How F-14 and F-15 pilots trained to take down the SR-71
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Throughout its three decades of service, the Blackbird famously had over 4,000 missiles of all sorts fired at it, and managed to outrun every single one. But no aircraft is invincible and the Blackbird was no exception.
With looming concerns about high-speed Soviet fighters closing the capability gap, the Air Force decided to pit its Mach 3+ Blackbird against America’s own best fighters, both of which have also become legends in their own right: the U.S. Navy’s Grumman F-14 Tomcat and the U.S. Air Force’s McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle.
But even for these incredible airborne predators, the Habu was no easy meal.
Thanks to Hector Tinoco for editing this video!
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Original Write-Up:
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Colonel Richard H. Graham's books:
www.amazon.com...
www.amazon.com...
Other Citations:
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theaviationgee...
theaviationgee...
/ habubrats71
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www.key.aero/a...
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I love the estimation of the SR71's radar cross section being that of a Cessna 172 because it makes me imagine some ATC somewhere going "Hey, that looks like a Cessna on radar...but what's it doing at 80,000 feet....and it's going HOW FAST?!?!?"
If you look around online you'll find the story of a civilian Cessna checking in with atc air traffic control, for a speed and altitude check overheard by a marine f4 phantom 2, the marine pilot asked for the same from atc, atc replied to the marine pilot I have you at altitude blah blah, speed 640 knots, an SR-71 returning from a recon mission broke regulations, and radioed to the atc requesting the same, received a reply I hold you at 80,000 feet moving at 3,000 mph😂😂😂
The proudest portion of my AF career was being part of the cadre of the SR-71 wing at Beale AFB (9th SRW). I was there 9 months before we received the first bird. I even had the honor of meeting its designer, Kelly Johnson.
In the late 70's I dated a girl whose stepfather flew 100+ mission over North Vietnam in F-105's including some of the first Iron Hand missions. Then he transitioned to the SR-71 and flew out of Okinawa and Beale until he retired. I was looking some his pictures and awards at the ranch and noticed his 'Mach 3' and '300 Hour' pins. I asked about the '300 Hour' pin because that didn't seem like a lot of hours in a particular aircraft? He grinned and said "At Mach 3+ it doesn't take all that long to get, well, anywhere." He had some great stories.
Thumbs down. More STORY! PLEASE! A SENIOR SR-71 pilot? Does he have a book? He should
@@stonecut4u2now Sadly Bob passed away some time ago. There is a FB page run by a woman whose father was an SR71 RSO and who grew up on Beale AFB in the 70's-80's. She posts a lot of cool stories and pictures! It's called "Born into the Wild Blue Yonder Habubrats."
Cover the Pretty Girl flyoff between A12 and the 71
I could be wrong about this but I think the viggen actually saved the blackbird. What I mean is if I’m remembering correctly the SR-71 had an engine out just after leaving Soviet airspace. With Soviet interceptors closing in two viggens intercepted them first and the Soviets backed off. That is if I’m getting the story right.
Your correct, the SAABS escorted the SR71 to safety from Russia fighters
@@kevinroark5024 ok just making sure I’m not going crazy 🤣
100% correct
heh Indeed!
I do believe Alex included that story in one of his other Blackbird videos ☺️
And if *_I'm_* also remembering correctly, they were giving thank-you medals from the US, but also that it's officially still classified... Or that it was, up until only recently...
Yes the got the medals in 2018 , a couple nof years before the sr-71 was delivered to Duxford for the help the UK did with det4...where the plane in that story flew out from.
The Blackbird is hands down my favorite aircraft ever built.
I refueled the Blackbird for almost six years. The crews were amazing and their mission planning was stellar. Their routing either in Europe and Asia limited their speed to meet the exact routing. It was a great mission before we built and fielded outstanding satellites. The cost of continuing the program became too costly compared with modern imagery capabilities. A single training mission would run $1M a piece. It was an awesome aircraft before stealth even existed. .
As a Swede I'm glad you mentioned SAAB JA37 Viggen being the only foreign aircraft with confirmed radar lock(s) on the SR71
in ordinary mission flight. And several times to that.
What you did not mention was the fact it was Swedish Viggens that in 1987 escorted a SR71 stricken with engine trouble
out of a MiG25 wolfpacks range - and on into Danish/WestGerman airspace - something that rendered the four Viggen
pilots US Air Medals for bravery. Worth mentioning I think...
Radar lock is easy to achieve. It's getting the missile to catch it that's the problem.
