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From: hogg@db.toronto.edu (John Hogg)
Subject: Re: SR71 to be retired October 1st, rumors regarding SR-71
Message-ID: <89Mar17.110921est.9394@ois.db.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <524@gonzo.UUCP> <1475@petsd.UUCP> <13987@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> <976@nbife.NBI.COM> <1993NU052179@NDSUVM1> <320@carroll1.UUCP> <278@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> <1596@csd4.milw.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 89 11:09:07 EST

In article <1596@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> roberts@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Timothy P. P. Roberts) writes:
>Gentlemen,
>	I am not a hater of Soviets nor Communist Chinese but I do Believe in
>discipline and state secrets...
>   ...Think twice if you were ground crew or involved with the SR-71 program
>before you set us straight about our whimsicle rumors.  This aircraft is for
>recon and thus a military man with constant exposure to it might forget
>that what he knows, he knows because at one time someone thought he wasn't a
>risk. Don't throw away your secret status by foolishly blabbing on the network.
>	Now, I am not directing this at any indiviual that has already posted
>something, I think, but don't prove me wrong.  Practice thought before speech.

Apart from the various errors, I haven't seen any data here that
didn't appear in AW&ST *many* years ago.  (I'm sure that Henry Spencer
could give us the exact volume and number.) Your dictum has certainly
been followed.  Military secrets should remain secrets.  Military
common knowledge is another matter, though, and Aviation Week has
scooped all posters to date---except, perhaps, for the most interesting
and imaginative ones.

    Did you know that radiative cooling is insufficient at the SR-71's
    top speed of Mach 7?  It must be supplemented by evaporative
    cooling.  JP-7 is released along the leading edges of the wings,
    and boils off as it streams back.  This, of course, drastically
    reduces the Blackbird's flat-out range, and the recon bird must be
    accompanied by a SK-71 tanker for supersonic refuelling.  When the
    B-2 was rolled out, its leading edge was covered.  That was to
    conceal an advanced version of the same principle, which uses a
    mixture of JP-4 and LOX for added cooling.

Take it from me---I maintain all the Department's SR-71s, and CSIS has
never refused me a security clearance...
-- 
John Hogg			hogg@csri.utoronto.ca
Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto