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Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird and Space Shuttle Enterprise in the distance
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Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in much more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71, the world’s fastest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s overall performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments in the course of the Cold War.
This Blackbird accrued about two,800 hours of flight time throughout 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its final flight, March six, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, four minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 3,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
Designer:
Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson
Date:
1964
Nation of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (5.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft five 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (five.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)
Materials:
Titanium
Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-type material) to decrease radar cross-section Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines feature large inlet shock cones.
Long Description:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in a lot more hostile airspace or with such total impunity than the SR-71 Blackbird. It is the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird’s performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments for the duration of the Cold War. The airplane was conceived when tensions with communist Eastern Europe reached levels approaching a full-blown crisis in the mid-1950s. U.S. military commanders desperately required precise assessments of Soviet worldwide military deployments, especially close to the Iron Curtain. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s subsonic U-2 (see NASM collection) reconnaissance aircraft was an in a position platform but the U. S. Air Force recognized that this fairly slow aircraft was already vulnerable to Soviet interceptors. They also understood that the rapid development of surface-to-air missile systems could place U-2 pilots at grave threat. The danger proved reality when a U-2 was shot down by a surface to air missile more than the Soviet Union in 1960.
Lockheed’s very first proposal for a new higher speed, higher altitude, reconnaissance aircraft, to be capable of avoiding interceptors and missiles, centered on a design propelled by liquid hydrogen. This proved to be impracticable since of considerable fuel consumption. Lockheed then reconfigured the style for standard fuels. This was feasible and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), currently flying the Lockheed U-2, issued a production contract for an aircraft designated the A-12. Lockheed’s clandestine ‘Skunk Works’ division (headed by the gifted style engineer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson) made the A-12 to cruise at Mach 3.2 and fly effectively above 18,288 m (60,000 feet). To meet these difficult needs, Lockheed engineers overcame numerous daunting technical challenges. Flying much more than three times the speed of sound generates 316° C (600° F) temperatures on external aircraft surfaces, which are adequate to melt conventional aluminum airframes. The design and style group chose to make the jet’s external skin of titanium alloy to which shielded the internal aluminum airframe. Two conventional, but really powerful, afterburning turbine engines propelled this outstanding aircraft. These energy plants had to operate across a enormous speed envelope in flight, from a takeoff speed of 334 kph (207 mph) to far more than 3,540 kph (two,200 mph). To prevent supersonic shock waves from moving inside the engine intake causing flameouts, Johnson’s team had to style a complicated air intake and bypass system for the engines.
Skunk Functions engineers also optimized the A-12 cross-section design and style to exhibit a low radar profile. Lockheed hoped to accomplish this by very carefully shaping the airframe to reflect as tiny transmitted radar energy (radio waves) as feasible, and by application of special paint made to absorb, rather than reflect, those waves. This treatment became one of the very first applications of stealth technology, but it in no way completely met the style ambitions.
Test pilot Lou Schalk flew the single-seat A-12 on April 24, 1962, after he became airborne accidentally during high-speed taxi trials. The airplane showed fantastic guarantee but it needed considerable technical refinement just before the CIA could fly the 1st operational sortie on Might 31, 1967 – a surveillance flight over North Vietnam. A-12s, flown by CIA pilots, operated as element of the Air Force’s 1129th Unique Activities Squadron under the "Oxcart" plan. Although Lockheed continued to refine the A-12, the U. S. Air Force ordered an interceptor version of the aircraft designated the YF-12A. The Skunk Works, nevertheless, proposed a "specific mission" version configured to conduct post-nuclear strike reconnaissance. This method evolved into the USAF’s familiar SR-71.
Lockheed built fifteen A-12s, such as a particular two-seat trainer version. Two A-12s had been modified to carry a special reconnaissance drone, designated D-21. The modified A-12s had been redesignated M-21s. These had been developed to take off with the D-21 drone, powered by a Marquart ramjet engine mounted on a pylon amongst the rudders. The M-21 then hauled the drone aloft and launched it at speeds high sufficient to ignite the drone’s ramjet motor. Lockheed also built three YF-12As but this kind never ever went into production. Two of the YF-12As crashed in the course of testing. Only one survives and is on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The aft section of 1 of the "written off" YF-12As which was later utilized along with an SR-71A static test airframe to manufacture the sole SR-71C trainer. A single SR-71 was lent to NASA and designated YF-12C. Such as the SR-71C and two SR-71B pilot trainers, Lockheed constructed thirty-two Blackbirds. The first SR-71 flew on December 22, 1964. Since of extreme operational fees, military strategists decided that the far more capable USAF SR-71s ought to replace the CIA’s A-12s. These had been retired in 1968 after only one particular year of operational missions, largely over southeast Asia. The Air Force’s 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (part of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing) took over the missions, flying the SR-71 beginning in the spring of 1968.
