
Surviving in-flight breakup of an SR-71 Blackbird at Mach 3.18 - mike_esspe
http://books.google.com/books?id=rvT4HJkpfM4C&lpg=PA43&ots=c4VsxDU5z1&dq=Jim%20Zwayer%2C%20a%20Lockheed%20flight-test%20specialist%2C%20and%20I%20were%20evaluating%20systems&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q=Jim%20Zwayer,%20a%20Lockheed%20flight-test%20specialist,%20and%20I%20were%20evaluating%20systems&f=false
======
Wingman4l7
Non-Google-Books versions:

Test pilot Bill Weaver's personal account _(exact same text)_ \--
<http://www.barthworks.com/aviation/sr71breakup.htm>

Very similar 3rd-person account --
[http://www.thexhunters.com/xpeditions/sr-71a_952_accident.ht...](http://www.thexhunters.com/xpeditions/sr-71a_952_accident.html)

------
fleitz
A little more mundane and uplifting SR-71 story about a ground speed check.

[https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/rec.avia...](https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/rec.aviation.stories/ueI6JKeEomo)

~~~
fossuser
Here's a similar story, but about "What was the slowest you ever flew in the
Blackbird?"

<http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/speed-is-life.html>

------
johndbritton
"As an outgrowth of Bill Weaver's inability to see out of his faceplate from
the ice buildup, futre SR-71 ejection seats incorporated a battery pack that
continued to keep the glass faceplate heated during the frigid descent."

The amount of engineering and refinement that goes into these safety systems
really amazes me. They learn from everything in aviation and put it to good
use.

~~~
Tichy
Then again, they had a brilliantly working "don't panic" mechanism built in
:-)

~~~
minimax
I think the technical term would be "super-chromatic peril sensitive
faceplate."

------
InclinedPlane
Some other interesting moments of aeronautical derring-do:

Imagine piloting an unpowered aircraft with no wings which could best be
described as a "flying bathtub" and by "flying" what is meant is "falling".
This is the M2-F{1,2,3}, designed to test lifting body aerodynamics and
unpowered landings, much of this research helped in the design of the shuttle
orbiter. But in 1967 pilot Bruce Peterson was involved in a spectacular crash
that was later used in the opening of the TV show The Six Million Dollar Man,
he survived: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jvGJhJINlc>

Also consider the X-15. Unlike the SR-71 the X-15 didn't cruise around at high
speeds it just accelerated to very high speeds using a rocket engine and then
glided. These aircraft, dropped off the wing of a B-52, these aircraft would
eventually travel up to nearly mach 7 and over 100 km altitude.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15>

Also it's worth considering that the Space Ship One rocket powered sub-orbital
space plane gets up to around mach 3 on ascent:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne>

Or, consider the Apollo 10 spacecraft, which reentered the Earth's atmosphere
at a speed of nearly 40,000 kph after returning from the moon (over ten times
the highest recorded speed of the SR-71).

------
001sky
Amazing reading this. Especially his thought process. After he comes out of
"blackout", he goes right to work running a checklist and taking inventory of
his assets. The part about the seatbelts, in this context, is a priceless
example of how to keep your cool. Sometimes you don't want to know or need to
know everything.

------
incision
I own a print copy of this book, it's good stuff.

I picked it up soon after reading Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years
of Lockheed [1], an incredible book which recounts development of the U2,
SR-71 and F-117A.

1: <http://amzn.com/0316743003>

~~~
3amOpsGuy
Skunk Works is a great read. It's enlightening how advanced these guys were in
the 60's, I tend to think of the 80s and 90s as being the time when we raced
forward technically but it was probably the 60s and 70s were the fastest pace.

~~~
incision
Absolutely, I found it incredibly inspirational to read about those guys
riding the bleeding edge of technology - inventing and adapting as they went
along.

They basically built something from the future.

~~~
chernevik
With a native grasp of aero / astro, can't imagine they had a lot of CAD or
simulation horsepower. I have to think its a great story of fundament mastery.

~~~
justin66
As Ben Rich describes in Skunk Works, the SR-71 was designed using slide rules
and drafting instruments and tested in a wind tunnel that could only run at
night because of how much energy it used. IIRC it was the early stealth stuff
(an SR-71 launched drone and then the F-117) that ushered in the use of
computers.

~~~
001sky
Also amazing, was the materials engineering. SR71 ushered in the use of
widespread Titanium in the airframe, which was needed to stand up to the heat
(friction) at Mach 3+. Because of the severe heat-cycling, the engineers
ultimately figured out an unorthodox solution to manage thermal expansion:

 _The fuselage panels were manufactured to fit only loosely on the ground.
Proper alignment was only achieved when the airframe heated up and expanded
several inches. Because of this, and the lack of a fuel sealing system that
could handle the thermal expansion of the airframe at extreme temperatures,
the aircraft would leak JP-7 jet fuel on the runway. At the beginning of each
mission, the aircraft would make a short sprint after takeoff to warm up the
airframe, then refuel before heading off to its destination._

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird#Airfra...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird#Airframe)

------
sylvinus
He mentions that it was his "first ever parachute landing", but I can't
imagine a SR-71 test pilot wouldn't have been trained in parachute landings.
Any idea why?

~~~
liotier
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTvB5AE6HlE> describes "Aircraft Ejection &
Parachute Training, ADC Life Support Training School, 1968, US Air Force" - so
we can infer that since ejection and parachute training did happen in times
contemporary to this account, and since test pilot is a high risk activity
(especially back in the time when test pilots were actually pushing the flight
envelope instead of just validating numerical models), the author did receive
that training.

But even for test pilots, ejection is a rare and traumatic event : finding
oneself landing with no injury at all after a high speed ejection is very
lucky - the design of the B-58, XB-70, F-111, Space Shuttle and some of the
B-1A prototypes with an escape crew capsule is a consequence of that, though
it seems that the weight and space tradeoff has fallen out of favor. Apart
from speed, the mere impact of the charge that propels the seat is enough to
cause spinal injury, even if the pilot managed to get his spine in perfectly
upright position before ejecting.

~~~
shin_lao
Actually, I think today's procedure is that a pilot is retired after two
ejections because of the induced trauma.

------
DiabloD3
Anyone who has flown in a SR-71 is certified to have brass balls.

------
sondh
This is interesting for so many reasons, very good book (both in stories and
writing). The most useful bit probably when he explained why the suit
inflated, exactly like the way Baumgartner's balloon inflated earlier today
when it reached the upper atmosphere.

------
Gravityloss
Here's a video of another high speed Blackbird breakup, from a D-21 drone
release:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMyC2urCl_4>

The debris just keeps on going because of the huge momentum and thin air at
those speeds and altitudes.

------
wazoox
If you like this sort of books, don't forget to check "X-15; extending the
frontier of flight": <http://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/aero_x15_detail.html>

------
snogglethorpe
This appears to be the best book ever written. oO;

------
bigthingnext
The "skunkworks" is one of my favorite concepts. Look at what they were able
to achieve. Truly amazing.

------
electic
An amazing story.

