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Frickin' Cool SR-71 Blackbird Story

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well.... English Electric, but right ball-park:)

Dylan, the Canberra was a much underrated Photo Reconnaissance aircraft flown from 1950 onwards. It was a really funny looking bugger with very deep wings (high chord length) which went totally unexplained.
The Canberra set a public altitude record of 70,000ft, although the official ceiling is still classified. Couple of them are still in use by NASA though, as high altitude research vehicles. Rumours still abound that Gary Power's mishap was alledged to have had an eye-witness... from above;)

not bad for a 60 year old design.

We used to be dead good at aircraft design, the Canberra, Lightning, TSR II ... don't even get me started on that one;)
 
Good on you Blair. Apologies for the little mishap over name. Should we also mention anything about jet engines and 1940s??

Cannot understand why the official ceiling should still be classified though.
 
Well, because the Blacknird flies at 80,000 feet, officially. That is pretty much the edge of the atmosphere, so any much further than that would be in space. So to have a vehicle that leaves the atmosphere and re-enters at will would be quite a nice asset.

G-man, the U-2 (as flown by Powers) is still in service, it is a bleedin' 50 year old design still in use today!!!! I think that is impressive!

Edit: Just finished reading up on the bomber turned recon plane. It has had an impressive history!! Apparently the U-2 went higher than the 70,000 feet record at the time, but that was a secret.

Remember people, the SR-71 was supposed to be the U-2's replacement. Which obviously hasn't quite panned out like they thought it would ;)
 
Of the English Electric Canberra:

But perhaps the best remembered role was in the Cold War, where modified very high-altitude Canberras overflew the Soviet Union and China many times before the advent of the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. In 1955 the USAF ordered 20 RB-57Ds from Martin, with modified Pratt & Whitney J57 engines and an extended 33 metre wingspan. These, and a later version with longer 37 metre wings, were used for both photographic and electronic reconnaissance. On 24 December 1957, a USAF RB-57 was shot down by Soviet fighters over the Black Sea, and in February 1958 and October 1959 RB-57Ds operated by the Chinese Nationalists were shot down over mainland China. After President Eisenhower's 1960 ban on overflying the USSR, they continued to monitor Eastern Bloc nations, often flying just outside territorial limits at about 60,000 ft (18,300 m) to look deep into the forbidden territory, until 14 December 1965 (1968 according to other accounts) when an RB-57F was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over the Black Sea near Odessa.
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NASA retains (as of July 2005) NASA 926 and NASA 928 for high altitude research. These aircraft observed the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-114, on 26 July 2005. The aircraft perform other scientific observation roles on weather, pollution and ozone layer depletion studies. These aircraft entered USAF service in 1964 as WB-57Fs with 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron prior to joining NASA in the early 1970s. NASA operated 925 from 1972-82 when it was retired.
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The Canberra could fly at a higher altitude than any other bomber right through the 1950s and set a world altitude record of 70,310 ft (21,430 m) in 1957. (The Lockheed U-2 may have flown higher, but was secret at that time. That said, the service ceiling of the Canberra PR9 remains classified.)
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Not an SR-71, but a B-2 in between a F/A-18 Hornet and a couple of F-16 Falcons!!

Cool Picture!

stealth.jpg
 
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