@@kinte1870 No, it's not. While modern radar absorbing surfaces were not available at the time, the designer(s) of the SR-71 put composite-honeycomb areas on the nacelle inlet spikes, the nacelle chines and on the wing and elevon edges, as well as on the fuselage chines. This, along with the round engine compartments and curved surfaces on the fuselage, reduced the radar cross sections tremendously. In addition to all these design measures, the max. speed of the Blackbird made it very difficult to achieve a lock that was needed to guide a mid- or long-range (air-to-air) missile to the target. And even if such a lock would have been achieved, the missile still needed the (constant) guidance/reflection of the interceptor's radar, until it reached the terminal path (where it could use its internal radar or IR). And that's where the low radar profile and the high speed of the SR-71 kicked in. Quotes/pilot statements mentioned in this video prove that interceptors needed to know the exact flight path and that the SR-71s even had to dump fuel to highlight their positions, during these training sessions. Large stationary Soviet radar sites on the ground may have detected SR-71s in Soviet airspace occasionally, maybe even regularly, but the Blackbirds' ECMs, speed and altitudes made it impossible to intercept them with ground-to-air missiles. Dispatched Soviet interceptors had to be guided by large ground stations (as the radars of the S-75 AA-systems were usually jammed or suffering of drop-ins caused by the ECMs and the SR-71s low radar profile), as their on-board radars struggled with the SR-71's low profile and speed, but the interceptors were usually unable to find and/or chase the Blackbirds, let alone getting sufficient lock/guidance time. The crippled SR-71 over Warsaw Pact territory was a different matter, obviously, I am guessing that it could be chased and maybe even be tracked visually for some time, at least.
@@kinte1870 Yes, and that's why the Viggen is alone to have _confirmed_ radar lock "kills" among non-US airplanes. And several confirmed locks to that...
As an American with family in Sweden, I appreciate your telling of that story. I think the creator of this video told it in an older video of his. The Swedish pilots are true heroes and I hope the US continues to honor their bravery through support and cooperation.
Most countries are only as strong as their allies. History has shown us that the US is no exception. I thank my ancestors, family, you, and your countrymen for keeping the Blackbird safe in such a dangerous era.
@@kinte1870Now the blackbird couldn't evade anything we have lazers now, no matter how fast it is it can't surpass the speed of light. Still my favorite aircraft like the biggest troll aircraft to the world. 😂
Great vid Alex. Many J58 parts went through my fathers hands at PWA during those years. An EXTRORDINARY jet but remember....any aircraft is only as remarkable as it's powerplant. Long live PWA!!!
I was just ranting about this very thing in on another comment. Those engines made that jet from my POV. It sort of just barely worked, but it consistently and constantly worked at the new limits it unlocked. We need a new type of engine that does a similar thing with our jets. One that unlocks new fuel efficiency and power capacity by expanding the range of the engine capabilities with a hybrid engine. We could have had one now if there was the budget and urgency for one. It's time to start focusing on new tech that truly changes the options available to fight with and shores up the weaknesses we have with fuel transport.
Possible enemies have much greater capabilities now. Our advantages have been countered. We need jets that have much longer legs and we also need a lot more missiles. Like, a lot a lot more more missiles. We truly lack the capacity for a sustained fight and the ability defend and deliver fuel for the weapons we have. More fuel and ammo please. If an enemy overwhelms our defense capability and destroy our refueling ability we will suddenly be in a situation where a force multiplier gets divided and we end up in a far more bloody battle. The refueling capability we have is much weaker now for both jets and ships.
The engine makes the jet.
You could have gone on for another 60 minutes and not lost me. Great history!!
This was excellent. I've read hundreds of pieces on the Blackbird over the last 35 years and this is among the best I have ever enjoyed.
Fact: The SR-71 used an astro - intertial navigation system that could determine position with GPS - like accuracy within minutes of departing the hangar, midday.
In other words, it mapped its position using the stars above along with forces of acceleration, and could do so with the sun shining above. Come to think of it, that's a star, too!
Celestial navigation aided with inertial reference is still only good for about a quarter mile accuracy, even with the SR71's R2D2. It was nowhere close to GPS accuracy but it didn't need to be any more precise than that anyway.
@@Skinflaps_Meatslapper I read that it was better than 300 ft accuracy. Translating that to English, it was probably within 30 feet.
@@LostAnFound 1300ft, you're missing a digit. And that's already in English.
my dad did the software for the celestial navigation system, working at Eglin AFB i the 1960's. It was also used on icbm's because they didn't have GPS then.
@@Skinflaps_Meatslapper I'm translating from publicly available military number to probable, actual numbers.
When they give a number followed by a plus sign, the plus, or better than, is a big plus and much better than
I watched an interview with a Skunk works engineer. He said the SR 71 top speed was actually mach 4.4 which I can't confirm, but a lot of other things he said I can, and he was correct on everything else. I tend to belive that's probably true, too.
Would make sense that it could hit that speed, given that it's published cruising speed is mach 3.2 and top is 3.3, that seems too close together.
If it pushed all out it definitely could go faster
Nope, the engine shock cones couldn’t handle that
The issue is surface heating at those speeds in that era for those prolonged times the plane would borderline liquify some of its parts lol. I suspect that xit could prolly push up close to Mach 4 in a pinch but would need a lot of TLC on the ground after it did it.
@@mattadams7922 and only in short a burst so the skin doesn't get to full temperature
@@mcamp9445they could and did. They were more at risk for an un start at those speeds, but were achievable and by many accounts achieved.
the Blackbird will probably always be my favorite aircraft. the way it was built and designed, its capabilities, just being able to outrun missiles and bullets, and to think she was designed so long ago and was still a marvel of engineering even today, it boggles the mind what aviation engineers are capable of with the tools and materials we have now.
I’m in the same boat. It’s my favorite aircraft overall. The look, performance, and era of service was all top notch.
