Why Was This Plane Invulnerable: The SR-71 Blackbird Story
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ส.ค. 2018
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The Cold War locked the United States and Soviet Union into a tense struggle for global influence and control. The first purpose-built American spy plane to fly over the Soviet Union was the Lockheed U-2. Neither fast nor stealthy, the U-2’s tactical advantage was that it could supposedly fly above soviet radar and air defenses.
Yet even before the U-2 began surveillance missions, there were already plans for the next generation of spy plane. The need for a U-2 successor became more pressing as Soviet radars had tracked the U-2 since the very first reconnaissance flight. In 1960, a Soviet surface to air missile downed a U-2 deep within soviet airspace, heightening tensions between the two Cold War rivals. If America was to continue vital reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union, it would need an aircraft with a combination of incredible speed, altitude and stealth.
In 1959, the CIA chose Lockheed over rival Convair to build the next generation of spy plane. Lockheed’s highly classified spy plane would be known as the A-12. Originally designed for the CIA for reconnaissance, the A-12 was also developed as an interceptor prototype, along with a variant that could launch an unmanned reconnaissance drone. The SR-71 Blackbird, a later variant developed for the Air Force would go on to serve for decades while the other variants were quickly retired. Nearly 60 years after their first flight, the SR-71 and its A-12 successors remain the fastest air breathing jets to ever fly. Lockheed’s engineers had to innovate many aspects of the aircraft from unique engine characteristics, stealth features, to the extensive use of titanium for the first time in an aircraft.
For years, the SR-71 Blackbirds were practically invulnerable, being able to outfly and out climb any threat, but by 1980s, Mig-31s and a new of generation of surface to air missiles began to erode the aircraft’s impunity. The SR-71 Blackbirds were finally retired from service in 1998. These reconnaissance aircraft were enormously expensive to operate and politics and infighting for defense budgets eventually had the SR-71s days numbered. Advances in spy satellites, aerial drones and the SR-71’s inability to deliver surveillance data in real time, diminished some of the plane’s utility. #SR71 #Blackbird #SpyPlanes
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You missed the funniest detail: Lockheed bought titanium for these aircrafts from USSR through a chain of phoney companies in non-NATO countries.
Yeah that's called shell companies. North Korea and Cuba and China do that today.
Britain bought stuff from hostile powers during the war via a neutral country - Portugal . My aunt used to fly out to Portugal with a diplomatic brief case every month stuffed with banknotes.
You couldn’t do it today with accounting forensics.
@@ElliottAS or hell, even the media in some cases.
@@Suisfonia 100% could do it today, you just have to have a brain and a tiny bit of resource
Its literally like :
Q : How to do not get hit by missile?
A : just go faster than missile
speed problem required speed solution
In Russian accent pls
@@alegiu1 American accent*
No not that the answer is : be the missle
@@nobpyxl5389 that what japanese kamikaze pilot said
"ok so how do we not get hit by a missile?"
**snorts a line**
"make the plane faster than the missile"
Hahahahahah....i thought after the line snort you were going to say sprinkle some of this in the fuel. ;)
😆
**snorts oil**
*snorts line harder* put jet engines in the jet engines, that’ll do it
🤣
The most sinister looking aircraft to ever take the skies, even to this day. Its mind blowing this was developed with slide rulers and clay models.
The apollo era blows my mind too. To think everyone under 50 years of age has not experience in their lifetime having a human on the moon.
My grandfather actually was part of the people who help created it, but he died not so long ago. ):
And talent
I mean... big car companies still use life sized clay models to design their cars after they get a render on the computer
@@Egerit100 Key words, after they render on computer.
It's insane to me how the SR-71 being from the 1960s still looks like something out of a science-fiction novel design-wise.
SR-71 was a prototype for Normandy from Mass Effect. Just think of it, modern designers took Blackbird`s desing to create futuristic space-ship. It`s crazy.
To me personally the m16 has that same appeal, hard to see now as everything clones it but just looked so different than everything else at the time
XMen uses this plane in their movies
For me it's nostalgia...had a Ring Raider Toy Airplane which was a SR-71. Thinking about buying it again! :P
*Dude it's literally a SciFi future tech.* The amount of money your government spend in military is incredibly high that they are able to push military technology 3 decades forward. That's why.
"Invulnerable" is not really the most fitting word for it, when you think of it. The SR-71 was Untouchable.
This, "invulnerable" is incorrect, "untouchable" is the correct one
Except it wasn't. If the SR-71 was so untouchable why did the USAF never fly it in Soviet airspace but instead buzzed around the periphery? The SR-71 could be intercepted, though with some difficulty.
@@garysellars8761 do you even watch the vid? he explained why in the vid.
@@garysellars8761 We'll never know for sure if it could have been intercepted... because no SR-71 ever was. The Soviets would have used the PR value to the max, if they had. Did the Soviets have the capability? Maybe. Maybe not. The defected MIG-25 showed that the actual capabilities of that alledged SR-71 killer weren't living up to its hype.
