Sr71

[xrearl 27]

http://www.vfp62.com/SR-71.html

[Sokol 444]

http://www.vfp62.com/SR-71.html

 

Hm,

nice stories (although not new).

 

what puzzles me: the author built a Revell SR-71 when he was 10 (so did i at the same time). this could not have been any sooner than the late 60ies. 29 years later he first met the real thing, not earlier than the early 90ies. by then the Blackbirds were retiring. Lybia was bombed in the mid 80ies.

 

outrunning 4,000 missiles without any scratch ? pure fiction. which serious air force commander would waste his missiles in this way ?

 

no scratch ever ? at least one Blackbird was hit over North Vietnam, though not shot down at the spot.flights over Hanoi were suspended for quite a while.

 

no MiG able to catch up ? Swedish air controllers reported that every time a Blackbird left the Baltic sea it was met by a MiG-25, flying 2 km lower and behind the SR-71, perfectly positioned for a kill.

 

strange

sokol

[Stick 773]

This has been done before boys so...drink a beer or something.

[+Gepard 11,287]

no MiG able to catch up ? Swedish air controllers reported that every time a Blackbird left the Baltic sea it was met by a MiG-25, flying 2 km lower and behind the SR-71, perfectly positioned for a kill.

 

This was only possible, because the SR-71 was forced to use a very small flight corridor between sweden and the GDR or Poland.

When the SR-71 flew in the MiG-25 at Ribnitz Damgarten and ... (damn, forgot the name of the base, perhaps Finow, not sure)were alarmed and took off to intercept the Blackbird on their way home. In the small flight corridor it was possible that the ground controllers directed the 25 close to the Blackbird.

At no other area of the world the MiG-25 was able to catch a SR-71. Especially in the Murmansk area the MiG-25 never saw a Blackbird. The MiG-31 had a little bit more success. Their pilots reported, that they very often had seen the contrails of the Blackbird, but never the plane itself.

[+Jug 99]

Nice doubting thoughts here, but the newest Sled was built in 1962 and nothing has come close to it throughout its amazing operational life. 30 years of world wide operations against a foe that would have dearly loved to shoot one down (read Vicktor Belenko's MiG Pilot).

 

Let's see, my lower math says if you had 7 operational sorties per week (two from Kadena checking out North Korea, two from Mildenhall checking out the then northern USSR, and three elsewhere, e.g. the middle east), times 52 weeks in the year, times 30 years, you come up with 10,920 chances to have a single missile shot at you (usually more than one at a time come up to say hello). 4,000 missle misses is actually pretty conservative don't you think? I, myself, would be willing to accept twice that number as perfectly feasible.

 

Truth be known, missile shots were a good test case for Soviet missile development. I can seen Pavlev turning to Igor and saying, "Not yet, Comrade. Back to the drawing boards." again and again.

 

MiG-25 gets tongue-stalls, severe coughs, and compressor stalls at above Mach 2.5 (leaving vital engine parts in its wake) so how do you think they could get off the ground, run an intercept, and come anywhere close to a Sled cooking along at Mach 3.2 to 3.5. The MiG-31, with much better avionics and missiles, stands a better chance, but it still has a slim chance to get in position to do the deed because its top in speed is somewhat lower than the Foxbat. The Sled could use the favorite maneuver for the old, slow U-2 and just randomly turn. Think about the lead you have to draw on a bird you are hunting in the field and you get the idea stretched across a 17 mile high scenario. Really screws up your GCI or missile track when the bloody target turns after the missile is out of fuel and on a ballistic trajectory flailing away with little tiny wings in thin air or when your high-speed MiG wings can't go fast enough to keep you from stalling your 60,000 lbs hogbody at 60,000 feet in straight and level flight, much less any turn.

 

Besides, none of us knows the full capacity of the onboard ECM suite on the Sled, because it was never used. Not needed.

 

Sorry, but the math doesn't work out. The Sled was a showpiece of American engineering, reigned supreme during its entire life where nobody flies today, and for thirty years never even saw anyone in the rear vision mirrors.