Soon after the Air Force began to operate the SR-71, it acquired the official name Blackbird– for the unique black paint that covered the airplane. This paint was formulated to absorb radar signals, to radiate some of the tremendous airframe heat generated by air friction, and to camouflage the aircraft against the dark sky at higher altitudes.
Encounter gained from the A-12 program convinced the Air Force that flying the SR-71 safely needed two crew members, a pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO). The RSO operated with the wide array of monitoring and defensive systems installed on the airplane. This gear incorporated a sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) technique that could jam most acquisition and targeting radar. In addition to an array of advanced, high-resolution cameras, the aircraft could also carry equipment designed to record the strength, frequency, and wavelength of signals emitted by communications and sensor devices such as radar. The SR-71 was created to fly deep into hostile territory, avoiding interception with its tremendous speed and high altitude. It could operate safely at a maximum speed of Mach three.3 at an altitude much more than sixteen miles, or 25,908 m (85,000 ft), above the earth. The crew had to put on stress suits comparable to those worn by astronauts. These suits had been essential to protect the crew in the event of sudden cabin pressure loss even though at operating altitudes.
To climb and cruise at supersonic speeds, the Blackbird’s Pratt & Whitney J-58 engines have been made to operate continuously in afterburner. Even though this would appear to dictate high fuel flows, the Blackbird truly achieved its very best "gas mileage," in terms of air nautical miles per pound of fuel burned, throughout the Mach 3+ cruise. A standard Blackbird reconnaissance flight may well call for numerous aerial refueling operations from an airborne tanker. Every single time the SR-71 refueled, the crew had to descend to the tanker’s altitude, usually about 6,000 m to 9,000 m (20,000 to 30,000 ft), and slow the airplane to subsonic speeds. As velocity decreased, so did frictional heat. This cooling effect triggered the aircraft’s skin panels to shrink considerably, and those covering the fuel tanks contracted so significantly that fuel leaked, forming a distinctive vapor trail as the tanker topped off the Blackbird. As quickly as the tanks had been filled, the jet’s crew disconnected from the tanker, relit the afterburners, and again climbed to higher altitude.
Air Force pilots flew the SR-71 from Kadena AB, Japan, throughout its operational career but other bases hosted Blackbird operations, too. The 9th SRW occasionally deployed from Beale AFB, California, to other areas to carryout operational missions. Cuban missions have been flown straight from Beale. The SR-71 did not begin to operate in Europe till 1974, and then only temporarily. In 1982, when the U.S. Air Force primarily based two aircraft at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall to fly monitoring mission in Eastern Europe.
When the SR-71 became operational, orbiting reconnaissance satellites had currently replaced manned aircraft to gather intelligence from internet sites deep within Soviet territory. Satellites could not cover each geopolitical hotspot so the Blackbird remained a vital tool for worldwide intelligence gathering. On a lot of occasions, pilots and RSOs flying the SR-71 offered data that proved vital in formulating successful U. S. foreign policy. Blackbird crews offered important intelligence about the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, and pre- and post-strike imagery of the 1986 raid conducted by American air forces on Libya. In 1987, Kadena-primarily based SR-71 crews flew a quantity of missions over the Persian Gulf, revealing Iranian Silkworm missile batteries that threatened commercial shipping and American escort vessels.
As the overall performance of space-primarily based surveillance systems grew, along with the effectiveness of ground-primarily based air defense networks, the Air Force started to shed enthusiasm for the expensive plan and the 9th SRW ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990. Regardless of protests by military leaders, Congress revived the plan in 1995. Continued wrangling more than operating budgets, even so, soon led to final termination. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration retained two SR-71As and the 1 SR-71B for higher-speed analysis projects and flew these airplanes until 1999.