I assume the SR-71 only buzzed the SU periphery out of precaution, trying to avoid another egg-on-face incident like the downed U2.
The SR-71 apparently has over 1000 recorded shoot-down attempts. I'll stick with "untouchable".
Air particles and pressures that help cause the death of the SR: what?
I remember the story of a blackbird pilot flying at 60000 ft over the Atlantic and being told to change course for another aircraft. The other aircraft was Concorde. The pilot thought it amusing that he was in his space suit on oxygen and the passengers in Concorde were looking out of their windows drinking their champagne 🍾.😂😂🥂
Imagine a concorde passanger looking out the Window and seeing the blackbird as its bevoming faster and clips even higher than the concorde
I’m afraid that these times will be the glory days of aviation. I doubt such things will happen again
The SR 71 BLACKBIRD and concorde are both 2 of my favourite aircraft
Ive only ever flown on 3 aircraft in my life so far and one of them was Concorde. I find that kind of funny. Ive still yet to actually fly on a single current jetliner. Just weird happenstance I suppose. Ive flown on Concorde, a small prop plane for Skydiving and then also been in a Hawk-T1A which are planes used by the Red Arrows stunt display team.
@@vincentbujold-roux4898 I hope one day space travel will allow us to experience cool vehicles. For now we have to settle for fast bikes.
In my personal opinion, It is probably one of the greatest planes ever built. This and the B2 Bomber.
As the greatest American planes they definitely have a case
Agree
The B-52 as well. They first took flight in 1952, yet the are continuing into service at least until 2050. Imagine if the Sopwith Canel, a WW1 biplane, was in service all the way until the middle of the Cold War. Now you have an idea of just how incredible the B-52 is.
Edit: Keep in mind, they will continue into service AT LEAST until the 2050s. Even with B1 Lancers and B2s, many politicians are pushing to keep the B-52 as the workhorse of the air force, and it is likely that they will be in service for even longer.
And the B-1 Lancer `0'
Nah c-130 herculies
Cars back then didn't even have air condition
Imagine what secret technology there is now
@Ben Silva what about the flight to the moon 1969
@Zero Cool still you do get my point
@Ben Silva technology gap between government and people
Air AIR condition for AIR
Top secret A/C technology
The SR-71: A plane made of titanium going so fast that it can accidentally incinerate itself.
it's like a puppy that gets to exited
more like a child going down a slide so fast they just melt
@Jameson Audette and twice as expensive lmao
More like giving a kid a toy theyre not capable of maintaining...
Just to fly by one of the poorest countries on earth wich is the eternal "enemy" hahaha so absurd. America the greatest country in the history of humanity
Another bit of trivia not covered in this video -- when they retired the SR-71, in 1998, on the final flight from the West Coast to Florida, the pilots went full throttle and set a new continental speed record for coast-to-coast flight time- not sure if that has been broken yet
I can't imagine what kind of emotion the pilots were feeling when they stepped down that airplane for the final time and thinking "no one will ever fly in this again."
Some mix of sad and proud I'd presume
Legends said someone started blasting Free Bird on the radio
Jk
Also in the 70s the SR 71 BLACKBIRD flew from New York to London in 1hr 55min. Hasn't been broken once
@@rylamistrandall6517nasa still flies them for research according to the video
Average speed of 2,152 miles per hour. Coast to coast in an hour
It's insane how this futuristic creation of engineering is retired today. It doesn't look obsolete at all.
Well it kinda is because of all the satelites.
When will they be declassified enough to buy one
@@clintelkins9630 depends, the design may be so good the US maybe very well just use it as a shell, and build on it and creating their new spy plane. As much as satellites are helpful, they can be costly to maintain, repair, and replace, and sometimes they have to change their orbits so much just for a single photo.
In the case of a war, I'm pretty sure those satellites will be some of the first casualties.
Imagine what they have available now.
Sr 71: I’m the fastest jet. The plane and cameraman following it: *You underestimate my power*
hahaha
Plot twist ; the cameraman was also
In one
@@michaeljr4085 no, the camera man was in the X-15 (this is a joke)
@Branden Marcum my spaceship can outrun the Blackbird don't worry I'll hold back XD
@@michaeljr4085 no wtf dumb noob the camera man was running on air
SR 71 Pilot: "I'm hitting the brakes to take a selfie with this missile behind me".
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Lolz, it can happen with American pilots
Missile: Am I a joke to you?
UPS, was an S200, and now is up on my ass !
@gamer zone yeah, sure, those 2000+ muricans pilots downed over Nam by russian missiles 4 sure agree with you... other 200 killed / captured murican pilots for entering URSS air-space also agree with you...
www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/secret-casualties-of-the-cold-war-180967122/
So, try again you, this time harder dude, with 2 brain-cells at once !
