Blackbirds from the skunk works

. Development Projects area of * Lockheed-California in Burbank is a black-and-white mat that does not spell out the traditional "welcome;" instead, it gives the department its nickname of the "Skunk Works." From this organization has come the series of aircraft known colloquially as the "Blackbirds" because of their sooty colouring: the A-ll, YF-12 and SR-71, which were the first aeroplanes capable of sustained Mach 3 cruising flight above 80,000ft altitude. (The world records set by the YF-12A on May 1, 1965, for a straight-line speed of 2,070-102 m.p.h., and for a-sustained altitude of 80,257-91ft, still stand.) It was in the early 1960s that the Skunk Works was given the task of developing an advanced intercepter for the US Air Force. Power was to be provided by two Pratt & Whitney J58 afterburning engines, and the Hughes

D A V I D GODFREY

T THE ENTRANCE to the Advanced

AN/ASG-18 pulse-Doppler fire-control system was to be used, with internal stowage for eight Hughes GAR-9 Falcon air-to-air missiles (later redesignated the AIM-47A). The ASG-18 system had been developed for the (subsequently cancelled) North American F-108 intercepter, and was later to form the basis of the AIM-54A Phoenix system for the US Navy's F-111B and its successor the Grumman F-14A Tomcat. With the Falcon missile, the fire-control system had been tested on a General Dynamics B-58 Hustler.
Blackbird aerodynamics

The SR-71/YF-12 configuration is that of a modified, tailless delta with wing roots extended forward along the fuselage sides in the form of chines blended with the basic fuselage body. The wing has a leading-edge sweepback of about 60 and a trailingedge sweepforward of 10; a nominal area of 1,800 sq ft, 167m2; and a span The Lockheed YF-12 air defence fighter (left) of 55ft 7in, 16 -95m. The very thin compared with the SR-71 (right), for strategic wing is mid-set and has a small reconnaissance. Though the first-named flewnegative angle of incidence. Overall 12 years ago, the two aircraft remain among length of the aircraft is 117ft 5in, the most guarded of America's military types. 32-74m. The long chines or fuselage strokes, are The blended wing/body design of prominent, though cut back in the YF-12 on account of equipment considerations. The the Blackbird configuration has hiscanted fins, small chines outboard of the engine torical origins in the theories of the Russian engineer Woyevodsky. His nacelles, and delta wing with trailing-edge cutaways and conical camber on the leading ideas were tested in a wind tunnel and edge, are noteworthy incorporated in the abortive Westland

Dreadnought of 1923; resurrected in the Miles X transport project of 1938; and flownin somewhat technically degraded form, since the wings were not deep enough to bury the engines inin the Miles M.30 X Minor of 1942. The chined forebody of the YF-12C and the SR-71 is about 40 per cent of the aircraft length and, with the highly swept delta-wing planform, the chines have a significant effect on both longitudinal and directional static stability. A characteristic of delta wings is the large rearward shift in aerodynamic centre which occurs when the aircraft passes through the transonic regime. If a safe margin of static stability were provided for subsonic flight, a large marginand, therefore, high trim dragwould exist in supersonic cruise. The forebody chines are very effective in reducing this problem, acting as a very low-aspect-ratio wing which produces lift as a function of the square of the angle of attack, and becoming 'more effective with increasing Mach 'number. The long moment arm of the I forebody to the centre of gravity, ^combined with this lifting function, makes the chines effective destabil i s e s where they are needed mostat high Mach numbers. Similar chines are found on the Northrop P.530 Cobra and YF-17