SPY PLANES: SR-71 Blackbird And U-2 Dragonlady | Skunk Works Masterpiece Aircraft
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- Опубліковано 23 вер 2024
- A dive into the SR-71 Blackbird and the U-2 Dragonlady spy planes made by Skunk Works / Kelly Johnson / Lockheed.
The U-2 Dragonlady is an American single-engine, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated from the 1950s by the United States Air Force (USAF) or the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day and night, high-altitude (70,000 feet, 21,300 meters), and all-weather intelligence gathering.
Lockheed Corporation originally proposed it in 1953, approved it in 1954, and its first test flight was in 1955. It was flown during the Cold War over the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and Cuba. In 1960, Gary Powers was shot down in a CIA U-2C over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. was shot down in a U-2 during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
U-2 Dragonlady General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Capacity: 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) payload
Length: 63 ft 0 in (19.20 m)
Wingspan: 103 ft (31 m)
Height: 16 ft 0 in (4.88 m)
Wing area: 1,000 sq ft (93 m2)
Airfoil: root: NACA 63A409; tip: NACA 63A406
Empty weight: 16,000 lb (7,257 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 40,000 lb (18,144 kg)
Fuel capacity: 2,950 US gal (2,460 imp gal; 11,200 l)
Powerplant: 1 × General Electric F118-101 turbofan engine, 17,000 lbf (76 kN) thrust
Performance
Cruise speed: Mach 0.715 (412 kn; 470 mph; 760 km/h) at 72,000 ft (22,000 m)
Cruise speed: 413 kn (475 mph, 765 km/h) at 65,000 ft (20,000 m)
Stall speed: 65 kn (75 mph, 120 km/h)
Range: 6,090 nmi (7,010 mi, 11,280 km) plus
Endurance: 12 hours
Service ceiling: 80,000 ft (24,000 m) plus
Rate of climb: 9,000 ft/min (46 m/s)
Time to altitude: 60,000 ft (18,000 m) in 12 minutes 30 seconds
Lift-to-drag: 25.6
Wing loading: 40 lb/sq ft (200 kg/m2)
Thrust/weight: 0.425
Fuel consumption: 910 lb/h (410 kg/h) in cruise
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 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 1960s by Lockheed's Skunk Works division. American aerospace engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was responsible for many of the aircraft's innovative concepts. The shape of the SR-71 was based on that of the A-12, which was one of the first aircraft to be designed with a reduced radar cross-section. Initially, a bomber variant of the A-12 was requested by Curtis LeMay, before the program was focused solely on reconnaissance. Mission equipment for the reconnaissance role included signals intelligence sensors, side-looking airborne radar, and a camera; the SR-71 was both longer and heavier than the A-12, allowing it to hold more fuel as well as a two-seat cockpit. The SR-71 entered service in January 1966.
SR-71 Specifications
Orthographically projected diagram of the SR-71A Blackbird
Orthographically projected diagram of the SR-71B trainer model
SR-71 epoxy asbestos composite areas
Data from Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
General characteristics
Crew: 2; Pilot and reconnaissance systems officer (RSO)
Length: 107 ft 5 in (32.74 m)
Wingspan: 55 ft 7 in (16.94 m)
Height: 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)
Wheel track: 16 ft 8 in (5 m)
Wheelbase: 37 ft 10 in (12 m)
Wing area: 1,800 sq ft (170 m2)
Aspect ratio: 1.7
Empty weight: 67,500 lb (30,617 kg)
Gross weight: 152,000 lb (68,946 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 172,000 lb (78,018 kg)
Fuel capacity: 12,219.2 US gal (10,174.6 imp gal; 46,255 l) in 6 tank groups (9 tanks)
Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney J58 (JT11D-20J or JT11D-20K) afterburning turbojets, 25,000 lbf (110 kN) thrust each
JT11D-20J 32,500 lbf (144.57 kN) wet (fixed inlet guide vanes)
JT11D-20K 34,000 lbf (151.24 kN) wet (2-position inlet guide vanes)
Performance
Maximum speed: 1,910 kn (2,200 mph, 3,540 km/h) at 80,000 ft (24,000 m)
Maximum speed: Mach 3.3
Ferry range: 2,824 nmi (3,250 mi, 5,230 km)
Service ceiling: 85,000 ft (26,000 m)
Rate of climb: 11,820 ft/min (60.0 m/s)
Wing loading: 84 lb/sq ft (410 kg/m2)
Thrust/weight: 0.44
Avionics
3,500 lb (1,588 kg) of mission equipment
#u2 #sr71 #skunkworks
Click the link to watch more aircraft, heroes and their stories, missions: www.youtube.com/@Dronescapes
Seeing the black sky and the thin blue line of the atmosphere would certainly hammer home the idea that we really are living between a rock and a hard place.
Thank you Mr Sinise.
Gary Sinise is the Bob Hope of the 21st Century! God bless him!
Wow! Mr. Sinise nailed it in his description of what it's like to see a shuttle launch up close. You feel like someone is pushing on your chest. It is an experience you will never forget!
