Falling from a SR-71
 

Never heard of this story before.

https://youtu.be/nRyIGTkcmII

Apparently during the testing phase of the SR-71 they were seeing what would happen if there CG was moved father back. They had a engine failure due to an unstart (see the video) and at Mach 3.1 @78k feet and the plane tore itself apart. The pilot survived, the RO did not. Pretty amazing that the pilot survived a catastrophic failure at that altitude.

Great story! I love the SR 71! It said they build 32 and crashed 12 of them. In the last ten or fifteen years I have seen four or five myself. One is near Milton Fla where my son lived for 5 years sitting outside a small museum. You can walk up and touch it as there are no fences.

I wish I would have had a chance to see it fly at one of the various air shows it visited over the years. That would have been a sight to see.

https://youtu.be/aV82gbriMc8

I think the SR71 has an escape capsule, not a simple ejection seat. In any case, when bailing, oxygen goes with you and when at extreme altitudes, parachute opening is delayed until something like 20kft. This gets the escapee into a warmer, breathable atmosphere rapidly as well as slowing him down for a more controlled parachute deployment.

As a guess, I would say terminal velocity at 80kft could be as high as 300mph. USAF Capt. Kittinger who made research jumps from a balloon at 102kft reached a velocity exceeding 600mph. A small drogue parachute was needed for stability until his main chute deployed.

I believe you are thinking of the B-58. It had a pod that encapsulated each crew member.
https://thelexicans.files.wordpress....g?w=480&zoom=2
https://thelexicans.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/the-stanley-b-58-escape-pod/

The SR71 system is just an ejection seat. Per this article, it will work from stand still to max speed. I cannot imagine punching out at mach 3, pressure suit or not.
http://www.quartoknows.com/blog/quar...ction-seat.png
https://www.quartoknows.com/blog/quartodrives/sr-71-flight-ejection-system

Thanks for the correction David.

You're welcome. I have always loved planes, both civilian and military.

The Blackbird and Hustler have always been two of my favorite military airplanes. The Hustler looks so graceful in the air and the Blackbird is just plain bad ass. Standing still or with the afterburners lit with the shock diamonds following it.

They have one at the Pima air museum down in Tucson. Awesome plane indeed.

- Peter.

The blackbird sortof looks like a hustler on steroids.

Brothers from a different mother.

Did a report on the Habu one time.. My favorite aircraft....One pilot said if anything happened with the aircraft,due to the distance the cockpit was from the rest of it all, they were the last ones to know there was a problem.


Cool link:www.habu.org - The Online Blackbird Museum


Anyone remember the aviation soap opera called 'Call to Glory'?