#sr-71

SR-71 BLACKBIRD.

The nose is a good spotting feature for identifying the different Blackbird variants. The SR-71 had the wide, full chines extending all the way to the tip of the nose, see above.

The YF-12 interceptor version...

... had the chines cut back to expose the nose fairing containing the Hughes ASG-18 radar/fire control system for the three AGM-47 air-to-air missiles that it carried...

... in bays back in the chines alongside the fuselage core.

The A-12 OXCART version that the CIA operated...

...had narrower chines that ran all the way to a more pointy nose.

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A99a

Woah- you’re in luck! I drew these very recently as practice.

They are a bit wonky… I wanted to purposefully challenge myself by not using any sketch. Full pen head on. And of course, that combined with the fact that these glorious aircrafts are inorganic, very symmetrical and in perspective in most of the reference images makes it way harder. Worth it though!

"A NASA SR-71 successfully completed its first flight October 31, 1997 as part of the NASA/Rocketdyne/Lockheed Martin Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment (LASRE) at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California.

The SR-71 took off at 8:31 a.m. PST. The aircraft flew for one hour and fifty minutes, reaching a maximum speed of Mach 1.2 before landing at Edwards at 10:21 a.m. PST, successfully validating the SR-71/linear aerospike experiment configuration.

The goal of the first flight was to evaluate the aerodynamic characteristics and the handling of the SR-71/linear aerospike experiment configuration. The engine was not fired during the flight."

Date: October 31, 1997

The SR -71 was made of 93% aged titanium and 7% composites. The fins and triangle wedges that framed the aircraft's outer edge were composite construction made from a mixture of asbestos and epoxy. They provided high-temperature radar-absorbent characteristics to reduce the aircraft's radar cross-section. They found that to attach thin, titanium skin to heavier wing structures, simple standoff clips were developed. These provided structural integrity while serving as a heat shield between components with different expansion rates.

According to Wisconsin Metal Tech, the engineers of the SR-71 were among the first people in history to make real use of the material. In that process, they ended up throwing away a lot of material, some through necessity, some through error. At times, the engineers were perplexed about what was causing problems, but thankfully, they documented and cataloged everything, which helped them identify trends in their failures. They discovered that spot-welded parts made in the summer failed very early in their life, whereas those welded in winter were fine. They eventually traced the problem to the Burbank water treatment facility, which adds chlorine to the water used to clean the parts to prevent summer algae blooms but removes it in winter. Since chlorine reacts with titanium, they began using distilled water from this point on.

They discovered that their cadmium-plated tools were leaving trace amounts of cadmium on bolts, which could cause galvanic corrosion and lead to bolt failure. This discovery led to all cadmium tools being removed from the workshop.

Linda Sheffield

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