On March 6, 1990, the service profession of one particular Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird ended with a record-setting flight. This special airplane bore Air Force serial number 64-17972. Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding and his RSO, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Vida, flew this aircraft from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in 1 hour, four minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging a speed of 3,418 kph (2,124 mph). At the conclusion of the flight, ‘972 landed at Dulles International Airport and taxied into the custody of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. At that time, Lt. Col. Vida had logged 1,392.7 hours of flight time in Blackbirds, far more than that of any other crewman.
This certain SR-71 was also flown by Tom Alison, a former National Air and Space Museum’s Chief of Collections Management. Flying with Detachment 1 at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Alison logged a lot more than a dozen ‘972 operational sorties. The aircraft spent twenty-four years in active Air Force service and accrued a total of 2,801.1 hours of flight time.
Wingspan: 55’7"
Length: 107’5"
Height: 18’6"
Weight: 170,000 Lbs
Reference and Further Reading:
Crickmore, Paul F. Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996.
Francillon, Rene J. Lockheed Aircraft Since 1913. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1987.
Johnson, Clarence L. Kelly: Much more Than My Share of It All. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.
Miller, Jay. Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Operates. Leicester, U.K.: Midland Counties Publishing Ltd., 1995.
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird curatorial file, Aeronautics Division, National Air and Space Museum.
DAD, 11-11-01
• • • • •
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Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Space Shuttle Enterprise:
Manufacturer:
Rockwell International Corporation
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
All round: 57 ft. tall x 122 ft. lengthy x 78 ft. wing span, 150,000 lb.
(1737.36 x 3718.57 x 2377.44cm, 68039.6kg)
Materials:
Aluminum airframe and body with some fiberglass functions payload bay doors are graphite epoxy composite thermal tiles are simulated (polyurethane foam) except for test samples of actual tiles and thermal blankets.
The very first Space Shuttle orbiter, "Enterprise," is a full-scale test automobile used for flights in the atmosphere and tests on the ground it is not equipped for spaceflight. Though the airframe and flight manage elements are like these of the Shuttles flown in space, this car has no propulsion technique and only simulated thermal tiles since these attributes had been not necessary for atmospheric and ground tests. "Enterprise" was rolled out at Rockwell International’s assembly facility in Palmdale, California, in 1976. In 1977, it entered service for a nine-month-long approach-and-landing test flight program. Thereafter it was used for vibration tests and fit checks at NASA centers, and it also appeared in the 1983 Paris Air Show and the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans. In 1985, NASA transferred "Enterprise" to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• • •
Quoting from Wikipedia | Space Shuttle Enterprise:
The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Car Designation: OV-101) was the first Space Shuttle orbiter. It was constructed for NASA as part of the Space Shuttle system to perform test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed without having engines or a functional heat shield, and was for that reason not capable of spaceflight.
Initially, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have created it the second space shuttle to fly soon after Columbia. Nonetheless, throughout the building of Columbia, specifics of the final style changed, specifically with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. Refitting Enterprise for spaceflight would have involved dismantling the orbiter and returning the sections to subcontractors across the country. As this was an pricey proposition, it was determined to be much less expensive to create Challenger around a physique frame (STA-099) that had been produced as a test report. Similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger soon after the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was constructed from structural spares alternatively.
Service
Construction began on the first orbiter on June four, 1974. Designated OV-101, it was initially planned to be named Constitution and unveiled on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976. A write-in campaign by Trekkies to President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named right after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the tv show Star Trek. Although Ford did not mention the campaign, the president—who during Globe War II had served on the aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26) that served with USS Enterprise (CV-six)—said that he was "partial to the name" and overrode NASA officials.
The design of OV-101 was not the exact same as that planned for OV-102, the first flight model the tail was constructed differently, and it did not have the interfaces to mount OMS pods. A huge number of subsystems—ranging from primary engines to radar equipment—were not installed on this car, but the capacity to add them in the future was retained. As an alternative of a thermal protection system, its surface was mostly fiberglass.
In mid-1976, the orbiter was utilized for ground vibration tests, enabling engineers to compare information from an actual flight vehicle with theoretical models.