Yup!
I still remember stumbling across it in an Encyclopedia Britannica, in my elementary school's library in the very-early 90s. I just happened to pick up that book, at random, and was paging through it, when there she was... A photo of the Blackbird, set against a mountain range! 😳 🥹
That was all it took! ❤
From then on, whenever we had 'library time'... I was over there trying to find that same book, trying to find that same page!
Don't forget that it was designed without a calculator, but a slide rule
@@someguy95981and it will never be used to that degree again..... Human precision I think everything will be ai generated it will be absolutely superior but won't hold the magic of the BB
does anyone know why its called HABU? or what that stands for?
This was probably said already: the f-14 Phoenix missle originated as a missed for the SR-71's intersepter cousin, the YF-12. I like the symmetry of it being the one most likely to down an SR-71.
Isn't it the same airship just set up with missles and bombs?
@nadewitt-yf6ng
If I understand your question, essentially yes.
The YF-12 was a modified A-12. The SR-71 was also a modified version of the A-12.
IIRC, the A-12 was a CIA reconnaissance airplane and was the first to be ordered, designed and built. Then, to cover up this covert operation, the YF-12 was submitted as an intercepted to the US Air Force. The modification to the YF-12 were not trivial, and I understand it. And the modifications for the the SR-71 were extensive.
@@bmobertthank you!
Just a great story about my favorite Jet ever, State Route 72, Habu. Kelly Johnson was a hero, patriot and a genius. great show Alex.
Imagine how hectic it was inside the cockpit of a Foxbat making the one-way, engine - ending sprint.
Terror in the air
Alex, I can’t thank you enough for the creativity of your content, both what you present and how you present it. A lot folks simplify regurgitate old content. Keep up the good work.
The SR-71 is an icon that will live on forever. How quickly it was developed with slide rules and hand built, creating new machining and forging, creating new engines, and all delivered mostly on time and at or under budget and performed better then expected.
An aircraft like this puts every manufacturer to shame, as the platforms they are developing now are all over budget, underperform, and late never mind the fact that none of the modern aircraft will have anywhere near the service life of the aircraft built in the 50’s and 60’s. I don’t care how “advanced” or “stealthy” they are, they are expensive junk that are flying money pits that will have to be replaced in a decade….
This reminds me of the trouble early RAF fighters had trying to intercept the EE Canberra where the Canberras had to come in at lower and lower altitudes until the Gloster Meteors (I think this was before Hawker Hunters) could even hope to intercept!
Loving that the SR-71 guys acknowledged the Tomcat did better than the Eagle for a long time in the attempts.
What we were told is that its cross-section was low from the front and sides while flying straight and level. However, when it made a turn (probably mostly from the side as it flew borders to take photos), it lit up on the scope
The HABU ( a family of venomous snakes) is what I called it as a Marine on Okinawa in 1980.
Yes, we had them at Kadena!
Great, great show Alex! Like another commenter stated, this was probably (most definitely) one of your best yet! You’ve really got a knack for keeping people at the edge of their proverbial seats with this series. Good stuff! 👍
That Phoenix Missle was very heavy and created drag as well. Plus, in a combat situation, the F-14 wouldn't be clean. Or would have other external missles and drag/weight creating armaments and other accoutrements.
If a Tomcat was set up specifically for a Blackbird intercept, and it happened to be in exactly the right place, altitude, and direction, and an AWACS or ground radar station had a good track and guided it in, and if the Tomcat driver did his bedtime prayers the night before and was carrying his lucky egg and the RIO had his four-leaf clover, it could have a chance. The physics of the F-14 and AIM-54 are at least in the right ball-park.
@@gregiep The AIM 54 has a closing speed of Mach 5! The Blackbird would have been toast.
The SR having the altitude advantage and the beat sensors and electronic countermeasures of the era, It would have been fine. 4,000 missiles were fired at it with no hits, let alone losses.
If the SR changed heading of 5 degrees upon noticing an F-14 directly ahead climbing to intercept, the SR would end up 50-100 miles laterally offset. Impossible to catch.
And the blackbirds countermeasures are known to intercept the inbound missiles radar signal, copy and repeat it back to the missile off-time to make the jet appear somewhere else... And it worked close to 4000:0 (infinite) odds.
@gregiep Exactly, so in a real world scenario, no chance. I still don't know why the F-14's radar could see farther than any until the F-22. Navy, heavier and necessity? F-16 was a dogfighter..etc etc. I'd like to know the scenario under which the Viggen "obtained a lock" on a SR-71. Was it employing countermeasures/jamming and did they know exactly when it was overlying, were they at attitude and mach cruising speed over friendly skies and why a Viggen would try to lock it? Anybody know?
@tumslucks9781 No. I know the speed of the missle. I see what social media now calls a "fan boy". Besides Top Gun being an sll time great movie and that dogshit Top Gun Maverick being one of the worst movies ever, besides the F-14A stalling, being very heavy and designed in the early 1960s and the SR-71 in the 1950s, the SR-71 would be long gone before even a Phoenix was fired at over a million dollars per missle and the extreme weight of it. My father worked for Raytheon. They made missles and textbooks for children. ;) Also, the first microwave/radar ranges I believe. I PREFER THE CONVAIR KINGFISH!