The only plane that outclassed the Blackbird was the one flying next to it to film it 🛩️🎥
Legend has it, there wasn’t a plane, it’s just the camera man running really fast in mid air
@@omega1575 THE Camera Man
I see how you could put it on the exact same level as the SR-71 because it had to keep up with it but how do you say it outclassed that SR-71
Just curious to the process of qualification for such a high praise
Once read a book by an SR-71 pilot. He tells the story of one of his flights where his back seater says the threat radar is lit up like a Christmas tree. They saw the missiles launch and discovered that while some had the height they didn't have the speed and the ones that had the speed were burning out way short of the aircraft's altitude. An awesome piece of engineering for the time considering that while it's regarded as a 1960s aircraft the design is actually early 50s
and they say the speed of the 71 hast been beaten 60 years later. now that cannot possibly be true. the DoD will reinvent the fuking laws of physics to make the us the most militarily overpowered country in the world
When they flew over North Korea they literally thought their radars were glitching because it was going so fast and high
@Tadamichi Goto eeeeh, the infographics show gets a lot of things wrong. I liked real engineering's video better.
@Krusti Memez any source for that? I'd like to read about it.
Is that how google maps got their close up aerial imagery of north korea?
@@novemberdelta1282 You sure? Do you have proof?
@@rosstessien6677 go watch their video, they messed up a lot of things.
You didn’t mention one of my favorite facts of this plane. Since the outer body got so hot, and the panels would expand so much in the heat, when the plane was on the ground each separate panel did not touch. The gaps were big enough that as it taxied to the runway, it was a race against time to get them into the air because the jet fuel would drip back out through the gaps. They would only load it with enough fuel for takeoff and to fly a few laps, so it could heat up the fuselage enough that the gaps closed up. Then they would refuel midair and the plane would then go on its mission
I heard about the gaps years ago...but i never knew they were barely fueled and then refueled after heat up...ive seen one in real life and its an amazing bird! Thanks for the trivia!
anwalborn that’s insane
I do like this comment, and did the gap issue eventually cause its retirement?
@@ShenYangAustralia nope, it was fine operational-wise.
A combination of more advanced SAM (S-300s), better Soviet Interceptors (MiG-31s) and Spy Sattelites caused its retirement.
@@ShenYangAustralia No, the gap was part of the design. Cost and politics retired them.
4 black angels:
SR 71 Blackbird
F-117 Nighthawk
B2 bomber
U2 Spy plane
You missed one the angel of death
@@profit812 it's
It's not black
@@ForkLefts some time it is and they did add the U2 plane and that’s grey so count it in
SR 71 : 70% Plane, 30% Enggine
Mig 31 : 30% Plane, 70% Enggine.
SR 71: 20% Plane 20% Engine 60% Fuel
Ah yes, my favorite motor, *the enggine*
A-10 Warthog: 90% Gun, 10% Plane.
Graphics 10/10
Facts 10/10
Anti-clickbait 999/10
Best TH-cam channel ever
SofaWolf you’re right about the metric system. If only there were some kind of website where you could type in “feet to meters” and it would convert the numbers automatically, hmmm....
@Mukund Shivakumar
Totally agree...
Anti ad 9999999999/10
SofaWolf This brilliant system is used by the whole humanity . The imperial system was good at the time people were illiterate for the most. 1\2, 1\4 and so one...... 1\16......etc.. That's utterly mediocre . You need minimal knowledge to convert . Even for the volumes it's not good . The U.S. gallon is worth 3,783 litres and the imperial gallon is worth 4,3 litres . Apart for football and golf you should get rid of this primitive system . Water freezes at 0° celcius and boils at 100 °. That is so more intelligent than 32° and 212 °.
In aviation, everybody is using a combination of imperial and metric. For example, RVSM is in feet. So, Chinese and Russian passenger jets' altimeter are using feet. Speed is in knots, unless you are high above, in which case you'll use Mach. German, French, Italian, Greek, Russian, Iranian, Indian, Thai, Indonesian, Kenyan, Liberian, every ATC might tell you to "slow down to 200" which every pilot know, is measured in knots.
I remember SR71's test pilot said in Clarkson's documentaries: “You're protected by the laws of physics.”
Damn…
If that is not a powerful line then in don’t know what is.
It doesn't look obsolete at all.
As Jeremy Clarkson once famously said
POOOOWWWWWWER
Well you can't beat that :D
Speed and powaa
"You seem to know a lot about this plane"
"DO YOU EVER READ MY CHRISTMAS LISTS"
Hell yeah, a fucking hellsing ultimate abridged reference !
6:57 - any time the government says something is OFFICIALLY retired, that means it is still being used.
To the government, Officially means “trust us” *wink*”
@@omega1575 trust me bro
True, as an ex airforce boom operator there are still a handful of kc135s running through the skys that solely carry the fuel the blackbird used so either its still in service, being used as a trainer for whatever is faster or whatever is faster uses the same fuel. No other plane used jt so its pretty ironic they still have tankers holding and flying the fuel.
Sad to say they are probably really are done because there is no need for them anymore. The government has tools far more modern, safer, and efficient than the SR-71 for surveillance.
