
Blackbird SR-71 Flight Manual (2010) - hazzamanic
https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/manual/
======
ColinWright
A comment[0] by ehnus[1] from last time this was submitted[2] said:

> _My favorite section is emergency procedures which contains gems like this:_

> _" If both the A and B hydraulic systems fail as indicated by illumination
> of the A HYD and B HYD warning lights and confirmed by loss of A and B
> hydraulic pressure and deteriorating control effectiveness:_

> _1\. Eject "_

========

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1338777](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1338777)

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ehnus](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ehnus)

[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1338504](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1338504)

~~~
danaliv
I flew an L-39 with inoperative ejection rockets. The bailout procedure was:

1\. Roll inverted.

2\. Trim full nose down. (Down = skyward at this point.)

3\. Blow canopy.

4\. Fall out.

~~~
kbenson
So... What do you suppose the chance is you would have hit the tail fin?

~~~
danaliv
Less than the chance of the original emergency killing you!

That’s what the full trim is for. It makes the aircraft pitch away once you
let go of the stick.

------
adolph
No Blackbird post is complete without a link to the Speed Check story:

[https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Stories/speed-
chec...](https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Stories/speed-check)

 _It all had lasted for just moments, but in that short, memorable sprint
across the southwest, the Navy had been flamed, all mortal airplanes on freq
were forced to bow before the King of Speed, and more importantly, Walter and
I had crossed the threshold of being a crew._

~~~
nominatronic
Executive summary:

Cessna: How fast.

Tower: 6

Beechcraft: How fast

Tower: 8

Hornet: Yo how fast bro

Tower: Eh, 30

Sled: mfw

Sled: How fast sir

Tower: Like 9000

Sled: More like 9001 amirite.

Tower: ayyyyy

Sled: ayyyyy

~~~
linsomniac
Yes, but the telling is well worth listening to, as are his longer speeches.
Including this gem: Navy pilots: "What did YOU do today?" Sled pilots:
"Nebraska in 4.5 minutes, which is the best way to do Nebraska."

------
codr7
I once got around two thirds through a certificate for flying ultralight
planes. It sort of stopped making sense to me when we were practicing
emergency landings over forest and I was told to aim for trees with thinner
trunks.

This is sitting inside a cramped metal can with the engine in your lap and
propeller in your face. There are so many ways to die in that situation that
focusing on the diameter of tree trunks was just too much for me.

~~~
duxup
I would think you'd want a good clump of green tree canopy to hopefully take
the impact "slowly" and stop the plane without the sudden smashing associated
with crashing.

Such as:

[http://www.fox5ny.com/news/plane-stuck-in-tree-
idaho](http://www.fox5ny.com/news/plane-stuck-in-tree-idaho)

~~~
acid__
Perhaps the smaller trees would be more likely to bend/snap, absorbing more
energy

~~~
duxup
1\. Scout out some good softwood.

------
zackbloom
Skunkworks [1] is a really great book by the designer of the propulsion system
(and subsequently the first stealth airplane). I highly recommend it to anyone
who wants to know how many drill bits you burn through trying to build a
titanium airplane.

1- [https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/skunk-works_ben-r-rich_leo-
jan...](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/skunk-works_ben-r-rich_leo-
janos/250049/)

~~~
alex_suzuki
I‘d like to second that recommendation. The book certainly won‘t win any
literature prizes, but it does tell a fascinating story and gives a glimpse
into the „wild west“ engineering culture that created the Blackbird.

~~~
hef19898
Skunkworks _is_ a legend in aerospace, and rightly so. Shows what's possible
if give brilliant people a common goal, some resources and leave them
otherwise alone. The fact that the F-117 was developed in time and within
budget says a lot. As usual nobody drew the right lessons from it.

I got my fingers on a report about the F-16 development from the eighties from
the budget office. Funny to read it, especially the questioning of staggering
spare part needs today when you know that Skunkworks "sourced" the F-117
material from the F-16 and F-15 programs.

