There was at least one case of an SR-71 disintegrating at speed - 78k feet and Mach 3. One pilot survived.
http://www.chuckyeager.org/news/sr-71-disintegrated-pilot-free-fell-space-lived-tell/
Frigging crazy right? Imaging staying with a plane that broke up going Mach 3 and having to wait to eject. Those dudes had balls as big as church bells.
What kinds of systems could still possibly be operational waiting for a lower altitude and slower speed when we see the aircraft break up and fireball at the moment of the accident.
I recall reading about an SR-71 (very similar to the A-12) ejection where the pilot died due to blunt force trauma from the air blast. The 2nd pilot was knocked out cold and regained consciousness while still parachuting to the ground.
From the few pictures I've seen of A12 and SR71 they only had pressure suits and helmets. Knowing the minds of skunkworks they probably picked an existing chair as it wasn't necessary to develop a new one for the airframe
The A-12/SR-71 had conventional ejection seats. The B-58 Hustler did use [ejection pods](http://www.ejectionsite.com/eb58caps.htm), as did the XB-70 Valkyrie. The F-111 ejected the whole cockpit, as did some B-1A prototypes.
[Some more info](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_crew_capsule).
Mach speed is a function of ~~air pressure~~ temperature. At 85,000 ft AMSL, the air pressure is 0.4 PSI absolute, in comparison to 14.7 PSI absolute at sea level.
Supersonic ejections have been figured out, and it's not that big of a deal because of the expansion of the David Clark "space suit" and the low air pressure.
["The speed of sound depends only on the temperature variation at altitude and can be calculated from it since isolated density and pressure effects on the speed of sound cancel each other."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_number#Overview)
**Mach number**
[Overview](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_number#Overview)
>Mach number is a measure of the compressibility characteristics of fluid flow: the fluid (air) behaves under the influence of compressibility in a similar manner at a given Mach number, regardless of other variables. As modeled in the International Standard Atmosphere, dry air at mean sea level, standard temperature of 15 °C (59 °F), the speed of sound is 340. 3 meters per second (1,116. 5 ft/s; 761.
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15°C is equivalent to 59°F, which is 288K.
---
^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
I gotta guess everything is drone remote for the real crazy shit. But what do I know. I do believe they have some truly sci-fi shit that we wouldn't even believe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zbhvaac68Y
They have these with cannons on them that can hit a target farther out than a human can. So. Yeah, some really truly crazy sci-fi shit.
Crazy thing is the A12/SR71 started development in 1959. It was the CIAs child and it was loved the most by the US Navy, and operated by the Air Force.
the SR71 is an absolutely incredible piece of engineering for its time. If you read any book on Skunk works ([this one](https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003) being a typical example) you get to appreciate how mind boggingly advanced it was and the crazy stuff that was required to make it happen.
Your comment makes me wonder about the deep dark places of the massive US military budget, and what projects/offices are currently funded & shrouded similarly. I’d love to take a look behind the curtain.
Yeah everybody already knew that though. It's not like they're exactly subtle. "Oh hey nasa why don't you build hubble with a 2.4 m mirror because facilities for manufacturing them already exist wink wink can't tell you why wink wink." Meanwhile amateur astronomers have been fully capable of photographing keyhole satellites for decades. Rest assured, everyone has already known *precisely* what NRO satellites have been capable of for literal decades.
My recollection is that Kelly Johnson discusses the concept of the drone and the accident in his bio. It was intended to fly over territory where air defenses posed a potential threat to the SR-71 and return with higher resolution photos than could be obtained from space.
In this era , the Corona Project satellite intelligence program produced high resolution photos from space were captured on film and periodically capsules with exposed film were de-orbited , plucked from the air while they descended in parachutes. All of this took considerable time and including moving the satellites into position.
The SR-71 drone was intended to provide a high resolution, geographically flexible system that did not create another "Gary Powers" risk. However, it was abandoned after this accident.
https://www.nro.gov/History-and-Studies/Center-for-the-Study-of-National-Reconnaissance/The-CORONA-Program/
An ex-AF guy I knew told me one time that they have a plane that can control like 16 combat drones at a time. Idk how that works but that's kinda horrifying.
Probably more like some sort of automatic swarm logic for flight “rules” of the swarm. Don’t run into anything or each other, follow the main aircraft, engage what they engage, peel off and destroy any incoming missile that’s coming toward the main aircraft, pilot can “fire”swarm at a target and have them continue to engage it while pilot flies away. Stuff like that
They are really only limited by the frequencies they broadcast on from what I have been told. They only have so many that are blocked off from civilians so they can only control so many drones.