I was a DS responsiblefor thecomputer systems for NTDS (in CIC) on the USS America (CVA-66), and in 1970 we met up with an SR-71.
While on Yankee Station (off North Viet Nam), while not actually flying combat sorties, a Bogey was tracked at Mach 3 at an undetermined altitude violating the airspace of the carrier. The alert 5 F-4 phantoms wer launched, but as expected, the Bogey was long gone by the time they launched.
The capain didn't like anything violating the airspace, and the 2 F-4 aircraft remained on station, and were kept fueled. Everyone 'knew' that the aircraft that overflew us had to be an SR-71, but rules are rules, and they expected the plane to return, and it did.
I assume that they Phantoms did a zoom climb to about 80K feet, and both planes visually saw the SR-71. Procedures for intercepting an unknown aircraft require visual ID before shooting, and the first Phantom did a Tally-Ho to signal the second Phantom that was behind it for a 'shoot'.
I don't think that it would have actually fired because of the requirements for a radar lock, plus it obviously was an American plane.
The SR-71 pilot apparently saw the first plane, and started to communicate on the radio. A breaker had been pulled, so he hadn't heard any attempts at communication before he saw the Phantom.
We (CIC) had a short conversation with the pilot, and he was overflying a large oriental country, and was returning to his base someplace in Idaho, I think, but that part is fuzzy in my memory.
So, this sort of confirms what a less capable aircraft would need to do to get close to an SR-71. obviously, in a circumstance different than assuming a return flight, any form of intercept would have been impossible.
Phantom zoom climb to 80K?
it's part of how the Swedes did it. They knew where the plane would be, and their radar was all "pull up now" to tell them when to climb. They then had mere seconds to get a lock, and if the Blackbird changed course at all during the climb, there would be no lock.
@@brucegoodwin634 I said that and then took it down. After a Google search an F-4 back in 1959 climbed to 98,xxx feet. I was totally suprised.
Whoa! Thank you for that! At the "edge" of space!@@nadewitt-yf6ng
This was good! Very well put. Reminded me of Tyler Rogoway type of detailed material! I hope to see more content on the SR. 👍💪🏻
Nice 👍 I didn’t know this about the Blackbird. Can you talk about the original dog fights at Top Gun between the F8 Crusader and the F4 Phantom II as a result of the findings in the Ault report? I think that would be definitely worth a listen and thanks for making this upload:).
That Viggen with the lock, wasn’t that on the bird which had an engine failure? She was flyings in one engine, less than M1, and had two Soviet fighters closing in. She flew into “neutral” airspace of Sweden, to keep the soviets from taking her down.
I’m pretty sure that’s the single lock.
Nope. They had special missions aimed to lock on to the Blackbird. Those Viggens that escorted the damaged Blackbird was only on ordinary patrol when they got the call.
Jupp, there were 4 Viggens in the air that day, the first pair responding to help and the second pair taking over when the first had to go refuel, I don't know about the first pair, but the second pair was from F10, the same airbase hyoercar maker Koenigsegg use today and Koenigsegg agreed to keep the logo, so the ghost that brought that Blackbird home is still worn by Swedish powerhouses to this day
Outstanding video Alex!
Thanks cat. Very well done.
Lot a of data in here that I either didn’t know, or had forgotten.
Great, great info man.
Thank You!
😎👍
one thing that you left out about the phoenix missile was it was originally designed for the interceptor version of the black bird.
@sandboxx I was talking to Steve Grzebiniak and David peters who done these eagle bait runs flying the sr-71..I posed the question
of the F-14 chances.... Steve said "I never flew the Blackbird against the Tomcat, but considering that the fire control radar on the F-15 was even better than that of the F-14, (and we could easily defeat the F-15) I would have to surmise that the only way the Tomcat could score a kill against the Blackbird is if we were on a very short leash"
David peters said " the F14 had the serious search and overall fire control radar but as Steve pointed out none of them had any chance unless we slowed down came down and hung out a big sign Here I am !!!"
Further reasons why the NGAD won't sacrifice speed for stealth. You just can't deny the power of speed.
Awesome video, with most of my favorite aircraft being mentioned.
I will say - this wasn’t so much about the actual aircraft. If they were lucky enough to get an early warning track and launch, achieving a relatively ideal (for the fighter anyways) altitude and airspeed for optimum missile kinematic performance, the AIM-54 Phoenix was simply WORLDS apart from what the USAF or USSR had at the time.
If the non-navy guys ever said they were “close” - then with the Phoenix, it would have actually been a kill. Of course I don’t think anyone else COULD have been “close” due to radar and tracking difficulties, but that’s another dimension the F-14 had going for it at the time.
Also in a hypothetical intercept, the known take-off locations of the F-14 would be unknown at sea, whereas SR-71 crews would typically be on the lookout over certain bases (or F-15 airfields for the training missions.)
I think in an absolutely perfect world, the F-14 could do it. I think everything else was a joke and typical fighter jock mentality.
Awsome info from the “Navy” world and I’ll have to admit that I always loved the F-14, but at least give Golden Credit to the F-15 for being the only “known”aircraft (or Hot Rod) to ever take off from a dead stop and still manage to shoot down a satellite. Now That’s doing something truly spectacular!!!