To make the long message short: "Plane Literally Too Fast To Die"
except when it tries to land or fly very fast
then it can die
+Chris Gaming (ps 1/2 of all blackbirds were lost to crashes during non combat siturations
@@GlowingSpamraam not true, one was shot down over Russia in 1983. Yet it wasnt eknowledged until last year by either side.
@@AThingThatsWild No, that was false. It was an April Fool's joke. Doing a quick Google search will confirm that. However, the Russians did chase several Sr-71s before, but obviously never caught them.
@@Kytota well, even if it was an aprils fool. The MIG 31 is way faster and can operate at the same hight. So even if they didnt shoot one down, they could.
USAF: "hey everybody we officially retired all SR-71"
world: "ahhh finally we now stop monitoring our stratosphere"
USAF: "see, they believe it, now we can fly it with zero suspicion"
Lol
Every single part of these was custom built. They would explode if refueled fully on the ground. You can't even get replacement tires for the landing gear any more, let alone spare parts for the engines, paint, fuel, igniter... Why bother, when you have satellites and digital spyware?
@@Tuxfanturnip r/Whooosh
@@Tuxfanturnip Explode if tanks were full while on the ground? No offence, but sounds like another bullshit story. Source?
Meanwhile - upgraded U-2 is still in service...
This plane alone is what makes me want to get into aviation engineering, my dad was a aerial mechanic and I heard stories of how he worked on several different planes contracted by the government. I’ve always dreamed of making a plane like this and I hope I do
SR71 was a great project. It still flies. I served in the radio-monitoring for the GRU USSR. Those, who intercepted SR71 in the air (radio) were getting 10 days vocation. There were no problems of doing that. At that time we could see every movement of those. Vice versa was true too.
It still flies.
Really. Who flies the SR-71 today?
To me, this plane was like the Cambrian Explosion. Technologically speaking, it's like a plane that just appeared out of nowhere. Just twenty years from piston engine fighters to this monster.
It was Aliens
Best comment so far!! I think you have a point!! Here's a 🍻 cheers amigo!!!
It's the cambrian explosion!
NOW THE PHOENICIANS GONNA GET DOWN TO BUSINESS
No one expects the Cambrian Explosion!
literally no one:
blackbird: suffering from success
Hahahaha dj khaled shout out voice activated when starting up these aircrafts.
Now i know a Guy from Indonesia who watching Video that the same as me!
@@titanusrodan8344 haha
* *
Quality humour
“The SR-71 is the fastest plane in existence”
Me: That we know of
No lag or gulag
I think it’s safe to say it’s still true. Modern surface to air missiles can go past mach 5 so there’s not much sense in building a plane that can go mach 3.5 or mach 4.
@@grandadmiralthrawn8116 or they already have one, we just don't know. yet.
@@grandadmiralthrawn8116 it might go faster than that but the government doesn’t want us to know
it isn't the fastest air-breathing plane in existence, it's the fastest *manned* air-breathing plane in existence
I saw one of these when visiting Hendon Air Museum in England. I was surprised by how small this aircraft really is!
What impresses me the most is that the titanium that the SR-71's were made of, came from... the Soviet Union! The US Military bought it through "civilian" front companies!
I have also seen one, in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, the same one from Tranformers Revenge of the Fallen, there are two Air and Space museums
I just found out at my uncles funeral that he helped design the turbine engines for this badass plane.
Nice.
*salutes*
this has 69 likes so im not gonna mess with it
With a fucking sliderule. Respect.
@@sntslilhlpr6601 amazing isn't it
I actually got to talk with a SR-71 pilot and he talked about some really fascinating details about the thing. My personal favorite is that they would actually bring personally-designed lunches onto the plane and just use the windscreen as an oven to cook their food, because it actually got that hot. Also, they needed to taxi the plane as quickly as possible for take-off, because the fuel tanks were designed to expand in-flight, but that meant that they leaked like Niagra Falls when on the ground.
I knew about the tanks leaking but that food story is great hah
My father, Col Joseph Rogers, was an SR-71 pilot. I think your pilot was pulling your leg about cooking lunch, they wore sealed pressure suits.
That is super cool!
Aardvark......aren't they two unofficially still in operation?
yeah that window would be like a 400 Degree oven for sure. and they were in sealed suits at high speed because of the heat. and the cabin was cooled by a heat exchanger using fuel. there is a video you can watch of a blackbird taking off that shows just how much fuel the thing is losing. its easily a few thousand gallons during take off.
EDIT Found it th-cam.com/video/qDTECZShylA/w-d-xo.htmlm20s
To think they created a plane like this in the 60's is incredible and highlights the ingenuity of humans. Now imagine if humans progressed as individuals and not just in technology, imagine how far we would reach together. We are holding ourselves back.
There was an SR-71 on static display at the space museum in Huntsville, Alabama and every time my parents took me down there I was utterly fascinated by it's design, it looked so futuristic compared to all the other planes I'd seen.