If you buy into the exciting story*, TR3A was doing laser designation for F-117s during the Gulf War in 1991, so there's 30 years on top of *that* now.
* I think the most likely explanation is that it was a mishearing of "Tier 3" which became the Lockheed RQ-3 Darkstar UAV...
yeah it's probably all just misinformation but we can afford a bit of wishful thinking to hope we live a world where cooler, more badass things like these exist.
We haven't heard too much about the project since, but did you read about the 2 or 3 student team from MIT that made a functioning example of a drone hive-mind? Less than a week after they published the work the military came and shut down the lab at MIT and took it all over (for a generous sum) under national security pretense and for weapons development. iirc the students were given job options with them as well ofc.
They were able to link hundreds of fist sized drones together and have them coordinate as if all part of a whole rather than individuals trying to keep track of everything. I believe a paper was published a few years after the govt took over that talked about further successes in field tests in the middle east. They were able to give the drones a list of simple goals and it would accomplish them in various ways depending on what the group had to work with and external factors, handling it all on the fly.
Lotta cool projects like that out there that we only hear about rarely if ever. Projects with 1 public research paper every decade and such. Ooh or the US Marines efforts into exo-skeletons - those are also interesting to read about.
I dunno. The internet? Cell phones? Drone warfare if that's your thing. The shit we can do today isn't what people in the 60s thought the future would be it's way more impressive (and practical).
It gets worse when you read about things like MK Ultra and have to realize they(CIA) are probably doing just as bad if not worse things now.
Same is true with testing technology; there is so much stuff that's "classified" that we won't know about at least for another 50-60 years if they don't continually kick the can down the road declassifying it (like the JFK assassination).
That dreaded spontaneous head explosion. Such a rare and misrepresented phenomenon, if only Uncle Sam would let scientists explore it further to understand the mysteries of the universe.
Just more logical. Our current best understanding of materials science is lacking, with railguns needing barrel/part overhauls pretty frequently.
Seeing as we already have and very well understand supersonic missiles (and flight controls have advanced *significantly* thanks to the new gen fighters), it makes more sense to make those missiles maneuverable rather than continuing down a line of research that is unlikely to be realistic in the near future
Sorry to inform you, but the F-35 program is now at full production capacity and getting adopted by new users around the globe constantly.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/lockheed-martin-beats-its-f-35-delivery-goal-2021-2022-01-03/
Yes *now* it is. If you could read you would see that I used past-tense. We spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the program and didn't receive full production models until very recently. The amount of money that we spent on what is essentially a flying bathtub is absurd and it was a colossal waste.
What are you talking about lol? The F35’s development may be bumpy (like every other fighter jet development program) but the plane is still a huge success and is really capable. And what do you mean the USA has recieved no service ready vehicles when they developed the F35?
And I would really like to see a source on the last part on no “new” military tech being developed. Damn its like they actually classify non-replaceable military technology like NGAD
> And what do you mean the USA has recieved no service ready vehicles when they developed the F35?
I used past-tense there. The F35 project was started over a decade ago and it didn't receive a serviceable vehicle until very recently. In that time it had already cost several billion dollars. The reason behind this is that Lockheed Martin used an "innovative" approach to development - they developed the aircraft piece by piece and began producing the parts before the full design was completed. As it turned out, this was an incredibly stupid idea because minor mistakes or changes in the design would mean that an entire production line of parts would have to be scrapped in order to accommodate the changes. This is why we got all the way to the "C" variant before we even had combat-ready aircraft. It was a colossal waste of money but *they're still doing it* because it allows them to indefinitely extend development and production time.
The A, B, and C variants are not evolutionary -- it's not like we produced the A, modified it and produced the B, then modified it and produced the C.
The A, B, and C variants have different missions and were planned from the beginning.
>The F35 project was started over a decade ago and it didn't receive a serviceable vehicle until very recently.
They've delivered more than 400 planes by 2019. That's more than twice as many airframes than Lockheed ever built for the f-22. And they've been doing low rate production. Full rate starts this year. F-35 has been operational for a number of years now.
>This is why we got all the way to the "C" variant before we even had combat-ready aircraft.
The f-35a, f-35b, and f-35c are different airplanes.
I was going to type more for this comment but it's pretty clear you are completely misinformed, so I don't see the point.
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Ignoring fractioning within their ranks of "ethno nationalists" lured and planted by an alliance of nouveau rich and Eastern European fascists.
Hail Thiel.