------
jedberg
The maintenance manual is a fun read too. A lot of the repair procedures end
with PTF.

That means “Pound to Fit” (with a hammer or mallet). The panels flexed so much
that they would come back a different shape than they were manufactured and
had to be hammered into place.

~~~
alexis_fr
Why were instruments (instruments? or panels?) so flexible? Was ut to sustain
altitude, pressure, G and speed?

~~~
bojo
If I recall correctly the plane was built to stretch at high speeds, so the
panels were designed to be loose, and the plane would leak a lot of fuel until
it reached optimal speeds.

~~~
kmstout
Q: How do you know there's fuel in the Blackbird?

A: It's leaking.

~~~
hef19898
Same goes for oil in old Land Rovers!

------
dmix
There's a video walking you through the SR-71's cockpit which I found really
interesting:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj9UwKQKE3A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj9UwKQKE3A)

~~~
oconnor663
13m04s: "Some guys were getting bank angles up around 60 degrees of bank at
mach 3 and it just, uh, that's not good. Come very very close to losing the
airplane." [He then proceeds to talk about a lamp.]

------
danburbridge
Thread needs a link to this great story about the sr71's slowest speed :
[https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-sr-71-blackbirds-
most-...](https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-sr-71-blackbirds-most-
spectacular-flyover-was-also-1719654907)

------
cyberferret
For some not so heavy reading for SR-71 enthusiasts, I highly recommend Brian
Shul's book "Sled Driver". They are out of print now I believe, and I've seen
them on eBay for about $3000 at one stage, but I think they are more generally
available at reasonable prices now second hand. I was lucky enough to be given
a copy as a gift by a friend a couple of decades ago.

Beautiful book with amazing pictures and stories by a long time SR-71 pilot. A
lot of the 'urban legend' stories going around about the Blackbird come from
that book.

"Skunk Works", as mentioned by other posters here is also a good read.

------
Tempest1981
Chart of speed vs altitude:

[https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/manual/5/5-9.php](https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/manual/5/5-9.php)

~~~
fladrif
Does anyone know what the break in the Minimum Airspeed Restriction at Mach 1
is about?

~~~
t0mas88
Yes, Google for "Mcrit" or critical Mach number. It's the free stream airspeed
at which any part of the airflow over the aircraft first becomes sonic.
Usually the inner part of the wings near the root, the thickest section.

Airliners have the same but it happens below M1.0 because of the thicker
wings. And it causes a much bigger change in drag and lift compared to an
aircraft capable of super sonic flight, enough to make it impossible to take
an airliner super sonic without losing longitudinal control and crashing.

------
DalekBaldwin
I once took a filmmaking class from Robert Mehnert who directed a documentary
about the SR-71 at a time when its production was at risk of being
discontinued. At first only a few hundred people in Congress saw it, but based
on the size of the order for new planes, he called the highest-grossing
opening weekend of all time. (I haven't been able to find the film online
anywhere.)

~~~
PappaPatat
I tried too, but since the documentary is simply called "SR-71 Blackbird", it
makes it hard. The subtitle "To keep the peace they fly alone... unarmed...
into the unknown" ist cool but yields one result: an auction of the movie
poster [0]

In turn, the movie poster however let me to a reverence to the movie in the
book "SR-71 revealed the inside story" by Richard H. Graham, Col. USAF (Ret).

0:
[http://auctions.emovieposter.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detai...](http://auctions.emovieposter.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detail&Auction_uid1=5161625)

------
samstave
I liked

 __ _" Maximum altitude is 85,000 feet. Do not fly over 85,000 feet unless you
have prior authorization"_ __

 __ _" No turns are allowed over 70,000 feet. Descend 2,000 feet prior to
making any turns is recommended"_ __

~~~
CamperBob2
"The ANS is an inertial navigation system employing a star tracker to
eliminate gyro drift and to limit position error."

Not your run-of-the-mill airplane, that's for sure...

------
collinf
Posting this here hoping that someone with more knowledge can enlighten me
about this. After going down a bit of the rabbit hole, I see that the SR-71's
first flight was in 1964. It has held the record for fastest air-breathing
manned aircraft[0] since 1976. What is the reason that given all of the
technological advances that record hasn't been broken?

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_airspeed_record](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_airspeed_record)

~~~
VLM
No one has answered why; only answers have been "no marketable product".

