The Bristol 188 Flaming Pencil - Supersonic Stainless Steel
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ค. 2020
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In 1954, Britain finalized "Specification ER.134D", calling for the development of a supersonic aircraft that would be the fastest in the world behind the U.S. X-15 Space Plane project. The aircraft would need to maintain speeds of at least Mach 2.75 for prolonged periods, necessitating the exploration of radical designs capable of dissipating the extreme temperatures generated by atmospheric friction. Judged to be the most promising of the submitted proposals, the Bristol Aeroplane Company was awarded a contract to create six of their Bristol Type 188 airframes. The experimental stainless steel twin-engine jet plane would be built specifically to avoid kinetic heating of up to 500 degrees Celsius that would melt traditional aircraft. The expensive, complicated, and unusually thin design earned it the nickname the "Flying Pencil..."
- As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Skies sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Skies is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas. - - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
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"Missile development, on the other hand, boomed." I see what you did there.
🤣
Sonically speaking, that is.
But it had a lisp.
I literally read this comment as the words came out of his mouth. 😄
You're at 420 likes, otherwise I would give you one 😏
This channel is like forgotten weapons but for airplanes with wonderful audio, Impressive.
Despite the fact we have since lost our aviation industry, we British really did build some super futuristic looking aircraft. Examples: The Vulcan bomber which looks like a 1950's B-2, the Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52, a twin jet flying wing from 1947, the De Havilland Comet airliner, not only the first jet airliner but one who's aerodynamics inspired a few aircraft that succeeded it. Add Concorde in there and my point is proven
And the evil looking Victor, a 1950s sci-fi plane.
Only Rolls Royce and BAE are left standing (although great portions of the old aviation industry have been assimilated into these two giants).
TSR 2
Post O-levels in 1970, we were lying on the grass on the school playing fields in Romford, looking up at the clouds, when a fleet of Vulcans flew over (possibly all the Vulcans? - there were half a dozen or more), accompanied by a couple of fighters. They were very low and their approach had been from behind the slope we were lying on, so they appeared above us as if by magic. It was one of those moments that you never forget. I had no idea the Vulvans even existed, so to me the sky had just filled with planes that looked like Concorde! One of them was slightly out of formation an had smoke coming out of one engine.
As a PS to this, prior to movng to Essex, my dad worked at Vicars (based in the old Brooklands car racing circuit). I remember him working on the revolutionary VC10 (he took me to work with him one Saturday and showed me the new plane under construction - but all I can remember is the full-scale models they had built out of wood!). His last job there was as a tool-maker draughtsman working on the jigs used to make the windscreens for Concorde (seven layers of glass and plastic, if memory serves, with at least one layer of ultra-thin gold leaf used to heat the windscreen).
That’s so true tho, I hope that one of those companies or a new one just comes out of the blue and make a completely insane aircraft
British cabinet minister; "Regrettably the government will no longer be funding further work on your aircraft."
Bristol Aeroplane Company; "But the leaps in technology we've made."
British cabinet minister; "Have you thought about cutting off the wings and going for the land speed record?"
Not quite. It was a primitive attempt at Mach 3 high altitude prolonged flight. History says so, not a matter of opinion but fact.
........or even better, we'll give it to the Yanks. (again!)
@@ubroberts5541 Not much of an attempt since it never even got to Mach 2. Saying you are going to try something is one thing - but what matters is achieving it. Airplanes of this era faced a rapidly changing environment. The advent of improved radar systems and surface to air missiles, along with ICBMs, rendered high speed, high altitude bombers useless. Not only were projects cancelled in the UK and Canada, but the XB-70 program in the US was also cancelled. And the XB-70 DID achieve sustained Mach 3 flight. In addition, the B-58s career was cut very short as well.
Excellent video. Because of this aircraft we still have stainless "Bristol" rivets in the aerospace industry.
The vid gives the impression that it was a complete disaster but the lessons learned had a profound effect on developing aircraft for probably decades.
Formed through normal means?
Percussion formed but you only get one shot at it. They work harden first go.
@@IDontWantAHandle101 The plane was a complete disaster... its design and technology were decades behind.
And in Cockney rhyming slang, "bristols" have an entirely different meaning...
Played at 0.75 speed. This guy speaks faster than the planes he’s speaking about.