I watched the maiden flight of the Atlantis back in 1983 from the KOA campground in Titusville. The roar of those engines gets to you in a big way. I got some good 3D slides of the craft as it arced its way up to space. The image had a falic look to it with those massive steam flumes resembling the male testi, and the shuttle resembling, well you know what I mean.
Awesome video ! Never seen the stories of 2 planes tied together so well! Awesome video! Every high school student should see this in history class
While I totally agree with you, unfortunately I seriously doubt that will happen. 😔 Military history doesn't seem to be a popular subject in t these days, which I think is insane considering the political climate the world is seeing.
Wow that Gary Sinise part was epic - thanks!
Gary Sinise, you are a true humanitarian. Your looking out for the veterans is awesome. We need more of this here in Australia. So many idolise our footy platers in the AFL, which has gripped the country like a disease. The way our media carry on about it has now become beyond a joke. We have 2 days a year to honour our veterans. The real problem is when one of our veterans passes away, the media raises barely a "squeak" about it, yet when one of our AFL players is hurt, gets sick, gets married, gets divorced, retires, changes teams, runs foul of the law, has children with their partner, or dies, the media go on about it for days, sometimes weeks, & months. It is ridiculous. You, on the other hand, deserve the recognition because of what you are doing.
Same in all western countries. The media tends to lionize and grandize the more flippant members in our society, whilst ignoring those who make our societies better for all to live in. Ie. The medical people, the teachers, the scientists, the artists, the poets ad nauseam !
@@den264you're almost right, it's so we don't throw the corrupt leaders in jail. Just imagine if people actually understood where their money went and why politicians were so wealthy from public service instead of worrying about their favourite sports teams latest score or actors latest indiscretion. Governments get bigger and bigger yet they don't seem to ever make things better with all our money, except for themselves. "It's a big club, and we're not in it". We just pay for it.
39:52 What an amazing photo. I would love to have this framed and put it up in the shop. Thanks for this Drone, a great addition to your awesome collection of content 🤙
42:15 is pretty cool too.
Awesome vid! Gary Sinise is the icing on the cake. His narrations are right up there with the best of them.
Thank you
your videos are genuinely amazing. I love aviation and these videos teach me so many things. keep up the good work man! :)
Glad you like them!
The blackbird is sick!!!!!
Love the fact Gary Sinise is a part of this video. Enjoyed every minute of this start to finish. But then am fascinated by military aircraft. Love watching videos and documentary’s on them. Love anything about Lockheed Martin(skunk works) McDonald Douglas and Northrop Grumman projects
3:21
*"Reconnaissance flies alone, unarmed, unafraid, and unheralded."*
Truer words to ever describe the Reconnaissance Pilots who fly both the U2 and the SR-71.
Gary Sinise is truly a gentleman.
Amazing piece of history, thanks for sharing your trip! I’ll always remember the trip!
can never go wrong with a historical video to listen to go sleep with
Great video. Thank you. 🤘
Thank you 🙏
I really appreciate you folks on the oposit side of the atlantic ocean. God bless you.
This is great, hope your videos gain more traction and viewers.
Much appreciated!
Awesome
God bless you Gary you are definitely lived and thank you
Pulse combustion engines are also known as intermittent duct engines. Between the pulses, the fuel is fed to the engine, then ignited, & the fuel cut off, thus giving the puffy vapour trail. Germany used such engines in there "doodlebugs", or "buzz bombs" during WW2. During this time, the Bristol Beaufighter, a twin engined plane was sent up to try intercepting them. Instead of shooting them down, the pilots adopted a technique where they would flip the buzz bomb over, by using one wing of the plane under a wing of a buzz bomb, then lifting the plane's wing with the aileron.
Also known as the V1. Thise flying bombs were very difficult to intercept. The Spitfire variant 14 and the Gloster metior could do the wingtip flip which you described and send it crashing in to a farmers field before it could reach the more populated area's of the country.
Bestest
Imagine being in that suit and needing to scratch your nose at 90k feet
Or further down ! LOL
Good job
Thanks
Yea still watching it obviously but it's really good so far dude seriously.
When I was overseas, they used a 2005 Pontiac gto with the LS2 to chase the U2's.
Every one of these guys is somewhere in that book that Tom Wolfe wrote.
you always have interesting videos...
Glad you like them!
I’m jealous of Gary for that flight for that just isn’t something everyone gets to do. Watching it you get a sense of how it is. It’s not the same as being there. Not mad at him, just wish it was me. That is awesome sauce on steroids being able to do that. You can’t help envying anyone who does that as that list is short indeed and it is an extreme privilege to be chosen for that duty. It would be an honor to be one on that list. Talking about unique! Duh! God bless him for not many have that status. Press on Gary for your foundation is doing a job for vets. Proud to say that I am a double vet.
I personally don't understand why we haven't come up with something better than the U-2 by now. Something with more fuel efficient, more powerful engines that operate better at high altitudes, better observational equipment, etc etc.
If something works you shoudnt change it
((edit) there is eventualy something new🤔)
The U2 is the perfectly designed airplane, it's going to be pretty tough to beat
The Blackbird noobcake3000
Ummm.... do you really think you'd be notified about it? It's been done many times over.