There are several technical reasons why, none of which have been been subject
to any technological advances in half a century.

1) There's a buffer factor where burning fuel adds a thousand degrees (or
whatever) to temp of the air in the engine and steel / titanium / classified
will melt several hundreds of degrees above that. Most all jet engines can
only work with subsonic airflow. Supersonic aircraft use exotic inlet designs
that are inefficient but can convert fast air into very hot compressed air.
Somewhere around mach 2 to mach 4 the inlet air temp plus the heat of burning
fuel will melt any metal turbine blade. You can pay a lot of money to get a
couple mach numbers but fundamentally cheap steel gets you mach 2 and price is
no object aerospace material tops out in the mid mach 3 range. True lab
experimental materials might survive mach 4 temps, maybe. You just can't get a
usable thrust to weight ratio inlet design that works above mach 4 or so.

2) Second aerodynamic problem is if you define "fly" as a lift to drag ratio
better than a lawn dart, optimizing wing sweep etc for mach 3+ means its a
truly awful performer below 5000 feet or so. Its hard to make an aircraft that
actually "flies" above mach 4. Space shuttle L/D ratio was around or below
1:1. Essentially things flying thru the air above mach 4 don't fly in the
sense of wings producing lift, they're ballistic trajectory like a missile or
bullet, don't bother slapping wings on them.

None of the above can be solved with faster computer cycles. Titanium still
melts at the same temp, etc.

~~~
Gravityloss
There are relatively simple ramjets that fly at around Mach 4 speeds. They are
unmanned and are accelerated to speed by solid rockets. Probably the ramjet
can't even start below Mach 1 or so.

Designing an air breathing propulsion system for a wide speed range is
difficult.

Rockets are much easier after a certain point. McDonnell Douglas and Paul
Czysz had interesting projects. If you want manned reconnaissance, a Mach 6
air launched liquid rocket powered lifting body would probably be the next
logical step from the Blackbird and would not even be super hard. With rockets
you don't have the inlet problem at all and they have excellent thrust to
weight ratio.

------
fauria
I recently saw the one exhibited in the Smithsonian National Air and Space
Museum, close to IAD airport: [https://airandspace.si.edu/udvar-hazy-
center](https://airandspace.si.edu/udvar-hazy-center)

It got there from LA, and on it's way set 4 speed records:
[https://airandspace.si.edu/udvar-hazy-
center](https://airandspace.si.edu/udvar-hazy-center)

------
fabiensanglard
I remember being reported that SR-71 missile evasion procedure was simply to
"accelerate and outpace". But I cannot find it in the manual :( !

~~~
iscrewyou
This is what you are looking for: [http://www.onceagreenberet.com/wp-
content/uploads/2008/02/sr...](http://www.onceagreenberet.com/wp-
content/uploads/2008/02/sr71.html)

~~~
apk17
To think of it - I might have heard these two pass by. Not on that flight, but
I lived with my parents in northern germany, not far from the danish border,
and en route from the north to the baltic sea and on to russia. I often heard
the badam, accompanied by a creak of the wooden roof.

------
Theodores
This is a remarkably slow website for such a fast plane.

~~~
bdamm
Appears to be crushed under the load of the flight enthusiasts found on HN.

------
coolspot
Is content of this site a subject of ITAR restrictions?

~~~
starpilot
No, everything about the aircraft is obsolete which is why no other country
has attempted to develop anything similar. The J58's are really dated, though
most of the thrust is generated by the inlets when supersonic.