If you watch old movies, actors used to speak very quickly. For some reason people now speak slowly as if they're talking to idiots. Local news readers are especially guilty of this.
At least he sounds better at 0.75
@@mikejohnson5900 you’re real fun at parties arent you,
I use .75 speed for Ben shapiro as well
I can keep up most of the time but when he's going rapid fire on stats and names it's like listening to my brother
The narrator side job is to explain lease agreements at the tail end of commercials.
At least he's not stretching 6 minutes of real content past the 10 minute mark just to qualify for a different level of TH-cam monetization. I find those annoying. I speed up most narration anyway. This is a good speed for me.
Too much nose candy!
@Howie Felterbush anusolisnotforeveryone.sideeffectsofanusolmayinclude, itchyrectum,fainting,shortnessofbreath,suddendeath,nipplesores. Ifyoubegintoexperienceaperminenterection,swellingoftheeyes,orboilslargerthenasoftball,stoptakinganusolimmediately,andcallyourdoctor.
I really don’t get these comments. He talks normal
Michael Esposito
So does an auctioneer.....I suppose.
The EE lightning had - at the time - the fastest climb rate of any fighter bomber, it was its main selling point as its endurance wasn’t optimal . However , the EE lightning still holds as one of the fastest climb rates of all time.
The only thing that’s ever held British aviation back, id unimaginative governments. The U.K. still has one of the worlds largest aerospace industries, however.
There have been many great post war Planes developed in Britain. All axed due to incompitent governmental interference.
“It’s endurance wasn’t optimal” teeheheheheheheeeeheheheheheheeee it was short of fuel on take off! A third of them were lost and the stacked engine design was a disaster. It only carried two inaccurate unreliable missiles (fire streak or Redtop). It was actually a terrible design that must have been fun to fly but not to fight against the massed bombers and long range fighters of the Soviet Airforce.……
@@billpugh58 Yaaaa Boooo :)
I've seen the 188 at Cosford, it looks impressive. I also saw a lot of scrapped and
soon to be scrapped aircraft on Foulness when I was working there in 1984.
Looks like the 188 😢has been scrapped
I really enjoy these videos. I can even get my kids to sit and enjoy them! My grandfather worked at Research and Development for Allison years ago and would of enjoyed these as well.
For those of you that note a certain similarity to the Land Speed Record holder Thrust SSC, it might be worthwhile that that car's designer was Ron Ayres, who was also Chief Aerodynamicist at Bristol Aviation...
Yep I noticed that but not the link to the SSC designer Ron Ayres. Cheers.
Really? I wasn't aware of thst fact. Thanks for the reminder
I see new Dark Skies, I watch new Dark Skies.
Awesome content, thank you!
Dark Skies is one of my subscriptions I always watch as soon as it drops.
KEEP IT UP!
In some spirit, the idea of this plane would go on to live in the SR71 as the knowledge of its design would influence manufacturing techniques and show that all new alloys were necessary to break that Mach 3 barrier
Ah, the good old Brit aerospace collapse of the '50s. Let's remember that in the time that this thing took to go from OR to first flight, the F-4 Phantom had gone from a private McDonnell design study bought by the US Navy to production squadron service.
I'm reminded of Bill Gunston's line about how in the post-war era Boeing had more engineers working on B-52 flaps than the entire British aerospace industry had.
This channel has quickly become my happy place
The first supersonic narrator ever.
Looks like a twin engined F-104.
Or a Blackbird that's lost a lot of weight.
Sharpened Canberra bomber?
It inspires Yakovlev Yak-28
SR 71’s estranged cousin.
Think you mean the f104 looks like a single engined 188
Great video! I've never heard of this aircraft!
The UK seems to have made **lots** of aircraft that are hardly known about by anyone else!
This one very much reminds me of the Blackbird.
because a lot of them like this one were purely experimental
Yeah SR72 was my initial impression
Same
"The type 188 was never used in combat" Not surprising really as it was never designed for that purpose.
It was a test and development aircraft for Avro 730 correct me if i am wrong?
I vaguely remember a picture caption in the Daily Mail hailing it as a fighter prototype. Probably mistook it for a Starfigher, can't expect them to count the number of engines.
Breaks the heart when they send these "dreams of so many hours awake and hard work" to scrap!