Los Angeles center reported receiving a request to clearance to FL60(flight level 60000ft). The incredulous controller with some disdain in his voice, Asked, "How exactly do you plan to get up to 60000ft?"
The piolet (obviously a sled driver) responded
"Centre we were hoping to descent to it."
He was cleared immediately.
Shouldn't it be angels 60?
Lmao xD
You mean Flight Level 600 then? Flight level 60 is only half the height allowed for aircraft without pressurized cockpits... you can fly FL150 with a well-maintained Cessna 120.
He meant FL600. Nobody would request Angels 60 from ATC. ATC wouldn't respond.
@@linuxgeex Flight Level 600 is approximately 110 miles up
My grandpa worked on these! According to him, the pilot whose plane disintegrated somehow made it out totally unharmed. One second he was piloting, the next he was sitting in his chair hurtling through the sky at god knows what speed like Wiley E Coyote
Imagine being catapulted. Like you can't prepare for that
Did he pull a sign that said "Yikes!" out of his flight suit? 😄
I've sat in the cockpit of the A-12 variant, it's tiny compared to the rest of the aircraft. I couldn't imagine looking behind you and just seeing the whole thing disappear midair.
The reason the pilot was unharmed was probably the speed; drag caused the debris to fall so far behind the pilot so quickly that there was no real risk of a midair collision.
I had the pleasure in the early 90s of standing on one of its wings at the Air Force museum in Ohio. What an awesome experience for a 13-year-old!
Someday, these will be “classics” and “fun, but slow.” The future is epic!
SR-72 and SR-91: Hmmmmm interesting
Modern fighter: Noo you can't fly faster than me I am the latest generation jet!!
SR-71: Haha Turbo-ramjet go zoom
Lee Hong Jin 😂💖
Danien 24 damn...
Modern surface to air missiles can go beyond Mac. 5 and modern fighter radar can detect the SR-71 and it can shoot down by their modern air to air missiles.. but yes it was the fastest plane ever built along side with mig 31
lol I’m gonna is your Postmates was the last last night bro bro mmm was
lol I’m gonna is your Postmates was the last last night bro bro mmm was
"Mr President, they shot down another Dragon Lady"
"Dammit Jim. That does it. Call up Lockhead and tell them to build a spy satellite with wings"
Lmaooo
Funniest shit I've read all month
Hey my name is Dan, 3 years ago you inspired a young teenager to become a pilot, your videos spark and started my interest into aviation, I’m currently working on my commercial license on my way to becoming an airline pilot. I just wanted to thank you for inspiring me to do what I love! Thank you mustard
My grandfather was a sergeant in the cold war and he has many stories about Vietnam and West Germany. He had one story when he was still a private he needed to gaurd a town because things were really starting to rile up The USA and The Soviet Union and it looked like ww3 was coming. So they had to defend and protect certain towns and cities and so he was just there. When my grandfather got promoted to private first class he got sent out to Vietnam and saved one of his squad members. After that and a few more years of service he got promoted to corporal.
The damn thing ran faster than a missile that was targeting them.
As much as I love the SR-71 in the end it was just a reconnaissance jet. No missiles, no cannon so it wasn't a frightening war machine. It's easier to go fast when you didn't have to carry weapons. They were also very fragile with a 3rd of them crashed. It's no wonder when the bloody thing leaked kerosene before take-off. The Mig25/31 had to carry missiles and go fast. Also there were more than 1100 Mig 25 built and over 500 Mig 31 built. The SR-71 just 32. The Migs weren't as fast and they couldn't fly as high as the Sr-71 but the a R-33 (AA-Amos) missile they carried could reach Mach 6. An R-40 (AA-6 Acrid) missile could reach Mach 4.5. An S-200 surface to air missile could go Mach 4. So it wasn't invulnerable.
Also the titanium that was used in it's construction isn't such a rare earth material. Titanium is the ninth-most abundant element in Earth's crust and Australia has the biggest deposits of that stuff. USA has plenty of titanium ore deposits also. So the whole story of USA importing titanium from USSR it's just a funny anecdote. They could of just as well imported rubber and from USSR and make the wheels for the landing gear.
@@siamahammed1475 Not when it was introduced
@@georgeb9088 It leaked fuel before takeoff because the heat from flying so fast would make the fuel tanks expand. If they didnt design it to leak on the ground, it would have exploded in the air
@@zephyr6877 could they not have used fuel diaphragms instead of fuel tanks? They could've been fine
Technically it can't out run missles but more accurately it out runs the missiles tracking system.
Mustard: "So Blackbird, why were you invulnerable?"
Blackbird: "Cos I'm fast as f*** boiiii"
lol
I literally thought of the same fkin sentence mman XD
I don’t think you have any idea, just how fast I really am
You're wrong, I’m good at sim racing!
This is what passes as humor? Just when I forgot how well TH-cam reveals the stupidity of humans...
I remember going to the US Space and Rocket center in Huntsville, AL as a kid and seeing one of the last remaining grounded A-12s there and it immediately became my favorite plane I had ever seen, without even having the capability to understand truly how amazing those things were.