In 1999, a video game for Sega Dreamcast was released that actually incorporated a scenario of needing to shoot down a 'Blackbird.' I don't recall if the name Blackbird was given to the 'enemy' of if it was just labeled as a 'fast-moving, high-altitude spy plane' or something similar. The name of the game was 'AirForce Delta.' I do remember that in the scenario, you are sent after the blackbird while it is refueling, which is mentioned as the only time you will have any kind of a shot at getting them. In the game you collect all kinds of different fighter jets from around the world, but none of them have a shot at getting the Blackbird when it's at its cruising speed. I always thought this was probably the best way to write this kind of an exercise...
the part about the boiling blood in high altitude/low pressure environment had me crying for a moment,
but other than that, great video ^^
Yeah, I was not expecting the boiling point of blood to be a relevant issue.
@@CptJistuce well... it isn't... unless you carve open the pilot with a knife first, ofc ^^
The human body is an enclosed system and extremely resilient to changes in outside pressure. Even in the vacuum of space your blood wouldn't boil as long as it stays inside your body! Different story for fluids outside your body (sweat, saliva, tears). But boiling blood is a trope of bad scifi movies ;)
@@Seth90 I thought it was a problem, but only in the lungs.
I so love this airframe. 2nd favorite jet of all time behind the F-4 Phantom. It's just feels like the 1980's in aircraft form. Fast and sexy. I wonder what a modern F-4 would look like, maybe we don't have to wonder about the modern version of the SR-71, the future of Skunkworks might eventually answer that question with the Valk, or something similar.
I'm my opinion the A-12s are the gem of any museum lucky enough to have one. Never seen an sr-71 though
Seen the A-12 on the Intrepid, a few SR-71's on the ground at Mildenhall and other air shows on USAF bases in the UK and plus the one at Duxford. Seen them in flight twice, once at the Mildenhall Air Fate and once while driving past the base in 1988.
@@richardvernon317 I saw the one on the intrepid as well, that's a nice museum.
The father of the SR 71 was the YF 12. The YF 12 was in itself designed to be an interceptor aircraft. Which would have been the fastest interceptor aircraft ever.
length! it took 40 achers to turn it around because of wing length!
Regarding the unmatched speed of the SR-71 to date, the US Air Forces decided during that program that super sonic fighters and interceptors were not longer effective so max speed was acceptably reduced to provide range and time on target.
Wonderful video. The SR-71's J-58 engines were some of the first hybrid engines. They operated as a standard jet at take off and until the SR-71's got upto flight altitude when the engines would switch to RamJet operation which as it got faster the more efficient they operated and the RamJet operation mode would provide maybe 90% of the engines thrust that pulled the SR-71 through the air. Each J-58's total thrust output was 35'500 feet pounds of thrust so doing that x2 gave the SR-71's a total of 71k feet pounds of thrust. As for the other specs - 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).
Some articles rate the J-58's operation a little less then 35'500 but not too much lower.
If you showed an individual that didn't know any thing about planes of any type and hadn't ever seen the SR-71's befor and asked them when would they guess the production date. After they found out the actual date what they would say.
Great video Alex, the proper pronunciation of “Habu” is “Haa-boo”!!
Alex, your videos are fascinating. I have learned so much watching them!
Now that was the most fun I've had watching the news for some time. Thx, Alex! /cheer
The US has probably some secret aircraft we don't know about probably better than the SR-71.
I wish we could’ve seen the HABU armed and capable of delivering precision payloads.
Actually the first version of the SR-71 was the YF-12 which was equipped as a fighter. If my memory doesn't fail me only two were produced.
They differenciate from the SR-71 in a sleeker nose, the SR-71 more resembling a Cobra.
Officially known as the "Hot Wheel Maneuver."
I believe it was Stalin that said “The west will sell us the rope with which we will hang it.” I bet the CIA was laughing itself silly as it was buying Soviet titanium to build the SR-71.
Highly recommend the book skunk works by Ben r Rich and Leo Janos really good book about the SR-71 and Kelly Johnson and the skunk works program in general
It would have been nice to know how the SAAB Viggen (mentioned), managed to get a 'confirmed' lock on an SR-17.
I don't think either the F-14, F-15 nor the MiG-25 would have ever scored a kill on a SR-71 in a realistic scenario.
That said, the SR-71 would be super vulnerable to some hypersonic systems of today.
Iranian F-14 Tomcats have been credited with two MiG-25 kills flying at 80,000 feet using AIM-54 missiles as the AIM-54 were designed specifically for very high altitude maneuvering targets
i mean... do you expect anything less from the 50 year old aircraft with a 105-0 record, and the only aircraft with an air-to-space kill, that has the radar cross-section of the Avenger's Heli Carrier?
This may seem like a silly question, but considering the speeds and altitudes involved with HABU intercepts made me wonder: could forward deployed aircraft could shoot down ICBMs? I've heard that Russian ICBMs tend to be lower altitude fast burners, so would that put it within the envelope of an airborne ABM, possibly before RV separation?