Hours? Years! "What have you accomplished in the last seven years?" "Nothing." How sad.
Meanwhile, as Bristol searched for data on M2 flight, in Dec 59 an F-106 set the, still unsurpassed, single engine jet speed record at M2.3 with a stock F-106.
Kinetic heating is mostly caused by air compressing in front of the vehicle and not by friction. It's a common misconception.
Same goes for reentering spacecraft.
Ta!
Very cool thx
@@anomalousboreoeutherian7683 : Pussy?
Stuart Marshall that is true with space crafts (or natural objects) reentering the atmosphere. They are much less aerodynamic, travel at much higher speeds and passing through “ thinner” air. Spacecrafts are not designed to be sleek or aerodynamic, but to be blunt to help slow their decent. For supersonic airplanes, most of the heat is from friction, not from compression of air in front of the plane. The much more aerodynamic design of the planes prevent the buildup of pressure.
One thing that is not often talked about is that during supersonic development, the British scientists shared their data with their American counterparts as a reciprocal agreement to speed up progress. The Yanks could not get over instability of their aircraft when hitting the sound barrier meant they hit a brick wall and couldn't work it out. The Brits had developed a new tail plain and flaps system that got over this and stabilised the aircraft and as per agreement, shared this info with the Yanks. Then THEY broke the sound barrier and claimed that prize fir themselves. The British engineers were well pissed as you can imagine!
In the cold light of day they've taken advantage of the British at every opportunity.
Their propaganda machine in Hollywood tries to blur this fact and this combined to floppsy British polititians and their myths about the "special relationship" encourage this misplaced trust in them.
And across the street the Sr71 was being built. This thing was for testing.
I've always said that it needs to be a requirement that a copy of every vehicle, weapons system etc needs to stored for museum display later on. It doesn't have to contain the classified and/or expensive parts, but it does need to be a complete copy for historical sake. Given the amount of $$$ thrown at these projects, this is not unreasonable. Furthermore, several times older tech has been pulled from mothball to reference for emerging tech. Just a thought...
That is not practical.
I see that the flying pencil pushers disagree.📉😎📈
There is still an original in the raf museum
@@rnichol22 I was referring to ALL vehicles in chronological order.
,
@@Administrator_O-5 That makes you a hoarder....
And the SR71 Blackbird went into service in January 1966... the striking similarity to the Bristol 188 can't be ignored.
The fact that the Mach 3+ A-12 flew in April 1962 cannot be ignored either... it clearly demonstrates just how far behind Britian was in supersonic aircraft technology.
i still love how you went from scary stories to military history, love the content my guy
The photo of the 188 outside a hanger at RAF Cosford displayed at 6 min 8 secs is almost identical to one I took at the airshow in 2016, The photographer must've been stood right next to me :-D
I love the 'dark side of the 1960's cold war' vibe this channel has.
Love the speed of the narration, the fact that he is not trying to stretch the video and that he gets to the gist of it quickly. Btw that is the grandpa of the thrust ssc.
I reckon you got the music just right for a voice-over documentary - there's plenty of sonic space in it so it doesn't intrude on the voice-over and you restrained yourself from pumping it too loud. It's just meant to stop the gaps in the voice from being too empty without distracting from the commentary... voice and music levels were also steady and sounded normalised. Good job
The Brits had already beaten the sound barrier with an unmanned test plane which was also a test bed for an escape capsule where the whole piiot enclosure would blow free and parachute down. That test vehicle is somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic.
Actually never heard of this plane before! I love when that happens. It's so weird.
It's there in the Cosford Museum, engineless,but menacingly- penetrating in shiny-like-new stainless steel.
Well done. The Brits used to have a superior aviation industry. Truly world class.
Killed off by Political(US) pressure.
After Brexit we'll be lucky to have enough money to build our own toilet paper.😔😢
I concur, they certainly did, but often bad management and execution..
@Brian Roome The Comet was hindered by a design flaw that was traced to square passenger windows causing fatigue to the fuselage leading to cracking and failure,this was before the technology for rigorously testing aircraft was available,the problem was eliminated on later versions of the Comet but by then the damage was done to its reputation,it didn't selectively kill woman and children and it was a good plane after that issue was solved.The Russians stole the design for the Concorde using espionage as the Soviets so often did,it was a technological marvel,well ahead of its time but it was a joint French/British venture,it was too expensive to operate but definitely wasn't given away,it was too expensive to give away!