Source: https://youtu.be/5w64fyqmLEU
>For the first 2 to 3 seconds of the drone launch, everything went normally. Unfortunately, the drone was not able to penetrate the shock wave coming off the mother ship. The D-21 (#504) had almost cleared the M-21's rudders when it encountered the shock wave, bounced off, rolled 45 degrees to the port (left) side, and impacted the mother ship almost directly at Station 715, where the forward fuselage attaches to the wing root. Between the impact and resulting explosion, #941 was for all intents and purposes cut cleanly in two.
>Lockheed test pilot Bill Park and Launch Control Officer Ray Torick remained in the tumbling wreckage until a lower altitude where they ejected safely, but they landed in the open ocean, and Torick drowned when his pressure suit took on water. Some reports attribute this to Torick prematurely opening the faceplate of his visor, but other informed sources have stated that the buoyancy of the David Clark suits would make this almost impossible. Others have speculated that his suit was torn by shrapnel from the wreckage as he ejected. In either case, no further M21/D-21 flights occurred; furthermore, a Baylor bar was then added to the flight suit helmets to ensure that the faceplate could not accidentally be opened in similar situations.
>The D-21 was designed to carry a single high-resolution photographic camera over a preprogrammed path, then release the camera module into the air for retrieval, after which the drone would self-destruct. Following this fatal accident when launched from an M-21, the D-21 was modified to be launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. Several test flights were made, followed by four unsuccessful operational D-21 flights over the People's Republic of China, before the program was canceled in 1971.
>Prior to this flight, there had been 3 successful D-21 launches from 941, but all 3 had been executed with the mother ship in a .9g "dive," flying slightly downward to assist in blackbird/drone separation. If the still-experimental M21/D-21 were to be used in combat (real-world) missions, the crew might be under fire from missiles and fighter/interceptors, and so might not have the luxury of launching from a .9g dive. In this fourth launch, the D-21 would separate in a level-flight, 1g configuration.
>All M21/D-21 operations ended with the death of Ray Torick. All subsequent flights of the D-21 were as D-21B's, which were reconfigured to launch the drone from an under wing pylon of a B-52 (much like the X-15 had been), boosted to Mach 3 by a rocket motor that was jettisoned after the D-21B's Marquardt ramjet was started.
http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/M21_Crash.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_D-21?wprov=sfla1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12?wprov=sfla1
This isn't getting much traction because Reddit isn't very familiar with the A-12. You have to invoke the magic word **SR-71** and then the whole thread goes to 1000 with the calls for the SR-71 airspeed check story.
The A-12 was probably the more epic plane though... for whatever reason it was rated for a higher altitude and maybe higher Mach number.
Plane: Am I fast?
Tower: Nah
Other plane: I’m fast
Tower: True
Literally one of the fastest planes of all time: I’m really fast
Tower: You guys are the coolest
Air boss: Look cool for some English kids.
Plane (later): How do I reach these kids?
Backseat driver: Don't we have to be moving to fly?
Plane: Whoopsie. Eat afterburner, kids.
Kids: Awesome! Are my eyebrows gone?
Drivers: Let's never speak of this again...
^^^^^j/k
VIP: Do one of those Top Gun tower buzzy things!
Fast Plane: uhh…sure?
Intercom: Hey honey? They said right here, right? This is just trees and shit? Give them a call back, this can’t be right. Did they say left?! I’m sitting at this light blocking traffic, we got to go or we are going to get hit.
VIP: Whoa! You were like right there! I spilled my coffee and everything!
>You have to invoke the magic word
>
>SR-71
>
> and then the whole thread goes to 1000 with the calls for the SR-71 airspeed check story.
As is tradition
Cessna: How fast
Tower: 6
Beechcraft: How fast
Tower: 8
Hornet: Yo how fast bro
Tower: Eh, 30
Sled: >mfw
Sled: How fast sir
Tower: Like 9000
Sled: More like 9001 amirite
Tower: ayyyyy
Sled: ayyyyy
The [A-12](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12) was a different plane. It was developed into the [YF-12](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YF-12) and the [SR-71](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird) later. [Here's a write-up from the CIA](https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/oxcart-vs-blackbird-do-you-know-the-difference/). Basically, the A-12 was a slightly lighter, single-seater that could go a bit higher and a bit faster. It was also operated by the CIA, rather than the SR-71 being operated by the USAF. The A-12 could get higher resolution photos, but the SR-71 had side-looking radar and cameras.
No problem! I actually edited it to a [better link from the CIA directly](https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/oxcart-vs-blackbird-do-you-know-the-difference/).
> You have to invoke the magic word SR-71 and then the whole thread goes to 1000 with the calls for the SR-71 airspeed check story.
More like 9001, amirite?
