SR - 71

«a good landing is when you can walk away from your plane, a really great landing is
when you can use the plane again»
 …Everything began with the U 2 incident…

In 1960, the U2 american spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defences Forces, his pilot,
Francis Gary Powers, was captured and sentenced to three years imprisonment and seven years of
hard labor. This caused a huge embarrassment to the president Heisenower, especially in the
middle of a cold war! That’s why he ordered to build the best bestissimo plane ever built.
 18 months later….
 25,900 meters
 No weapons on the airplane
 In 26 years no areplane was shut down
 Ca. 3200 km/h
 92% titanium (super difficult to forge)
 Only 50 planes, from which only 35
useful for reiconneissance
 Mach 3.2

 Between 25 and 27 tons – empty
 61 – 63 with the fuel
 8200kg of fuel – this fast you need an aerial
re-feueling 2-5 times each mission (the
longest lasted 11,2h)
 Outer temperature could reach more the
300°C, at the back of the engine it was
649°C, that’s the only reason why it
couldn’t have been faster
 At this temperature the titanium expands
more than 15cm



 92 % Titanium – CIA purchased it creating
a ghost company to buy it from the
world largest supplier: URSS
 Stealth technology
 Only 158 aviators have qualified to drive
the SR 71
 Why Black?
 Powered by Pratt and Whitney J58 turbojet
 that could provide only 17,6% of the thrust
necessary to reach Mach 3,2
 It uses a Ram jet, turning the fast air into
high density air, and using the air
compressed to activate the combustion
BUT the engine can’t start with air at 0
speed
 Hybrid of a conventional jet engine and a
ramjet
 …SR-72?
Now in development, could be able to travel up to Mach 6, first test planned in 2023