Had
This guy speaks at just under the speed of sound.
You think so? I watched it at 1.5x and it seems normal to me though I usually watch all videos at 1.5-2x so I guess I'm used to it.
Actually his lips move slightly faster than the actual sounds!;)
IDK I heard a loud boom and I thought it was a jet on the video but I think it was this guy.
jim mueller I think his lips suffer from kinetic heating due to the speed at which he speaks. Maybe he should coat them with titanium alloy.
You can change the speed? Omg
I really love your content.. Thanks for the knowledge.. Great job..
I've seen it at Cosford, It's an impressive exhibit.
Hard to believe there was a time when Britain was making and experimenting with multiple hi tech aircraft
Unfortunately they also help the Soviet union do the same thing by not being very careful with your technology and in some instances assisted the Soviet union with jet engines and certain types of rocket engines
@@iron60bitch62 Labour government gave the USSR two Rolls Royce jet engines as a gift after the second world war.
and we are still doing that today
jonni jon well they were our allies.🙄🙄
@@jonnijon8370
The Mig15 wouldn't have been great without Rolls Royce.
Managed to sit in the 188 at RAF Cosford at an open cockpit day... I have a picture of the instruments and it’s interesting to note that the Mach metre only goes up to 1.15 Mach. It’s like they knew all along...
Fun fact Sweden had the tp 52, wich was just a canberra really. But it was called "Blyertspennan" wich means the pencil look up pics of the tp52 and you will see why.
I hope this voice over artist has a couple of drags of a blunt before he records his next project.
I'm stoned to the bone but I can still handle this. It does sound like he's on a fuckton of adderall though.
Watch at 0.75 speed, it's almost perfect.
lol
@@TheFulcrum2000 i did that to :-D
Just listen faster...
The "dark" series library of stock footage is the stuff of legend.
Thanks for the video!
Although this video is very interesting, I had to leave after the 10 minute mark. Four advertisements in an eleven minute video is ridiculous.
Adbloc.
@@flybobbie1449
It shouldn't be needed!
scottyo64 well then enjoy the ads, gotta make that ad revenue
@@logisticsnail5014 yea but this is excessive
I agree. He’s losing me as a viewer.
Im pleased one was saved.
I'm getting serious SR 71 Black Bird vibes here (1966). Even though it didn't perform as required, I'm still in awe of the designers and engineers who create this marvels..
Sorry, the SR71 is a variant of the earlier Mach 3+ Lockheed A-12.
its a really cool aircraft and seeing it in real life is very nice.
Brilliant (at three quarter speed setting).
I dunno, he sounds like he’s got a pint of jack daniels in him at .75
Love the content.
It's great to see coverage on non American/Russian aircraft. Definitely a gap in my knowledge.
Lol - Britain literally started the jet age ( before the nazis ) ....
Barely two hours ago I was thinking of Clarence Kelly Johnson while riding past his old Star Lane Ranch in Santa Ynez, so this story about the ambitious Flying Pencil project is quite a coincidence.
The SR-71 just left all others in the dust
Love your vids keep it up
Guinness book of records for your voice 😲
In the Philippines, we have the most effective weapon that ever existed. The "Flying tsinelas". It can fly at the speed of light and will leave a huge mark on the target.
The advent of schlieren imaging was a game changer for design engineers, it reveals so much about air flow over control surfaces.
without watching this, let me guess? the Americans got involved an/or British government infighting led to cost escalating out of control.
It just was never very good. The Lightning was waaaaay faster and for longer.
HA Surprisingly no in this case.
@@deemond5289 which is crap considering the range of the lightning lol
@@deemond5289
People forget the lasting technology that came from this project. Even if the plane was not successful the technology was
rikster The Lightning’s job, get to Russian nuclear armed bombers over North Sea soon as. Local traffic real quick it did the job. TSR2 what a plane made Lightning look slow. It flew it worked but was screwed by whom. US was any ally why would they do that, communist plant more likely we are talking more like MACH 3. If you want to avoid war talk quietly and hold a big club.
X-15 should not really count. It can not take off by itself. It only had very short endurance due to being a rocket, etc, etc.
Absolutely true...but she was was a beautiful bullet.