An SR-71 video with a P-38 mention. Excellent
If you think what was 70 years ago is amazing, just think of what we will see in the next dexades to come.
Soon Independence Day will be an airshow.
Best looking thing ever designed!
It’s still hard to believe that the SR-71 was even a thing…it all seems like science fiction!
The F-14 is the greatest stealthy flying wing design since the HO-229
One important factual error. The SSR-71 could not cruise at Mach 3 for hours at a time. There was not enough fuel for that. It topped off its tanks immediately after takeoff, flew as fast as Mach 3.4 for 90-100 minutes at a time, then had to slow to subsonic speeds to refuel again. During those 90-100 minutes the engines consumed approximately 12,000 gallons of JP-7. An additional error is that the Phoenix missile used command guidance. The active radar switched on at around 10-11 miles or so. Semi-active homing was useless in a missile that climbed to 80-100,000 feet before diving on a target.
It didn't always refuel immediately after takeoff, that depended on the mission. Also max speed was 3.3 "only with approval and only if CIT was within limits" not 3.4.
Taking off with a full fuel load put unnecessary stress on the airframe. Aerial fueling after takeoff was due to the plane deliberately lifting off with less than full tanks.
@@johnrusac6894 Thank you
The stated max altitude of 85,000, is significantly lower than the actual cruising altitude. I'm not sure what is allowed to be said...
What a marvel of engineering. Now we have the 5th and 6th gen of fighters. Let's not destroy mankind.
Cheers Alex i really enjoyed watching that Uk sub 👍
Allegedly in 1974 an RAF EEL "bounced" the Sr71 crossing the Atlantic
Really good episode !
Grim Reapers did some sims on high altitude interception.
Question: If we still have a perfectly working 71, the Russian S-400 could shoot it down, right?
Good vid. Cheers
The only way to intercept the aircraft, with a missile, would be to aim at a point in front of it. Just how far in front?
The Patriot SAM climbs at 3,900 ft / sec. Assuming an SR-71 was at 80k feet, and assuming a Patriot can maintain that ascent rate all the way up, it would take the missile about 20.5 seconds to get to that altitude. At Mach 3.2, the SR-71 is moving over 11 miles per minute, about 5.4 seconds per mile. You have to launch about 4 miles ahead of the SR-71.
Most targeting systems are not physically capable of shooting THAT far ahead. It's like the F-15's radar not accepting that anything moving that fast is a legit target.
And you have assume that the SR-71 didn't maneuver to avoid the missile. As mentioned with the Phoenix missile, the fins aren't going to have much maneuvering effect at that altitude. So, sure, you MIGHT be able to get a missile up there. And with some mods to the targeting system, you MIGHT be able to anticipate it's position at the time the missile reaches that altitude. But, can you get your missile close enough to matter? Or will it be a ballistic weapon, at that point, incapable of tracking a maneuvering target?
Not saying it could never be done. But the engineering challenges are ... significant.
Kelly Johnson, and his colleagues, put together a BEAST.
If they can shoot a satellite im sure it would be along those same lines.
@@Crikey420Satellites can't turn, though.
The Blackbird can't make a TIGHT turn at speed, but they still don't travel in a straight line.
Man, the Mig25 was such a success story. Forced the USA to spend billions to fight a gas tank with wings. Then again, I guess you could say the F15 was worth the money.
SR 72 "Darkstar" says "Hello Brother"!!!
What a country.
I'm interested Alex. I'll be checking that stuff out.
Best (non current event) topic yet.
Me simple man. Me see F-14, hit like. Happy
F-14, F-15, and SR-71. A trifecta of legends.
11:56 ...former blackbird *driver* ... what? that made my brain pause.
Neither of the aim 7 and 9 missiles are long range...... Sidewinder has an effective range of around 25 mi and the sparrow has a range of 50 miles.....
Great video man! I love this shit!
So, for high altitude intercepts, missiles would need thrust vectoring to manuever decently.
I would have kept watching a longer video about this. do a video on what you want to do,I'm sure it would be interesting
the sr 71 didn't so much "fly off into the sunset" so much as turn a sunset into a sunrise
DUDE DUDE DUDE! You forgot to me mention the SR-71’’s predecessor the A-12!!!!
Is it with a hope and a prayer?
The video showed how much F-14 tomcat & and the F-15 eagle were successfully designed than even nowadays having capabilities to cooperating SR1 Blackbird.. while the third aircraft was a powerful and successfully designed spying 🕵️♂️ aircraft of USA 🇺🇸 ... Thank you for sharing
4:51 as an og joke and reference.
Its a shame they didn't use transparent aluminum.
Post below if you know treck fans.
aye scotty
I know it originated in Star Trek, but there's an interesting thing you might not know.
Transparent aluminum actually exists IRL. It's fantastically expensive, but a flawless artificial sapphire gem could be argued to be transparent aluminum (well, aluminum oxide, but that's a tiny difference when you consider that Quartz is also a crystalline oxide (silicon dioxide).
Yes, the same aluminum oxide that makes the grit in most sandpaper, Al2O3.
In gemstone form, it is transparent. Impurities will color the crystal, but if pure enough, it will be clear.