I bet you we have something way better but wont here about it doe 20 years
They allow take your cellphone to capture either Sunrise or set?
bravo.perfect
I like this powerful and fastest planes
It was good. Didn't need the Gary Sinese story though.
Do the Russians or the Chinese have anything equivalent to U2 or the SR71?
I do realize that "President Johnson?" misread the designation for the SR-71 from RS-71, but is anyone going to "fix" that oops?
What is the purpose of the "Red Srtipe" that tangents the mid-rear fuselage to the inner wings?
U2 is a F104 with big wings..that’s why it’s so hard to fly.
I wonder what advancements were made with the black bird from then to now
AURORA flown in around 1985 and had the pulse driven engine that everyone saw fly over California that made those different shaped clouds.
Who has the best medical, health, and dental care? SR-71 pilot's...😁
I don't care where youre from or where youve been, nothing could compare to having that view of our home, planet Earth without any lines saying where you are or aren't allowed to go. Maybe if we all realised its our only home we might all appreciate what we have and make each part of Earth better so we can stop fighting for reasons that make little sense. Divide and rule is something the powerful have used to keep their power for millenia yet we, the people, keep letting themuse us to fight their power games. Its so ironic that most advances have come from wars, if only we threw away that which stops us from being enslaved, and worked as one race, the Human Race and stopped the scorecard of who has more money as that is what keeps us all fighting. I just wish i could give the answer to the problem of the division that so obviously exists.
Peace my fellow Humans.
27:42 by the time it gets picked up itll be gone
Give me a break. Everything has been live streamed that puts 8K quality and any future color and detail to shame for years now.
What if you have HD security footage of someone robbing your house, beating your dog to death, you know where this person lives and this person has no alibi? Not only this but you even have a DNA match of their blood plus your dog’s bite marks on this person’s leg and arms. You give all this evidence to the police which they thank you for and tell you that they will be adding it to an extensive dossier they have of boxes of equally damning evidence on this person…..
….WHAT is the point of enquiries, high tech spy planes and amassed evidence if it’s not accompanied by RESOLVE, ACTION and CONSEQUENCES…..???
Is there any other reason than cost savings to not have the runway lights on all night- every night? I mean, this is not the first time unlit runway lights have been a contributing factor? Is saving a couple grand a month in electric worth the risk here. It just seems that society is going in reverse. Take, take streamline, take... Until someone dies...
Nice video. But the U2 and SR71 were not needed to see the concentration camps. KH11's most certainly saw the same, but it was all about plausible deniability -- a Clinton specialty -- e.g. "how could we know before we flew over there?" or "it depends on the meaning of the word 'is'". (And conveniently the resolution capabilities of the U2 were publicly known from prior releases, so its images could be released without compromising KH11 capabilities.)
What does "is" mean anyway?!? So confusing!
Britain invented both the jet engine and the nuclear bomb basically as most of the research came from Britain and it was built in America as they were not in a war zone and had the funds to do it with British know how but most people don’t know this especially Americans lol
Nice video.
But after 1:00:25
“ U2 SPY PLANE 70,000 FEET ALTITUDE！”
has been upload before (゜-゜Why？
I didn 't think it was necessary for this video.
Dude seemed pretty much bored af the whole time. I would literally be uncontrollably emotional, thankful, and excited beyond belief. He's like, this is IT? "Wow". "Amazing". Um, so that's it? A pretty disappointing description of the experience for the rest of us lowly normal peeps who just paid for it.
Did you see "hear" Captain Kirk or William Shatner describe his flight experience on the Blue Horizon rocket ! It was like listening to William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens combined. What a wonderful naration / description of the divide between life on earth and the sterile blackness of space.
ＳＲ７１はスパイ機なのですね。
ソ連上空をスパイする。
中国上空をスパイする。
北朝鮮上空をスパイする。
これって、領空侵犯していますね。
I liked the blackbird it was relatively advanced enough spy plane but nothing major, the TB3 spy plane that is currently operated by our nato friends from Luxembourg is the most advanced in the world, they fly over Russia U.K. all Europe Asia and even America and nobody can track the sucker it’s that good the Americans try and claim her for their selfs but no it’s a Luxembourg air force spy plane
The fact that Pilots had to be married is not true!!
Nor is the dripping fuel responsible for "empty tanks", the tanks are left low level because, IF there is a problem at takeoff, the Jet can land immediately, not having to dump fuel to be at landing weight, do some research for crying out loud !!!
Why married? So they don't try anything stupid since they have a family?
How hilarious that Russia has actually brought both of those planes that you too and the SR-71 down 👇
No Blackbird was ever shot down, I am not sure where you got your history from, other than some fake propaganda . The U-2 was shot down by a missile. You are talking about technology that was both unexplored and many, many decades old. It is only natural that eventually they would catch up to it, but in the case of the SR-71 they never could. By the way, only 2 U-2s piloted by a US pilot were shit down, one famously over the Soviet Union, and one lesser known, over Cuba, during the missile crisis. The pilot died in that one. It is astounding that the U-2 still flies to this day, which is a testament to this remarkable aircraft
if G Sinise narrates, then 👍👍. No matter what 👍👍🫠