US wanted data on mach 6-7 piloted aircraft. Why waste time/money on take off gear?
If the X-15 wasn't a piloted, throttled, maneuverable, landing gear, winged aircraft, what was it?
@@2paulcoyle a manned missile
@@carlosandleon LOL perfect
@@carlosandleon *armed with a tactical nuke.*
Speaking quickly yet being understandable is an art. This man has it.
Really interested video, I lived near Cosford, its a brilliant museum, nice to remember the Pencil.
To be fair when the brits make a plane it’s always a good looking aircraft
Gloster Meteor? Gots two engines- must be a 188, almost, not, nothing like it. So why the shot of the Meteor?
Thanks, i was wondering of i was seeing things. On my phone so small screen and old eyes.
I think they throw in the wrong type to mess with us. I’ve lost count of the number of times them being incorrect with there aircraft recognition- unless the thumbnail really peaks my interest I have nothing to do with ‘Dark Skies’. Often there will be an aircraft in a clip, wrong Air Force, wrong period, wrong use, wrong number of engines, wrong everything.
Spotted that too and s CD are here to see if anyone else did. I guess there aren’t that many clips of the 188 around so I suppose they felt the meteor had the right number of engines in the right place and almost the right tail config. Or maybe they didn’t notice? 😆
Great research on this fascinating Aircraft >>> Bristol 188! Thank You So Much! ♥️🌷🕯
Awesome video - thank you!
Love the vids, really dislike the enormous amount of adds.
4d b10ck is your friend.
Ad
Blocker
.....
Edit- or you could just subscribe to yt premium. I did, and it's the best $11.99 a month I've ever spent, I originally signed up to be able to download shit to listen to/watch while camping in the middle of nowhere, and turns out I haven't seen a single ad since. That makes it worth it right there.
I was about to ask “what ads?” Lol.
@@TheMattc999 TH-cam music comes with premium and has gotten really good over the years.
I know its not a perfect fix but skipping to the end and replaying the video removes the ads
Biddy biddy biddy. Whew. I feel like I've just met an Auctioneer in an elevator.
Great series! Thank you!!
I think the Bristol 188 was a nice aircraft, with its long pointed nose you could see that it was serious. With its shiny plates, it looks like a silver bird, and there is no doubt where it belongs, high above the clouds on the search after prey.
The A12 first flight was 1962..
SHHH THAT WUZ A SECRET...
Similar design layout, titanium not stainless steel.
@@chriswalker2858 stainless steel was used in MiG-25 which flew faster than the specs for the T-188 (slower than Oxcart though)
@@alexx86hater
hi A...
'
ussr russia mig-25 is a half france electric device and half ussr russia
And here I thought the pilot's nickname was going to be "pencil pusher"
What an incredible looking aircraft. It looks futuristic even now, like something out of Thunderbirds!
Well, at least there's one left. Presumably gutted. Thanks for sharing. :)
Anybody else see the inspiration for the Thrust SSC record car?? Pretty damn cool!
Would have liked to seen "puddle welding" whatever the hell that is!
Joining thin bits by overlapping and burning through top layer to puddle up the bottom for homogeneneity( "not that theirs anything wrong with that ". - Seinfeld)
@@aaronsmith5433 So basically "seamless" weld??? Like friction welding in plastics, basically goo's the pieces into one piece?
Can you imagine what sort of aircraft the British would be building now if the government hadn't destroyed it's aircraft industry.
Brian Roome not true. Vickers Viscount sold 800 across the world.
Fantastic video🤘🏽
Never saw one before. Thought I had seen them all. Cool
I understand that good content isn't free. But the frequency and placement of the ads made this video hard to get into. It was reminiscent of tacky channels.
I didn't get one add on my end.
Btw the channel doesn't decide the ads, that is TH-cam
use AdBlock plus, no ads ever.
Pay for TH-cam Red. It's cheap and totally worth it. No ads.
@@jamstagerable I have not had a ad on TH-cam in 5 years.
Who pays for TH-cam?
A good video, although the narrator sounded in a hurry and in need to visit Mr Crapper before it was too late.
I like when the narration is close to the speed I talk in my head.
Excellent work @Dark Skies
We had so many stunning cutting-edge designs in the '50's and early '60's - and also so many missed opportunities due to short-sighted politicians (i'm looking at you, Harold Wilson)!