The F-15 squadron I was in back in the 80's would sometimes try to do intercept missions on SR-71's. Something they were never able to accomplish as far as I remember. One of the things pilots said about the Blackbird is that it is much faster than its advertised top speed.
You mean to tell us that air speed record isn't even 100% of what this plane was capable of?
@@RJALEXANDER777 Exactly. The advertised top speed is mach 3.5 or about 2668 mph. The LA to DC flight averaged 2144.8 mph, just under mach 3. Of course, the pilots couldn't tell me how fast it was going during intercepts but from what I gathered from them mach 3.5 was just cruising speed. And on a side note, our F-15's were attempting these intercepts at 80,000 ft. Interesting in that the advertised ceiling is only 65,000 ft.
@@billkipper3264 I've heard that pilots said on documents that they sometimes even PUSH past MACH 4 to outrun interceptors, etc
That seemed to be a common theme for cars and planes back then, being much more powerful than advertised.
@billkipper3264 the advertised was 85k ft
7:02 Thought I was gonna get Rick Rolled for a second there
Same here
The SR-71 is never…
gonna give you up,
gonna let you down,
gonna run around and desert you.
Same
I knew there'll be a comment like this
I was gonna say that
**Looks at F-16, U-2, C-130**
Imagine needing anti-missile countermeasures.
This post was made by the SR-71 Blackbird gang.
*gang gang we don't fuck around in this airspace*
The SR-71 needed anti missile countermeasures.
It also only did dashes over tiny third world countries because if it went over the USSR or China, it would have been shot down.
The Soviet Mig-25 did the same thing over Israel and the Sinai and it wasn’t shot down either no matter how hard the IAF tried.
@@Bartonovich52 'Tis a joke, sire.
Me:- launches a mach 29 missle which is falling from orbit
Your time is up
My dad worked on the SR71 and not just from him, he told me it got up to 5,000 mph, it would get so hot it looked like a orange flash crossing the ski, makes you proud to be a American.
You mean to tell me it goes over twice its publicly stated top speed?
@@Homieman-nz6si the blackbird and oxcart are still so classified. I wouldn’t doubt they could go faster than publicly stated
@@mrcorvus5393 but over twice?!
@@Homieman-nz6si maybe he meant 500km/h? i don’t think and air breathing jet can reach 5000mph
@@hazza2247 that would be more reasonable as thats about mach 4 and not mach 6+, but i imagine they might have really meant Mph
These graphics mate
bookhorse
Mate with what?
D1agram it's British things
Rip Curl 69 aye, g'day mate
SandPox Americans with British slang and terms mate god 😂
You need to make vintage looking posters. I would pay for those.
mbogucki1 Dude, those would definitely take all my money.
And phone cases!
Make a Vintage looking poster from WW2 except "Keep 'Em Flyin Mustard!".
I second this! I'd love a vintage Mustard SR-71 poster to make my wall go Mach 3.5! I could also use it to perform strategic reconnaissance on the neighbors who live on the other side of that wall, I just know they're working on a new long-range, tactical -missile- lawn mower, ever since they painted their house red and sent two -spies- kids to "help out" in my -research- -facility- garage.
Yessss
There have been a ton of genius level jets over the years but this one is my favorite. The engineers that came up with this are beyond brilliant. Such a badass jet, especially at that point in time
US: Why did you defected from the Soviet Union
MiG-35 pilot: Cuz I can’t catch your damn recon jet
Mig-31, the mig 35 is an upgraded mig-29
Literally everyone: "FIRE MISSILES!"
Blackbird: "That's _so_ cute."
Literally everyone: "It is impossible to get a missile lock on the SR-71"
Swedish airforce: "Let's repeatedly get missile lock on the SR-71 but don't shoot, just because we can"
SR-71 pilot: *starts sweating profusely*
@@SWEmanque They had a lock on it many times and it would definitely be shot down don't kid yourselves people. Its Just they were smart enough to actually never cross the boarder with Soviet Union or China and only fly in international air space.
@@olegk455 There was an instance in the late 80s where a MiG-31 armed with its long range missiles achieved lock on the SR-71.
@@jaykilbourne1110 just because you have lock on does not mean the missile will actually hit... one of the problems is even if a missile can keep up with the SR-71 it cant do so for long due to its fuel capacity... so the SR-71 only needs to keep ahead of it for a few seconds...
@@happyjohn354 Those Soviet Pilots and ground crew that gave testimony about the incident mentioned that upon achieving a missile lock, they had roughly 30 seconds to launch or they would miss.
SR71: ATC, we are going to the 70000 feet level.
ATC: How are you gonna fly that high?
SR71: No no, we are descending.
oof.
In a similar vein there is the famous speed check.
“Center, Aspen 20, you got a ground speed readout for us?’