On September 17, 1976, Enterprise was rolled out of Rockwell’s plant at Palmdale, California. In recognition of its fictional namesake, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the principal cast of the original series of Star Trek were on hand at the dedication ceremony.
Strategy and landing tests (ALT)
Major post: Strategy and Landing Tests
On January 31, 1977, it was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, to commence operational testing.
Whilst at NASA Dryden, Enterprise was utilized by NASA for a range of ground and flight tests intended to validate elements of the shuttle plan. The initial nine-month testing period was referred to by the acronym ALT, for "Approach and Landing Test". These tests integrated a maiden "flight" on February 18, 1977 atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking traits of the mated method. Ground tests of all orbiter subsystems had been carried out to confirm functionality prior to atmospheric flight.
The mated Enterprise/SCA combination was then subjected to 5 test flights with Enterprise unmanned and unactivated. The objective of these test flights was to measure the flight qualities of the mated mixture. These tests were followed with 3 test flights with Enterprise manned to test the shuttle flight handle systems.
Enterprise underwent five free of charge flights where the craft separated from the SCA and was landed under astronaut handle. These tests verified the flight qualities of the orbiter design and had been carried out under a number of aerodynamic and weight configurations. On the fifth and final glider flight, pilot-induced oscillation issues were revealed, which had to be addressed just before the first orbital launch occurred.
On August 12, 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise flew on its own for the very first time.
Preparation for STS-1
Following the ALT plan, Enterprise was ferried among a number of NASA facilities to configure the craft for vibration testing. In June 1979, it was mated with an external tank and strong rocket boosters (identified as a boilerplate configuration) and tested in a launch configuration at Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A.
Retirement
With the completion of vital testing, Enterprise was partially disassembled to permit specific components to be reused in other shuttles, then underwent an international tour going to France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the U.S. states of California, Alabama, and Louisiana (during the 1984 Louisiana Globe Exposition). It was also employed to fit-check the never-employed shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg AFB, California. Lastly, on November 18, 1985, Enterprise was ferried to Washington, D.C., where it became home of the Smithsonian Institution.
Post-Challenger
Right after the Challenger disaster, NASA considered utilizing Enterprise as a replacement. Nonetheless refitting the shuttle with all of the needed equipment necessary for it to be utilised in space was considered, but rather it was decided to use spares constructed at the very same time as Discovery and Atlantis to develop Endeavour.
Post-Columbia
In 2003, soon after the breakup of Columbia during re-entry, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board carried out tests at Southwest Investigation Institute, which used an air gun to shoot foam blocks of equivalent size, mass and speed to that which struck Columbia at a test structure which mechanically replicated the orbiter wing leading edge. They removed a fiberglass panel from Enterprise’s wing to perform analysis of the material and attached it to the test structure, then shot a foam block at it. Whilst the panel was not broken as a result of the test, the effect was enough to permanently deform a seal. As the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panel on Columbia was two.5 instances weaker, this suggested that the RCC top edge would have been shattered. Additional tests on the fiberglass had been canceled in order not to risk damaging the test apparatus, and a panel from Discovery was tested to determine the effects of the foam on a similarly-aged RCC leading edge. On July 7, 2003, a foam impact test developed a hole 41 cm by 42.5 cm (16.1 inches by 16.7 inches) in the protective RCC panel. The tests clearly demonstrated that a foam effect of the type Columbia sustained could seriously breach the protective RCC panels on the wing leading edge.
The board determined that the probable trigger of the accident was that the foam impact triggered a breach of a reinforced carbon-carbon panel along the major edge of Columbia’s left wing, permitting hot gases generated in the course of re-entry to enter the wing and result in structural collapse. This caused Columbia to spin out of handle, breaking up with the loss of the whole crew.
Museum exhibit
Enterprise was stored at the Smithsonian’s hangar at Washington Dulles International Airport ahead of it was restored and moved to the newly constructed Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum‘s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport, exactly where it has been the centerpiece of the space collection. On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that Space Shuttle Discovery, the most traveled orbiter in the fleet, will be added to the collection when the Shuttle fleet is retired. When that takes place, Enterprise will be moved to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, to a newly constructed hangar adjacent to the museum. In preparation for the anticipated relocation, engineers evaluated the car in early 2010 and determined that it was secure to fly on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft once once more.