchase titanium from....the USSR.

[Allen]

there wasnt anywhere near enough titanium in the US to build the planes (whose framework as well as skin was Ti). the CIA created a couple of black-op shell companies to purchase titanium from....the USSR.

This was something the gov't should have kept secret. You never know when we might have a need for titanium again. Russia will always be skeptical of selling titanium to anyone again.