EDIT: From a quick search on Wikipedia, apparently some high-end watches use Sapphire as the material of choice for the watch crystal (aka the glass that you look thru to see the position of the hands, and therefore the time).
In industry, some Xenon-arc lamps will use Sapphire glass as the output window for the arc tube, in this case the high thermal resistance of the aluminum oxide crystal lattice is leveraged to allow the arc lamp's size to be minimized, which enhances optical properties for things like cinema film projectors.
Oh, and all those blue and white LED's we're using these days? Sapphire insulating substrate hosting a GaN semiconductor junction that actually produces the blue light. White LED's usually combine this with a phosphor coating that fluoresces in the yellow wavelengths when hit with the blue wavelengths that the diode junction itself emits.
“Helloooo computer” into my mouse.
how quaint@@SandboxxApp
The SR 71 is still the TOP contender nobody could touch it .
Alex.... God bless
Annoying commenatary aside..The definition of Monster !!
you have a great voice (cadence, meter, pitch) ... did you acquire this through practice or? (if this is AI daaammmn)
The SR-71 was indeed an amazing aircraft. Muchly so because it's engines were designed to increase efficiency by operating WITHOUT compressor fans at high altitude. (They became ramjets!)
And stealth was indeed a priority. It's just that there were (are?) no stealth materials available that could withstand the high heat generated by mach 3 velocities. The SR-71 had to be made of titanium. Of course, the aircraft was probably coated with a radar absorbant material.
That, and the aircraft's shape was designed to evade radar. Looking at the aircraft's front view we see that no part of the aircraft will reflect radar straight back to the source. The aircraft was as "stealthy" as possible.
Sometimes the SR-71 is given too much credit, though. The aircraft was designed to fly high, fast and straight and that's all it did. It didn't have to maneuver well. It didn't have to carry bombs, missiles, weapons or sophisticated radar. Just some cameras. It did only what it was designed to do.
On the other hand, the XB-70 flew almost as high and almost as fast, yet it was designed to carry a s___load of bombs. It was the first aircraft to use "compression lift"; only a theoretical concept at the time.
The XB-70 flew only marginally lower and slower than the SR-71, yet one aircraft went into production and one was considered too vulnerable to missile attack. And one gets lots of public attention while the other gets very little. Oh, well, the SR-71 looks cooler. A little.
The MiG-25 almost fits into the same category as the SR-71. It flies straight, high and fast, but it is not a good fighter plane. An aluminum aircraft skin melts from the air friction generated much above mach 2.5. The Soviets wanted to build a couple thousand MiG-25s, but couldn't afford that much titanium. Therefore, the MiG-25 was made with a steel skin.
The steel skin resulted in a "too heavy" aircraft, so they gave the MiG a light, flimsy airframe. As a result, if a MiG pilot even thought about turning with an F-15, his plane would disintegrate.
The west was scared to death of the MiG-25, until soviet pilot Victor Belenko defected with one. Here was a true fighter with a top speed of Mach 3. However, the MiG-25 turned out to be an interceptor, not a fighter.
Given the trajectory of the Phoenix missile, which would zoom to 85,000 feet at Mach 5 while closing in on its target, I would imagine that at the dymaic pressures involved the fins would be adequate to maintain controllability while closing in on a Blackbird. The AIM-54/AWG-9 weapon system was initially designed for the YF-12 anyway. Also, plane flying at Mach 3.2 will not really be making any dranatic evasive manoeuvres, at that speed the Blackbird had a 200 mile turn radius. I believe Mig-31s were capable of getting a lock on the SR-71, I read this haooened in the very early 90s and that signalled the end of active service for the Blackbird fleet. Not only does the Mig-31 have a genuine Mach 3.2 capability (the Mig-25 was limited to M = 2.83 if the pilot didn't want to cook the engines), but most importantly, its powerful Zaslon radar and long range missiles were greatly influenced by the Aim-54/AWG-9 weapon system, which Soviet engineers had a chance to examine on Iranian Tomcats after the 1979 revolution.
Imagine you're a radar operator and you see a Cessna flying at Mach 3 at 70k miles...
@16:00 ish Hangon,, didn't USAF have any data links at that time?
13:20 Water boils at the Armstrong limit, not blood.
19:09 Now I'm beginning to understand why the Tomcat was discontinued.
That and Dick Cheney.
It was the have blu
!
It was the HavBlue
It might have been nice to describe how the SR-71 defeated the Armstrong Limit, when that method wasn't available to the F15?
Pressure suits.
Good video.
One of the biggest mistakes the pentagon made was axing the F-14 in favor of the F-18 hornet.
Just when the Tomcat was coming into its own and could’ve become the Super-Tomcat, they canceled it for a plane with less range, speed, payload and (most importantly) sexiness.
Thanks Dick Cheney, hope those stock options in McDonnell Douglas were worth it…
The F-14 was axed as a purely economic move. The Navy was cut in half during the mid-90s, Clinton not Cheney was responsible. They judged that with the Soviet empire gone we could get a way with an airwing of the more economical F-18s instead of the existing mix of A-6s which were better bombers and F-14s which were better fighters.
Now look up what the English Electric Lightning and the Saab Viggen did with the SR-71.