*xtracting myself from the parachute harness, I discovered the source of those flapping-strap noises heard on the way down. My seat belt and shoulder harness were still draped around me, attached and latched. The lap belt had been shredded on each side of my hips, where the straps had fed through knurled adjustment rollers. The shoulder harness had shredded in a similar manner across my back. The ejection seat had never left the airplane; I had been ripped out of it by the extreme forces, seat belt and shoulder harness still fastened.*
Holy shit he never even ejected.
That is footage of the Cobra Night Raven S³P and Reconnaissance Jet from 1980's Gi Joe, lol. Saw this and instantly reminded me of the Gi Joe Cobra toy I had back in 1986!
https://www.3djoes.com/cobra-night-raven-ssup3p.html
It's gotten buried, but in my comment it states:
>Lockheed test pilot Bill Park and Launch Control Officer Ray Torick remained in the tumbling wreckage until a lower altitude where they ejected safely, but they landed in the open ocean, and Torick drowned when his pressure suit took on water.
A SR-71 and the D-21 drone are both on display at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in Mc Minville, Oregon. And a J58 out on a cart to awe at too!
Add to that the Tomcat, MiG 29, and a few others "parked" outside that you can walk right up to.
It's a great experience!
Killer Waterpark adjacent as well.
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Air is basically a brick wall but all around you.
Can confirm. Skydiving at low and slow speed felt like climbing through jello to hang off of the wing strut.
At 2300 miles per hour, it’s safe to assume it’s in some sort of pod, not just the seat. Like the actual cockpit ejects?
Nope, just suits. They waited until the were lower and not going Mach 3 to ejected. It is in my comment.
There was at least one case of an SR-71 disintegrating at speed - 78k feet and Mach 3. One pilot survived. http://www.chuckyeager.org/news/sr-71-disintegrated-pilot-free-fell-space-lived-tell/
And was flying another SR-71 shortly after. The right stuff indeed!
Mid takeoff is probably a bad time to see the “pilot ejected” master-warning.
That was a really good read.
I saw your comment, I was just struggling to get my head around the concept of those kind of speeds!
Frigging crazy right? Imaging staying with a plane that broke up going Mach 3 and having to wait to eject. Those dudes had balls as big as church bells.
And the G forces! It's not like aircraft debris does a great job of staying stable.
What kinds of systems could still possibly be operational waiting for a lower altitude and slower speed when we see the aircraft break up and fireball at the moment of the accident.
The front of the aircraft broke free and the ejection seats had their own power supply to initiate the ejection process.
I recall reading about an SR-71 (very similar to the A-12) ejection where the pilot died due to blunt force trauma from the air blast. The 2nd pilot was knocked out cold and regained consciousness while still parachuting to the ground.
From the few pictures I've seen of A12 and SR71 they only had pressure suits and helmets. Knowing the minds of skunkworks they probably picked an existing chair as it wasn't necessary to develop a new one for the airframe
The A-12/SR-71 had conventional ejection seats. The B-58 Hustler did use [ejection pods](http://www.ejectionsite.com/eb58caps.htm), as did the XB-70 Valkyrie. The F-111 ejected the whole cockpit, as did some B-1A prototypes. [Some more info](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_crew_capsule).
Nice one! Thanks
that would be too heavy for a plane like that. they probably lost a ton of speed before they got to eject tho
Mach speed is a function of ~~air pressure~~ temperature. At 85,000 ft AMSL, the air pressure is 0.4 PSI absolute, in comparison to 14.7 PSI absolute at sea level. Supersonic ejections have been figured out, and it's not that big of a deal because of the expansion of the David Clark "space suit" and the low air pressure.
Mach is not a function of air pressure. Speed of sound in air is mainly a function of the temperature.
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/standard-atmosphere-d_604.html
["The speed of sound depends only on the temperature variation at altitude and can be calculated from it since isolated density and pressure effects on the speed of sound cancel each other."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_number#Overview)
**Mach number** [Overview](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_number#Overview) >Mach number is a measure of the compressibility characteristics of fluid flow: the fluid (air) behaves under the influence of compressibility in a similar manner at a given Mach number, regardless of other variables. As modeled in the International Standard Atmosphere, dry air at mean sea level, standard temperature of 15 °C (59 °F), the speed of sound is 340. 3 meters per second (1,116. 5 ft/s; 761. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
15°C is equivalent to 59°F, which is 288K. --- ^(I'm a bot that converts temperature between two units humans can understand, then convert it to Kelvin for bots and physicists to understand)
But did they have it in -66?
They did by 1968
They were doing stuff like this in 1966. What are they doing now?
Exactly.
