[Milsurplus] U-2 and SR-71A
Howard L Ritter, Jr
[email protected]
Mon, 27 Jan 2003 16:15:33 -0500
The SR-71A Blackbird is a dramatic, beautiful, and magnificent aircraft =
and
a real credit to Kelly Johnson and the Lockheed "Skunkworks", just like =
its
predecessor the U-2. However, it is a fantastically expensive and
labor-intensive beast to operate, and its only advantage over the U-2 is
that it's as fast as a scalded cat (several multiples of Mach 1) and can
cruise a little higher (80,000 ft). The U-2 is on a Sunday drive in the
country(70,000 ft above it) by comparison, and that can be a =
disadvantage
(depending on the technological prowess of the guys on the ground whose
photos are being snapped!) For high-altitude missions over friendly
territory (e.g., S. Korea) bordering hostile territory, ability to =
outrun
and outclimb unfriendly fighters and missiles isn't normally an =
advantage. I
don't think the surveillance capabilities per se of the U-2 are inferior =
to
those of the Blackbird. The need for the SR-71's capabilities declined =
with
the number of hostile and technologically capable states, it became too
expensive to justify continuing to operate, and it was deactivated =
(twice,
actually: in 1990 and again in 1997 after a 2-year resurrection).
Still, there will continue to be SOME situations where it would be nice =
to
have the old girl, and lots of us former USAF types regret its =
mothballing.
Come see both aircraft (as well as the the YF-12A, the prototype =
interceptor
from which the Blackbird was derived) at the USAF Museum at Wright-Pat =
AFB
outside Dayton ( http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/modern_flight/mf35.htm )
next time you come to the Hamfest!
--howard n7exn
colonel usaf mc (ret)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Foley" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] CLASSIFIED: U-2 Cockpit Photo!
> Would someone please explain to me why we use an early
> '50's airplane for this mission instead of the '60's
> version, the SR-71's?
>
> Was it TOO good? Did it give us too much of an
> advantage?
>
> TOO BAD!!
>
> Joe
--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
text/plain (text body -- kept)
text/html
The reason this message is shown is because the post was in HTML
or had an attachment. Attachments are not allowed. To learn how
to post in Plain-Text go to: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html ---