There was a longer than normal pause …
“Aspen, I show 1,942 knots.”
theaviationgeekclub.com/sr-71-blackbird-pilot-tells-story-behind-famed-ground-speed-check/
Blackbird can fly at mach 4+ @ 50k ft.. and higher.
Saibot Saibot aspen 20 , im showing a little closer to 2000 lol
Planes fly at 30,000 feet all the time.
Dude, you got so nice and tensed spy kind of music in the backround BRILLIANT
Do another video on the SR-71! I would love to see how you go in depth with the engineering of the plane. Great videos, one of the absolute channels best on TH-cam. Thanks!
My great grandfather worked for Lockheed from the 1930’s-1970’s. He worked on the P-38 during WW2 and the U2 and SR71 during the Cold War.
He even worked at Area 51. He wasn’t allowed to disclose information, even decades after he worked there. It’s obvious why though, he made an oath and has too keep it.
It was unfortunate that he passed away right as I was getting into aviation.
Every time I see Lockheed videos, I think about my Great Grandfather. Thanks for the memories 😁
Was his name Bob Lazar?
Neo Matrix nope, his name was Charles
Same my grandpa who severed in the Korean war used to work on several aircraft but he passed right when i started to get into aviation smh
We will storm area 51
We still have not uncovered your great grandfather's work. Next year, we will raid to see whats in there
MAN....what a badass video. These graphics are KILLER.
(...just like all the OTHER Mustard videos)
Your 3D modeling has become incredible. You should be proud of it. Well done.
My father was one of those engineers who worked on this project his part was small he just worked on the lighting systems but to listen to this video reminds me of the stories he told me about them amd being from a town near dayton ohio where the wright Patterson airforce base and air force museum being there and walking next to the plan and having your father point out the parts he helped intrigrate into the project was a very inspiring experience
The Blackbird is like The McLaren F1 of jets
Jesus Martinez so tru Lmao
A McLaren F1 with the power of a Chiron
Nah Bugatti Veyron.
Both are well before their time and works of art. They are both beautiful and mechanical perfection.
@@KandiKlover more of a RS
This was an absolute beauty of a video
This video is incredible, thanks for making it
I keep coming back to these videos, Mustards videos are top notch!
3:24 they forgot one (limited edition) was made specifically for Dr. Charles Xavier ....
And it was a Vtol no less
Beast built the X-Plane with plans telepathically stolen from the Skunk Works by Prof.X. No Government funds were used. Thus, not in the Production inventory. Also, modified to carry passengers.
@@warriordragonify r/woooosh
Excellent video, nicely paced and informative. One neat piece of info you missed was that the CIA set up a front company and bought most of the titanium from the USSR. Titanium is so hard to mill and work with the Soviets were way ahead at the time of us in it's fabrication.
I think Lockheed also found the city water supply's chlorine was making the titanium brittle to work with so even the water source had to be considered.
Do you have a source of this? From the words of Blackbird designers it wasn't the material itself but a manufacturing of the proper alloy was the problem as only 2 out of 30 companies in US could do it while reaching target parameters.
luckily also after the avro arrow was scrapped there were the best titanium specialists in the world unemployed! handy for LM! The a12 was a faster & higher flying plane though VS the sr71 :)
You know, Lockheed Martin actually imported Titanium from russia and gathered it from fake companies in america as unobtanium. Somehow the name unobtainium or unattainuim stuck with them as a discription for material that is needed but either not available in the needed quantities or not available as a material itself.
Another good story about the SR71 was how they rammed one through Ghadaffi's "line of death" in the seventies.
I live near the museum of flight, where they have the mothership variant M-12 kept inside. It is amazing to look at. It is quite large, and the engines are massive. If you live in Washington, it is definitely worth a trip to see it. They also have a Concorde, a Dreamliner, one of the old presidential planes, and many more.
Just got to see one of these in person for the first time a few months ago at the National Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH. I was caught off guard by how much smaller it looked in person, but nonetheless, so awe-inspiring to behold such an iconic aircraft.
I love the SR-71. It's like F1 race cars, they are literally on life support in needing a lot of maintenance and constant care into making it drive-worthy/fly-worthy, but when it gets going, holy smokes will it go.
Black bird design was very futuristic and beautiful.
Still is. Even to this day the Jet is literally a sci-fi space plane come to life.
Some say it was counter researched from roswell ufo, i mean titanium tec
Ufos had harder material and stuff but titanium was best that we can find from earth
I find the B-2 even weirder. That thing really looks like it doesn't belong to this planet.
and it was made with a slide rule. no computers yet.
Fantastic doco!... Really enjoyed that.
blackbird is my favorite plan i seen one irl in a michigan plane museum when i was a wee lad.. it was insane how sleek and beautiful it was yet packing so much speed and power is crazy to think about now
Kelly Johnson's plane designs were amazing especially considering the time he designed them and planes he contributed to including the SR-71, P-38, U-2, F-117, F-80, C-130 and many more. The contributions he made to our military aircraft cannot be overstated.
He's the John Moses Browning of aircraft design.
The F-104 disagrees.