~~~
rwmj
> most of the thrust is generated by the inlets when supersonic

I've often heard this (also about the bypass in Concorde's engines), but I've
never heard a clear explanation about how some element of an engine which
doesn't involve burning fuel can generate thrust. Can anyone explain it?

~~~
saganus
If I remember correctly, in the book Skunkworks they explain that it would
increase the air pressure. The analogy made was that it was similar to putting
a finger on a garden hose to partially block it, thus increasing the water
pressure.

Obviously there must be some complex physics going on but that was the gist of
it.

Probably someone with more knowledge can confirm or correct me :)

------
PorterDuff
Just to throw my one cent in on these matters.

[http://www.avialogs.com/index.php/en/aircraft/usa/northameri...](http://www.avialogs.com/index.php/en/aircraft/usa/northamericanaviation/xb-70/to-1b-70xa-1-interim-
flight-manual-xb-70a.html)

------
breck
Is there a single page PDF?

~~~
simongr3dal
I've created a pdf based on the available scans I could find on the site.

Added blank pages according to the a, b, and c pages. Added table of contents
for the major sections. Also tried to do some ocr on it, it seems good enough
for searching at least.

[https://bayfiles.com/N9m6nbtfnc/SR-71_Blackbird_Flight_Manua...](https://bayfiles.com/N9m6nbtfnc/SR-71_Blackbird_Flight_Manual_sr-71.org_ocrmypdf_pdf)

~~~
CamperBob2
I hate to sound like a choosy beggar, but any chance of putting it on a less-
skeevy download site?

How about a Dropbox link?

~~~
simongr3dal
Sure thing:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/i5eucyo7gm67bv6/SR-71%20Blackbird%...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/i5eucyo7gm67bv6/SR-71%20Blackbird%20Flight%20Manual%20%28sr-71.org%29%20ocrmypdf.pdf?dl=1)

I don't really use dropbox any more so bayfiles was just the first thing that
came to my mind, it's better than most free file hosting sites (no waiting and
no excessive throttling)

~~~
CamperBob2
Awesome, thanks! That worked.

------
erickhill
In 1990/91 I was stationed at a base that once was a home for the SR-71. By
the time I got there, though, they'd been retired.

Some of the spoken-word mythology that was shared with me by some of the AF
elders:

* Each flight cost about $1M

* The SR-71 was so loud and created such massive sound waves, the crew chiefs had to be really far away from the ship when talking to the pilots inside so that their internal organs wouldn't be damaged...

* The engine cowling of the Blackbird would get so hot that the metal would be slightly transparent, where you could see moving parts _inside_ the engine.

* All of the pilots wore astronaut suits.

Worth noting all the above could be entirely false. But it made a big
impression on me.

~~~
NortySpock
Point 3 goes against normal behavior of hot metals, which emit infrared or
visible light as they get hotter. It's called black-body radiation, and it's
why iron and steel glow in a blacksmith forge.

The "moving parts" may be due to heat waves moving through the air (see also:
mirage at a distance)

~~~
serf
>Point 3 goes against normal behavior of hot metals, which emit infrared or
visible light as they get hotter.

You're right. People refer to it as 'transparent' because it begins to glow
the same color as the jet plume under afterburner use.

[https://gizmodo.com/this-is-an-image-of-the-very-last-
test-o...](https://gizmodo.com/this-is-an-image-of-the-very-last-test-of-the-
pratt-w-1484943138)

------
rajdottoday
Site's crashed apparently, does anyone have a mirror or a PDF?

------
orthoxerox
It is safe to travel to Georgia after having read and downloaded this?

------
SmokeGS
This is one of the reasons I love Hacker News

------
MaupitiBlue
What's the procedure for runaway trim?

------
lostlogin
This thread is lacking the Blackbird ground speed check.
[https://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-
sr-71-story-10791270...](https://oppositelock.kinja.com/favorite-
sr-71-story-1079127041?_gl=1*12qhykb*_ga*YW1wLUR6RjBSdkdUWVJicnBDOFo3UHdrQkx6bUxnclZfX3plYUdNaVZXS0MwTE5HeVRFSm9ISlItX0V3ZV9DbmthOU4).