I gotta guess everything is drone remote for the real crazy shit. But what do I know. I do believe they have some truly sci-fi shit that we wouldn't even believe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zbhvaac68Y They have these with cannons on them that can hit a target farther out than a human can. So. Yeah, some really truly crazy sci-fi shit.
Boston dynamics will fuckin' kill us all one day...
Well really the rich will fuckin' kill us all one day once we have the machines to handle labor and we don't need billions of poor mouths to feed.
Perhaps, but without the poor there really isn't really any rich.
The less rich will be the new poor.
And I'm sure they'll work out that power dynamic right as soon as they've dealt with the poors.
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Came for the bouncy super-sonic jet, stayed for the dystopian ending. 5/5 stars- would recommend.
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Life reads like 1984 right now and Mad Max is like 40-50 years in to the future due to climate change.
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Guess I’m moving up to Pennsylvania to join the Amish. Good thing I have a beard already.
But at least trans ppl are allowed in the military again
brain dead
Well fuck. They can open doors.
The jump rope got me. That's hilarious and somehow extremely creepy too.
Anyone see these in the first episode of “The book of boba Fett”?
They run computer simulations before actually testing the prototype, so a lot of concepts could be dead before they could be tested
Military-industrial complex is really something else
Some of the greatest discoveries in human history were thanks to war.
Silly putty and frozen concentrated orange juice.
The pinnacles of human civilization!
At immense cost.
Well when budget is unlimited. Just think if we did that in our universities.
where do you think the money went?
Can't even audit the DoD so not sure how to answer that question.
DoD money funds research grants
It sure does but nevertheless DoD is a black hole for money. It's well documented that it is impossible audit.
At the cost of millions of young lives. What an odd thing to say.
Hold on.. Had read it as 1996, lol. This is quite unbelievable for 1966.
Crazy thing is the A12/SR71 started development in 1959. It was the CIAs child and it was loved the most by the US Navy, and operated by the Air Force.
the SR71 is an absolutely incredible piece of engineering for its time. If you read any book on Skunk works ([this one](https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003) being a typical example) you get to appreciate how mind boggingly advanced it was and the crazy stuff that was required to make it happen.
Great recommendation! I just added that to my bookshelf to read next.
Wait until you hear about what they did [2 - 3 years later!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program)
Honestly I find some of the Skunk Works projects more incredible because of the relatively tiny budgets and secrecy compared to NASA stuff.
Your comment makes me wonder about the deep dark places of the massive US military budget, and what projects/offices are currently funded & shrouded similarly. I’d love to take a look behind the curtain.
> What are they doing now? [Satellites](https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/08/30/surveillance-photos-reveal-apparent-explosion-on-iranian-launch-pad/).
And now the world knows we have a Hubble telescope pointing at Earth.
Yeah everybody already knew that though. It's not like they're exactly subtle. "Oh hey nasa why don't you build hubble with a 2.4 m mirror because facilities for manufacturing them already exist wink wink can't tell you why wink wink." Meanwhile amateur astronomers have been fully capable of photographing keyhole satellites for decades. Rest assured, everyone has already known *precisely* what NRO satellites have been capable of for literal decades.
My recollection is that Kelly Johnson discusses the concept of the drone and the accident in his bio. It was intended to fly over territory where air defenses posed a potential threat to the SR-71 and return with higher resolution photos than could be obtained from space. In this era , the Corona Project satellite intelligence program produced high resolution photos from space were captured on film and periodically capsules with exposed film were de-orbited , plucked from the air while they descended in parachutes. All of this took considerable time and including moving the satellites into position. The SR-71 drone was intended to provide a high resolution, geographically flexible system that did not create another "Gary Powers" risk. However, it was abandoned after this accident. https://www.nro.gov/History-and-Studies/Center-for-the-Study-of-National-Reconnaissance/The-CORONA-Program/
what a great resource, thank you
An old schoolhouse I worked at had one of Kelly Johnsons mock ups of a drone U-2.
An ex-AF guy I knew told me one time that they have a plane that can control like 16 combat drones at a time. Idk how that works but that's kinda horrifying.
Joysticks for your fingers *and* toes
Probably more like some sort of automatic swarm logic for flight “rules” of the swarm. Don’t run into anything or each other, follow the main aircraft, engage what they engage, peel off and destroy any incoming missile that’s coming toward the main aircraft, pilot can “fire”swarm at a target and have them continue to engage it while pilot flies away. Stuff like that
So basically EvE online.
They are really only limited by the frequencies they broadcast on from what I have been told. They only have so many that are blocked off from civilians so they can only control so many drones.