Edited September 12, 2011 by Jug

[boulder 6]

Without any doubt, the Habu is perhaps the most unique and outstanding aircraft ever produced. The Soviets were never able to create anything that could come even close to the Blackbird. They were able to intercept it, though. The following is an excerpt from Jane´s:

 

"Fighter Combat in the Jet Age".

 

"The Soviets continued to develop new anti-SR-71 tactics, and on 3 June 1986 these were demonstrated to a USAF crew on a mission over the Barents Sea. Six MiG-31 'Foxhounds', vastly superior to the MiG-25 'Foxbat' , performed a co-ordinated intercept that would have subjected the SR-71 to an all-angle AAM attack that even a combination of high-altitude maneuverability and ECM could not have defeated. Fortunately for the crew of the American jet, the interception took place over international waters, but the Soviets had nevertheless proved their point".

 

It tells something about the SR-71, when you need six Foxbats to intercept it effectively. Amazing plane, hats off to Skunkworks.

[JediMaster 451]

Perhaps that's why the retirement was only 2 years later.

[rodriv9 0]

Hay alguno para SF2? 

[X8X8X 0]

Certainly a great aircraft. And some of the stories may - naturally - be closer to legends than to facts.

Interesting story, boulder, never heard that one before. MiG-31s were certainly capable aircraft. They were designed to operate in groups, so nothing terrible about a coupe of Foxhounds against a single Blackbird.

 

Best regards,

X8X8X

[thedogfighter 0]

Nice doubting thoughts here, but the newest Sled was built in 1962 and nothing has come close to it throughout its amazing operational life. 30 years of world wide operations against a foe that would have dearly loved to shoot one down (read Vicktor Belenko's MiG Pilot).

 

Let's see, my lower math says if you had 7 operational sorties per week (two from Kadena checking out North Korea, two from Mildenhall checking out the then northern USSR, and three elsewhere, e.g. the middle east), times 52 weeks in the year, times 30 years, you come up with 10,920 chances to have a single missile shot at you (usually more than one at a time come up to say hello). 4,000 missle misses is actually pretty conservative don't you think? I, myself, would be willing to accept twice that number as perfectly feasible.

 

Truth be known, missile shots were a good test case for Soviet missile development. I can seen Pavlev turning to Igor and saying, "Not yet, Comrade. Back to the drawing boards." again and again.

 

MiG-25 gets tongue-stalls, severe coughs, and compressor stalls at above Mach 2.5 (leaving vital engine parts in its wake) so how do you think they could get off the ground, run an intercept, and come anywhere close to a Sled cooking along at Mach 3.2 to 3.5. The MiG-31, with much better avionics and missiles, stands a better chance, but it still has a slim chance to get in position to do the deed because its top in speed is somewhat lower than the Foxbat. The Sled could use the favorite maneuver for the old, slow U-2 and just randomly turn. Think about the lead you have to draw on a bird you are hunting in the field and you get the idea stretched across a 17 mile high scenario. Really screws up your GCI or missile track when the bloody target turns after the missile is out of fuel and on a ballistic trajectory flailing away with little tiny wings in thin air or when your high-speed MiG wings can't go fast enough to keep you from stalling your 60,000 lbs hogbody at 60,000 feet in straight and level flight, much less any turn.

 

Besides, none of us knows the full capacity of the onboard ECM suite on the Sled, because it was never used. Not needed.

 

Sorry, but the math doesn't work out. The Sled was a showpiece of American engineering, reigned supreme during its entire life where nobody flies today, and for thirty years never even saw anyone in the rear vision mirrors.

 

Sorry i know its an old post. But i was quite surprised about your revelation regarding the ECM. Really it was never used?! In any operational flight ?

[MigBuster 2,884]

Jug is sadly no longer with us to answer that.

 

Not certain if Jug meant they didn't use them because the missiles were all beaten by height and speed and Jammers came on but were not needed in that sense.

 

From what has been declassified from the Oxcart program, the A-12 certainly had multiple jammers and did use them over Vietnam. As for the SR-71 that will no doubt come out in time.