In fairness this particular project really was a dud.
The program was a fail. ICBM's were a better system.
Nothing to do with Wilson - we were dirt poor, and crap at manufacturing and selling. The 'great British design' myth is just that - the last fantasy of Empire. In reality it was Boys Own stories Vs the biggest manufacturing/seeing power the world has ever seen. Who was going to win that one?
Wow, never saw this before. That is a sexy beast.
@Brian Roome Looks and functionality are two different things. Just look at Kim K. Looks great, useless as all hell.
A mention of TSR2 should be included here, Bristol Siddeley Olympus engines, and it worked!
The sound barrier was broken by a manned aircraft in level flight in 1947, not 1948. It was broken in various ways well before that, including the cracking of a whip.
0:20
That's the French SNCASO Trident interceptor. Cool plane itself tho, it's a rocket-jet hybrid
Some times it indeed was the French type. And pictures of I guess TSR 2's being scrapped. Yet still bloody good show with a lot I didn't know!
Set playback speed to 0.75. You're welcome!
Much better, thank you
The wings are just there to have something to put the roundels on and separate the engines from the fuselage.
There is one of these aircraft at the RAF Cosford Museum, in the flesh it is a beautiful looking aircraft even though it never met expectations.
At 6:51 you show a meteor F8, not the 188, great video but I see so many visual inaccuracies with your videos
And at 0:18 and 6:24 they show a French SNCASO Trident mixed power experimental from the mid 1950s
Looks like the SR-71 has a cousin now.
Calm down. The highest speed attained was Mach 1.88 not even the Mach 2 design speed. Don't even mention this in the same breath as the A-12/SR-71
hi S D...
'
any aircrafts and any airplanes are NOT familys / NOT relatives
@@bestamerica I know. I was only joking in light hearted mess. Take it easy.
I’m only couple miles from Foulness Island and Shoeburyness. Great plane
I saw the Bristol 188 at the Farnborough Air Show as a kid in 1962. At the next air show there in 1964, I saw a rather different Bristol- the biplane Bulldog from the late 1920s. The very next day the Bulldog crashed and was not reconstructed for many decades and does not now fly.
Sound barrier was broken in Oct 1947!! Get your facts right!
Yes, I noticed that too.
October 12, 1947
Great vid. Just need to slow down a bit man. ;)
The 188 looks a lot like a Starfighter. And we can definitely see where Fireball XL5 got its inspiration.
I think it's better known as the flaming pencil. The Dornier 17 is the flying pencil (fliegender Bleistift). Both can be found at Cosford.
Narrator is trying to talk so fast he's mispronouncing words all over the place, it makes it difficult to comprehend what is being said. Otherwise well done!
Nah, he's just american. Nothing to worry about here.
Have to agree with Josh. Talks too fast and too many ads. Sorry but I'm out.
He sounds fine. Are you that low IQ you can't follow simple English?
Josh Lampe
He is talking fast but there is nothing wrong with his pronunciation.
@@glyphs3 get some ad blockers and a vpn and then go complain to google
Waaaay too many commercials. A commercial every 2 minutes is disruptive to your own content and makes for a displeasurable viewing experience. It also seems very greedy. With so many commercials I am overlooking your whole channel.
its free
@@michael6485 Its not. It's payed by your time.
Adblock or similar
Adblock or pay a monthly fee. Nothing is free in life so get used to it.
I get no adverts and I'm not using an ad blocker
Man these are great, keep em coming. Really like the Skunkworks stuff if ya can do more. Don't even care if it's about their breakroom. Lol
AVRO were definitely on to something... If you look at the aircraft profile at 8:34 - you can see the SR71.
I'm only talking about the laminar wing with the 3-phase SRAM jets buried in the wing, with movable intake shock cones at the front of the nacelles.
With more development it would have been a short hop to planar cockpit, fuse- and empennage. Having only one rudder, square on, would have become a RADAR hungry hindrance, so it probably wouldn't have taken the designers long to follow Kelly Johnson's lead and fitted twin rudders with a slight incline.
I think what it does show, is form follows function, and most talented engineers will end up with the same result.
SR71 was a later derivative of the A-12 OXCART project from 1962 which was its first official flight. The A-12s were even faster and flew higher. One even worked as a interceptor concept prototype.