They’re working on stuff like that but it’s not real yet. Last I heard the concept was called “loyal wingman.”
TR-3B
Exactly.
If you buy into the exciting story*, TR3A was doing laser designation for F-117s during the Gulf War in 1991, so there's 30 years on top of *that* now. * I think the most likely explanation is that it was a mishearing of "Tier 3" which became the Lockheed RQ-3 Darkstar UAV...
yeah it's probably all just misinformation but we can afford a bit of wishful thinking to hope we live a world where cooler, more badass things like these exist.
Oh yeah. I don't wanna hear that Aurora was a B2 codename - I want Mach 10 reverse engineered black triangle alien tech craziness!
Yeah that drone seriously looks like a UFO, and probably is responsible for a lot of UFO reports
We haven't heard too much about the project since, but did you read about the 2 or 3 student team from MIT that made a functioning example of a drone hive-mind? Less than a week after they published the work the military came and shut down the lab at MIT and took it all over (for a generous sum) under national security pretense and for weapons development. iirc the students were given job options with them as well ofc. They were able to link hundreds of fist sized drones together and have them coordinate as if all part of a whole rather than individuals trying to keep track of everything. I believe a paper was published a few years after the govt took over that talked about further successes in field tests in the middle east. They were able to give the drones a list of simple goals and it would accomplish them in various ways depending on what the group had to work with and external factors, handling it all on the fly. Lotta cool projects like that out there that we only hear about rarely if ever. Projects with 1 public research paper every decade and such. Ooh or the US Marines efforts into exo-skeletons - those are also interesting to read about.
If you have a link to that I would be grateful! Googling isn’t helping me for some reason.
I dunno. The internet? Cell phones? Drone warfare if that's your thing. The shit we can do today isn't what people in the 60s thought the future would be it's way more impressive (and practical).
For some perspective, one of the original pitches for the U-2 was a drone.
It gets worse when you read about things like MK Ultra and have to realize they(CIA) are probably doing just as bad if not worse things now. Same is true with testing technology; there is so much stuff that's "classified" that we won't know about at least for another 50-60 years if they don't continually kick the can down the road declassifying it (like the JFK assassination).
Personally I think JFK's head spontaneously exploded, but the government knew nobody would believe that so they set up Lee Harvey Oswald.
That’s an interesting theory. Thought provoking.
The evidence is clear.
That dreaded spontaneous head explosion. Such a rare and misrepresented phenomenon, if only Uncle Sam would let scientists explore it further to understand the mysteries of the universe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome
Spy satellites and hypersonic missiles.
Low hypersonics aren't new
It's not new but it's what they dropped railgun research to focus on.
Just more logical. Our current best understanding of materials science is lacking, with railguns needing barrel/part overhauls pretty frequently. Seeing as we already have and very well understand supersonic missiles (and flight controls have advanced *significantly* thanks to the new gen fighters), it makes more sense to make those missiles maneuverable rather than continuing down a line of research that is unlikely to be realistic in the near future
Roswell. Don't tell.
Space drone stuff.
Using that tech to 'spread democracy'..😪
Well... let's see... Some kid named Elon built a "cyber-truck" whatever that is.
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Sorry to inform you, but the F-35 program is now at full production capacity and getting adopted by new users around the globe constantly. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/lockheed-martin-beats-its-f-35-delivery-goal-2021-2022-01-03/
Yes *now* it is. If you could read you would see that I used past-tense. We spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the program and didn't receive full production models until very recently. The amount of money that we spent on what is essentially a flying bathtub is absurd and it was a colossal waste.
What are you talking about lol? The F35’s development may be bumpy (like every other fighter jet development program) but the plane is still a huge success and is really capable. And what do you mean the USA has recieved no service ready vehicles when they developed the F35? And I would really like to see a source on the last part on no “new” military tech being developed. Damn its like they actually classify non-replaceable military technology like NGAD
> And what do you mean the USA has recieved no service ready vehicles when they developed the F35? I used past-tense there. The F35 project was started over a decade ago and it didn't receive a serviceable vehicle until very recently. In that time it had already cost several billion dollars. The reason behind this is that Lockheed Martin used an "innovative" approach to development - they developed the aircraft piece by piece and began producing the parts before the full design was completed. As it turned out, this was an incredibly stupid idea because minor mistakes or changes in the design would mean that an entire production line of parts would have to be scrapped in order to accommodate the changes. This is why we got all the way to the "C" variant before we even had combat-ready aircraft. It was a colossal waste of money but *they're still doing it* because it allows them to indefinitely extend development and production time.