The R-40RD and R-33S both have nuclear warhead options, similar to the W25 on the AIR-2A and AIM-26A. So did the SA-2, the SA-5 and (later) the SA-10.
At altitude, the SR-71 is limited to .5G or maybe a degree per second. Since miss distance is the thing and you are still generating a thousand fps of offset, this capability still messes with the intercept geometries as missile lead curves but it's not nearly as big a deal as you might think.
Early Sleds (A-12) have come back with missile fragments and they could technically fly both higher and faster than the Habu.
You stack flights in staggered tandem trail and when the SR-71 MiG-25R simulator goes lateral, he is steering away from his view of your cons into those of the 'invisible', high hunters, well above the contrail belt, which knew where to be because they knew what the BBs recce objective was. And on the collection 'take' run, the SR was very predictable because it could not evade while the cameras aligned on the objective.
This reality would have been true for the Soviets as well only they had a lot more missiles. Especially with the debut of the MiG-31 Foxhound the SR-71 became vulnerable. Agent Donald gave the Blackbird another decade of service life, but only in lesser AOs where radar coverage was not as good.
For F-15Cs, with the PSP radar and autoshift into Hi PRF, it was not nearly as hard as is made out here. Not least because the AIM-7M and especially MH was a lot more powerful missile than the early AMRAAMs, with big wings an early IMU and a lot larger, kinematics tailored, range than is commonly acknowledged.
Without a nuclear Nike or an ERINT, we could not stop a MiG-25 because they never ceased developing standoff SLAR and ELINT packages for and the slants just kept getting longer and longer.
Due to it's nature, the SR-71 needed quite a bit of redesign to accommodate the datalink package (tail) and sensor bay changes (nose) required to be an effective radar recce/SI collector, which is why the period TR-1/U-2R were actually more operationally relevant than the IMINT dedicated SR-71, which was something of a 'don't think we don't see you doing what you're doing' political tool (Sinai crossings, 1973).
This, coupled to the story of the original 'Reconnaissance Strike' flub by Johnson and some unfortunate comments by Kelly Johnson about 'not giving the Russians enough of a problem with the high-fast envelope and SRAM' made the likely nature of Habu's capabilities in certain scenarios actually quite escalatory rather than stabilizing. Simply because it could be seen as a potentially armed pre-strike strategic nuclear targeting system.
The other thing you have to keep in mind is that the SR-71 never once made its range:speed profile goals. There were literally instances where it would do it's run and then have to IMMEDIATELY rendezvous (right offshore) with a KC-135Q. If push had come to shove, the SR-71 would have needed serious escorts to accomplish missions in any of it's primary assigned (Korea, ME, Europe) theaters and the Baltic Run would have been all but impossible. Certainly without crossing Sweden into Bodo.
The same can be said of the first MiG-25RB which, as an initially optical IMINT jet, had to takeoff, meet up with MiG-21s, as it went wheels in well, fly the fastest climb to altitude profile it could, dropping it's escorts which it ran out of gas, pick up to more at 25-30,00ft and then make a similar Rutowski staged climbout to do the photo-runs over Israel. All while further EAF BARCAPs stood off, to protect the airbase.
The IDFAF had a real hardon for the Foxbat as they did not like what it said about their air defenses when an Arab (Soviet flown) aircraft could simply high step away from all of them.
They made several forays with F-4E and Mirage fighters, to try and bag it at low altitude, during climbout and recovery. They never did catch it but boy did they try hard.
And with the F-15, eventually, they bagged one (though HAWK SAM crew, helo'd in atop a mountain, may want to dispute this...).
Conversely, the Soviets never yielded the high-fast regime and so always had the nuclear option to knock down the B-58, B-70 and SR-71.
The BB is a marvel, simply for being able to reach the envelope points that it did, with 1960s technologies.
But it is hardly a difficult target to knock down, once you cross a certain threat threshold.
UK ATC radars used to track SR-71s coming across to Farnborough (Air Show) or Mildenhall (Det FOL), just from the ionization sheath which flowed along behind the jet.
In God We Trust, Everyone Else, We Take Pictures.
Most likely got a reflection off the Shock wave in front of the aircraft as well. I did around 5 years on the west coast RAF Radar Stations in Cornwell and Wales and noted as soon as the Concorde's went supersonic outbound over the Bristol Channel, the raw radar return on the scope became bigger.
@@richardvernon317
Interesting. It's been awhile, you're probably right.
My recollection is of a newsprint account when they said 'above and behind', like a shadow.
Apparently, the Soviets had sufficiently mastered HOJ that the jets RSO actually had to blink the ECM to keep from being 'ARMed' by the threat.
Suggesting there was a lot more tactics gaming going on in the real world than in the publicly reported legendry around Habu operations.
Which is why I assume, for really difficult mission areas, there would likely be a Prowler or Vark doing support jamming. If not a full SEAD package, during war.
The Sled really stirred the pot when it violated over places like Libya and DPRK and it would be an ideal moment for some lofted Pre-Brief HARMs or even Tomahawks to come down atop unsuspecting radar operators because there was a ~58 second window of tracking illumination required and the sites had to be coverage aligned 'just so' to generate the shot opportunity.
Which means they were predictable in their geolocation to a targeter.