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by Vincenza Weber 7 min read

What is a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird?

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What is an Indiana SR-21?

May 08, 2011 · The SR-21 is common for the state of Indiana’s SR-21, Certificate of Compliance. In this state, any driver that’s involved in an car crash leading to injury, death, or property damage more than $1,000 is liable for having his insurance carrier electronically send the SR-21 (proof of insurance accident report).

What is the ISBN for SR-71?

A-12 Blackbird #06924 / #121. Location: On display at the Blackbird Airpark in Palmdale, CA. The first A-12, known as Article 121, was built and ground tested in Burbank during January and February 1962. Because the aircraft was too secret to fly to the test site and too large to carry on a cargo plane, it had to be trucked.

What is the SR-71 designation?

The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation.It was operated by both the United States Air Force (USAF) and NASA.. The SR-71 was developed as a black project from the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft during the …

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What is the SR-71?

The SR-71 designation is a continuation of the pre-1962 bomber series; the last aircraft built using the series was the XB-70 Valkyrie. However, a bomber variant of the Blackbird was briefly given the B-71 designator, which was retained when the type was changed to SR-71.

How high was the SR-71 Blackbird?

The crew of a NASA Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird standing by the aircraft in their pressurized flight suits, 1991. Flying at 80,000 ft (24,000 m) meant that crews could not use standard masks, which could not provide enough oxygen above 43,000 ft (13,000 m).

When did the SR-71 retire?

NASA was the final operator of the type, retiring their examples in 1999. Since its retirement, the SR-71's role has been taken up by a combination of reconnaissance satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); a proposed UAV successor, the SR-72 is under development by Lockheed Martin, and scheduled to fly in 2025.

Who made the SR-71?

The SR-71 was developed as a black project from the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft during the 1960s by Lockheed's Skunk Works division. American aerospace engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was responsible for many of the aircraft's innovative concepts.

What color was the SR-71?

The SR-71 was designed to minimize its radar cross-section, an early attempt at stealth design. Finished aircraft were painted a dark blue, almost black, to increase the emission of internal heat and to act as camouflage against the night sky. The dark color led to the aircraft's nickname "Blackbird".

Why was the SR-71 program cancelled?

One view is that the SR-71 program was terminated due to Pentagon politics, and not because the aircraft had become obsolete, irrelevant, suffered maintenance problems , or had unsustainable program costs . In the 1970s and early 1980s, SR-71 squadron and wing commanders were often promoted into higher positions as general officers within the USAF structure and the Pentagon. (In order to be selected into the SR-71 program in the first place, a pilot or navigator (RSO) had to be a top-quality USAF officer, so continuing career progression for members of this elite group was not surprising.) These generals were adept at communicating the value of the SR-71 to a USAF command staff and a Congress who often lacked a basic understanding of how the SR-71 worked and what it did. However, by the mid-1980s, these SR-71 generals all had retired, and a new generation of USAF generals wanted to cut the program's budget and spend its funding on new strategic bomber programs instead, especially the very expensive B-2 Spirit.

What is titanium used for in aircraft?

On most aircraft, the use of titanium was limited by the costs involved; it was generally used only in components exposed to the highest temperatures, such as exhaust fairings and the leading edges of wings. On the SR-71, titanium was used for 85% of the structure, with much of the rest polymer composite materials.

What aircraft did Lockheed build for the CIA?

The A-12’s unique design and characteristics became the foundation for three other versions of supersonic aircraft that Lockheed built for CIA and the Air Force: the YF-12A, the M-21, and the SR-71.

What were the issues with the A-12?

While the A-12 was being tested and refined, US officials mulled over two major issues concerning it. The first was whether to publicly disclose the OXCART program. The Department of Defense had grown concerned that it could not overtly explain all the money the Air Force was spending on its versions of the A-12. At the same time, some CIA and Pentagon officials recognized that crashes or sightings of test flights could compromise the project. With a turning radius of no less than 86 miles at full speed, the A-12 overflew a vast expanse of unrestricted territory. Soon after the first flights in April 1962, CIA and the Air Force changed the program’s cover story from involving an interceptor aircraft to a multipurpose satellite launch system.

What was the purpose of the A-12?

Its intended purpose, replacing the U-2 in overflights of the Soviet Union, had become less and less likely well before the A-12 was operational. Soviet air defenses had advanced to the point that even an aircraft flying faster than a rifle bullet at the edge of space could be tracked. In any event, President Kennedy had stated publicly that the United States would not resume such missions.

Why was the A-12 never used?

Two major ironies run through the history of the A-12. One is that it was never used for it intended purpose of overflying the Soviet Union to collect strategic intelligence on Moscow’s nuclear weapons capabilities, and instead was deployed as a tactical collection platform in a conventional military conflict. The other is that just as the A‑12 was about to be declared operationally ready, US policymakers had decided to replace it with the Air Force’s OXCART reconnaissance variant, the SR-71.

How fast was the A-12?

Completion of the first A-12 was delayed several times because the performance specifications it had to meet put Johnson and the Skunk Works in uncharted territory. The aircraft, over 101 feet long and weighing up to 62 tons fully loaded, had to fly at Mach 3.2, or 2,150 miles per hour—as fast as a rifle bullet—at a mid-range altitude of 91,000 feet. The A-12 was expected to be over four times faster than the U-2 and go almost three miles higher.

Why was the Central Intelligence Agency created?

The Central Intelligence Agency was created in 1947 principally to provide US leaders with strategic warning of attack by the Soviet Union. The Agency’s main mission during its first decade and a half was to deploy its collection and analytic assets to detect and preempt a nuclear Pearl Harbor. No other intelligence question had greater ...

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