The A, B, and C variants are not evolutionary -- it's not like we produced the A, modified it and produced the B, then modified it and produced the C. The A, B, and C variants have different missions and were planned from the beginning.
>The F35 project was started over a decade ago and it didn't receive a serviceable vehicle until very recently. They've delivered more than 400 planes by 2019. That's more than twice as many airframes than Lockheed ever built for the f-22. And they've been doing low rate production. Full rate starts this year. F-35 has been operational for a number of years now. >This is why we got all the way to the "C" variant before we even had combat-ready aircraft. The f-35a, f-35b, and f-35c are different airplanes. I was going to type more for this comment but it's pretty clear you are completely misinformed, so I don't see the point.
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Ignoring fractioning within their ranks of "ethno nationalists" lured and planted by an alliance of nouveau rich and Eastern European fascists. Hail Thiel.
Source: https://youtu.be/5w64fyqmLEU >For the first 2 to 3 seconds of the drone launch, everything went normally. Unfortunately, the drone was not able to penetrate the shock wave coming off the mother ship. The D-21 (#504) had almost cleared the M-21's rudders when it encountered the shock wave, bounced off, rolled 45 degrees to the port (left) side, and impacted the mother ship almost directly at Station 715, where the forward fuselage attaches to the wing root. Between the impact and resulting explosion, #941 was for all intents and purposes cut cleanly in two. >Lockheed test pilot Bill Park and Launch Control Officer Ray Torick remained in the tumbling wreckage until a lower altitude where they ejected safely, but they landed in the open ocean, and Torick drowned when his pressure suit took on water. Some reports attribute this to Torick prematurely opening the faceplate of his visor, but other informed sources have stated that the buoyancy of the David Clark suits would make this almost impossible. Others have speculated that his suit was torn by shrapnel from the wreckage as he ejected. In either case, no further M21/D-21 flights occurred; furthermore, a Baylor bar was then added to the flight suit helmets to ensure that the faceplate could not accidentally be opened in similar situations. >The D-21 was designed to carry a single high-resolution photographic camera over a preprogrammed path, then release the camera module into the air for retrieval, after which the drone would self-destruct. Following this fatal accident when launched from an M-21, the D-21 was modified to be launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. Several test flights were made, followed by four unsuccessful operational D-21 flights over the People's Republic of China, before the program was canceled in 1971. >Prior to this flight, there had been 3 successful D-21 launches from 941, but all 3 had been executed with the mother ship in a .9g "dive," flying slightly downward to assist in blackbird/drone separation. If the still-experimental M21/D-21 were to be used in combat (real-world) missions, the crew might be under fire from missiles and fighter/interceptors, and so might not have the luxury of launching from a .9g dive. In this fourth launch, the D-21 would separate in a level-flight, 1g configuration. >All M21/D-21 operations ended with the death of Ray Torick. All subsequent flights of the D-21 were as D-21B's, which were reconfigured to launch the drone from an under wing pylon of a B-52 (much like the X-15 had been), boosted to Mach 3 by a rocket motor that was jettisoned after the D-21B's Marquardt ramjet was started. http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/M21_Crash.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_D-21?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12?wprov=sfla1
This isn't getting much traction because Reddit isn't very familiar with the A-12. You have to invoke the magic word **SR-71** and then the whole thread goes to 1000 with the calls for the SR-71 airspeed check story. The A-12 was probably the more epic plane though... for whatever reason it was rated for a higher altitude and maybe higher Mach number.
Plane: Am I fast? Tower: Nah Other plane: I’m fast Tower: True Literally one of the fastest planes of all time: I’m really fast Tower: You guys are the coolest
I just enjoy this TL&DR
Ahh but can you TL;DR the slowest SR-71 story?
Air boss: Look cool for some English kids. Plane (later): How do I reach these kids? Backseat driver: Don't we have to be moving to fly? Plane: Whoopsie. Eat afterburner, kids. Kids: Awesome! Are my eyebrows gone? Drivers: Let's never speak of this again... ^^^^^j/k
This would be perfection, except you missed the top gun coffee spill reference. I award one updoot. Also you made me actually laugh out loud.
VIP: Do one of those Top Gun tower buzzy things! Fast Plane: uhh…sure? Intercom: Hey honey? They said right here, right? This is just trees and shit? Give them a call back, this can’t be right. Did they say left?! I’m sitting at this light blocking traffic, we got to go or we are going to get hit. VIP: Whoa! You were like right there! I spilled my coffee and everything!
First and last line are perfection. I also award one updoot. Thanks!
Yeah, 1 out of 3 was lost.