Damn, that some résumé
@@mcfireballs3491 the 117 was his successors Ben Rich's work
My Father was in the soviet army in mid 70s at the pacific border (Air Defence Forces). He told me, they tracked SR-71 many times, but no chance to case them. So they developed strategy to disturb the rec-mission of SR. The air route of SR-71 was almost the same every time. So they put some interceptors on this route and an alternative route, if they knew SR was on the way. So the interceptors were able to track the SR-71 from the side or front. The crew of SR knew if they got tracked by interceptors, then they aborted the mission and breaked away to gain the distance from the coast.
M1TGLIED some people will might say you lying but a believe you
M1TGLIED My grandfather was also a soldier in the soviet army, he told me about this and various other American projects during the 70s. I did not knew much about it thanks for the information!
My grandfather worked as a constructive foreman and farmed potatoes during that time. Woo.
These seems true
M1TGLIED Zz
This is the seventh time i am re-watching this, I just love the Music design, the calm pronunciation, and the plane itself
Hey, you're doing a great job and you're putting a lot of work into your videos! Keep going and create the content you're doing now.
Blackbird: **flies in Mach 3.3**
Incoming Missile: Wait, that's illegal
Is cheat
Mach 3.3 PLUS!
AF/CIA never released actual top speed of SR-71!
Nguyễn Hải Dương you trying to TEST the USA might? Come on now! Educate yourself.
@Nguyễn Hải Dương when was the missile invented?
@@Zraeicro Their development was back in the late 80s.
I thought I was being rickrolled at 7:02
Me too...
so true xD
Tom M what lmfao
dammit Mustard!
Never going to give you up!
Excellent video, thank you. I was a bit surprised you did not mention Kelly Johnson. Almost every video about the SR-71 tips their hat to him.
If you ever have the chance to see one in person, please take it, they are truly something special to behold. Mustard put it perfectly, somehow this 60 year old plane still looks like it landed from the future!
I already know every single detail, story, fact, etc about this amazing plane.. but I'm gonna watch and thumbs up anyhow because the uploader obviously has good taste.
Chuck Keough Wasnt there one about the Swedish airforce locking on to it?
You can't even manage to put together a model airplane... Suck it, hater.
Chuck Keough What?
Reply to ETM Nation.
Chuck Keough ah.
This channel is AWESOME! YOu should definitely keep making videos and GL for your future (I'm subscribing!!).
At 7:07 I thought it was a rickroll
me too
Fun fact, the rivets in all of these aircrafts where never tightened, this was because it went so fast, that it tightened them itself, it went so fast that if the rivets where tightened it would fall apart
Mustard is tops the best youtube and animator out there
Just John yes
I'm not a big plane person myself. I hardly know anything about plane specs and what not.
But the SR-71 has easily taken the spot of my favorite aircraft ever built. In one game I play, it's an extremely rare find but is top tier for surveillance missions, and even emulates Ramjet by being more efficient at full speed with Burners on
Just found your channel thru yt's algorithm. You've got a very interesting niche here. Subscribed
My first introduction to Blackbird was through - Call of Duty: Black Ops
Black ops 1 has the best cod campaign easily
@@CoolDrifty nah try the new Mw
@@dialexobsoletenose1428 Heard it was trash and lazily written
@@CoolDrifty the exact opposite
@@CoolDrifty The new COD did not hold back wth the campaign
I’ve heard this story hundreds of times and read/watched a loooot of informations about the SR-71 but it’s always a pleasure to hear about it once more!! Particularly with those great animations!! Congratulations man!! It’s a really great video. Very well done 👌
GDoublecutaway they’re that story that you’re never tired of hearing again and again
Lol
Absolutely love this plane! When I was in grade school, I had a big poster of it on my wall.
Apart from the outdated cockpit, the Blackbird doesn't seem visually "old" in any perceivable way. Truly, an aircraft that was ahead of its time.
You’re videos blow me away every time, even though the sr 71 is talked about a lot this was still fantastic
MEGA NOOB that's true but there's a reason why
MEGA NOOB Your
There a sr-72 in development ( it’s a drone)
@@terrynikolaidis8519 really? they should make a gen 2 blackbird that would be so awsome!
8 Kill Streak
SR-71 Blackbird
Ah i miss Black Ops 1
"Enemy SR-71 online"
Me: *;-;*
Bo1 was the best duel phyton guns as well
aviation questions be like:
Q: How do you not get hit by a tracking missile?
A: Go faster and higher then the missile
My great uncle was on the engineering and design teams for Archangel and the Blackbird. He loved to talk about what a nightmare this thing was to build.
and?
Its been so long!!!! Great to see another quality video! Thanks Mustard 👍
The Blackbird is a forerunner of the F117, B2, F22 and F35. I've always loved the SR71 even when I was a child. Such a beautiful plane waaaaay ahead of its time.
The fact its a forerunner for the f117, f22 and f35 isnt that ground breaking to say, their all made by lockheed 😂😂😂😂😂