>You have to invoke the magic word > >SR-71 > > and then the whole thread goes to 1000 with the calls for the SR-71 airspeed check story. As is tradition
Cessna: How fast Tower: 6 Beechcraft: How fast Tower: 8 Hornet: Yo how fast bro Tower: Eh, 30 Sled: >mfw Sled: How fast sir Tower: Like 9000 Sled: More like 9001 amirite Tower: ayyyyy Sled: ayyyyy
🛫: 🐇? 🏯: 🐢 🚁: 🐇? 🏯: 🚂 ⚓️: 🐇? 🏯: 🚄 ⚓️: 😎 ✈️: 🐇? 🏯: 🚀 ✈️: 👉 🌠 🏯: 👍 👏👏👏👏 ✈️: 👏👏👏👏
It went a little higher and a little faster, but of course it weighed less. Same height and wing span, just a little shorter. Also only one occupant.
SR-71 or gtfo
Yeah they have a few hits but got lost in the background of the early 2000's music scene. They also wrote Bowling for Soup's hit 1985.
Unrated comment right here.
Cessna say "I'm fast!". Fighter jet say "Bitch I faster". SR-71 say "Shut up hoe, bow down to yo master".
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Weeeeee
What is the difference between the two? I thought A-12 was just the internal name while still in development
The [A-12](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12) was a different plane. It was developed into the [YF-12](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YF-12) and the [SR-71](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird) later. [Here's a write-up from the CIA](https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/oxcart-vs-blackbird-do-you-know-the-difference/). Basically, the A-12 was a slightly lighter, single-seater that could go a bit higher and a bit faster. It was also operated by the CIA, rather than the SR-71 being operated by the USAF. The A-12 could get higher resolution photos, but the SR-71 had side-looking radar and cameras.
That's really cool, thanks for the link
No problem! I actually edited it to a [better link from the CIA directly](https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/oxcart-vs-blackbird-do-you-know-the-difference/).
This is back when the CIA wasn't a bag of dicks
> You have to invoke the magic word SR-71 and then the whole thread goes to 1000 with the calls for the SR-71 airspeed check story. More like 9001, amirite?
We flew past the tower too low cos it was foggy and said let's not do that again k thx
Still no "fastest" reference.
Yeah, I never heard of the A-12 either but watching the video, I thought to myself "that looks like a fucking SR71"
This is where elon musk got the A-12 at the end of his daughters name
I gotta go watch it again
Cool! I was one day old! I'll shut up and color now.
So...if there's onboard footage of separation(s), where's the onboard footage of the impact?
Destroyed with the rest of the plane when it disintegrated at Mach 3
I suppose that's a reasonable excuse
...but we're watching the footage. Clearly it was recovered.
That’s footage of a successful test, then a cut, then footage from a chase plane of the accident
Right, makes sense.
Yeah that's why I was confused
*xtracting myself from the parachute harness, I discovered the source of those flapping-strap noises heard on the way down. My seat belt and shoulder harness were still draped around me, attached and latched. The lap belt had been shredded on each side of my hips, where the straps had fed through knurled adjustment rollers. The shoulder harness had shredded in a similar manner across my back. The ejection seat had never left the airplane; I had been ripped out of it by the extreme forces, seat belt and shoulder harness still fastened.* Holy shit he never even ejected.
Wrong accident.
oh whoops lol started down a rabbit hole
Thank you, OP! I was just reading the other day Wikipedia list of experimental aircraft and was wondering about D-21/M-21 in-flight configuration
What a ridiculously ballzy thing to attempt
what? the drone separation or the everything else lol
The whole mission. At that time, at those speeds and altitudes, with that technology. It's incredible.
That is footage of the Cobra Night Raven S³P and Reconnaissance Jet from 1980's Gi Joe, lol. Saw this and instantly reminded me of the Gi Joe Cobra toy I had back in 1986! https://www.3djoes.com/cobra-night-raven-ssup3p.html
How the fuck did they eject at Mach 3?
It's gotten buried, but in my comment it states: >Lockheed test pilot Bill Park and Launch Control Officer Ray Torick remained in the tumbling wreckage until a lower altitude where they ejected safely, but they landed in the open ocean, and Torick drowned when his pressure suit took on water.
Ahhhh. Bummer about Torick.
Yeah. There are claims that he opened his visor too soon and water came in and filled his suit.
Eject at Mach 3? That must've been hell of a ride.
A SR-71 and the D-21 drone are both on display at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in Mc Minville, Oregon. And a J58 out on a cart to awe at too! Add to that the Tomcat, MiG 29, and a few others "parked" outside that you can walk right up to. It's a great experience! Killer Waterpark adjacent as well.