Lockheed Blackbird Family

Were was the periscope located on the Blackbird and did they have one facing forward on the plane too?

Not even the "trainer" A-12 (#60-6927) had a periscope from what I know... http://www.sr-71.org/photogallery/blackbird/06927/
Don't think any of the Blackbirds had periscopes... TEG

Salute!

Besides the bird cranium's links to the actual folks that flew the jets and designed them and maintained them, you can look at great stuff in the Dash-One.

http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/

I only know two guys that flew the jet, but didn't hear anything about a "periscope".

Gums sends ...

P.S. The RCS of the Blackbird was much lower than most folks realize. Another thing was the fact that a slowly rotating, long-range radar antenna would only see the thing maybe 5 or 6 miles apart between sweeps. So auto-correlation didn't work. A JAX radar operator had a war story when he picked up a Blackbird one night. Don't know why he was using "raw" radar display, but said the blips were at least 6 or 7 miles apart. Estimated groundspeed was about 2400 knots. Ohh baby, ohhh baby!

Brother Gums to the rescue...

...after consulting the proper technical data... The SR-71 and YF-12s had "Rear View Periscopes" that gave some rearward visibility to the pilots in flight.

REF: http://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/yf-12a-1/1/1-113.php

Thanks Gums, why didn't I think of that!?! TEG

It seems that the YF-12 was the only plane to have the rear facing periscopes but it would make more sense even on the Sr-71 for them to be facing forward instead.

How long could the black bird fly at mach 3.3 if the CIT was below 427C. And why didn't they give the Blackbird a forward facing periscope instead?

P.S. The RCS of the Blackbird was much lower than most folks realize.

I own a book, "Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach" by Dr. Daniel P. Raymer, which lists the A-12 as having an RCS of 0.014 square meters, which I find very impressive.

However, that makes me wonder if the USAF has some solid definition of what "low observable" means? Is there some given RCS requirement (i.e. no more than X square meters in such-and-such band radar)? Or is that classified?

So can the SR-71 mach 3.2 without any problems since that was the design mach for the plane? But how long can it maintain mach 3.3 if the CIT were below 427C?

How long could the Blackbird maintain Mach 3.2, and why were they only allowed to go to cruise at mach 3.17?

It seems that the YF-12 was the only plane to have the rear facing periscopes but it would make more sense even on the Sr-71 for them to be facing forward instead.

The Blackbird had decent enough forward vision to fly by - the periscope was installed to permit the crew to check out some areas of the aircraft that were otherwise out of sight. From my memories of SR71- Myths and Legends, which I don't have to hand, I believe this was after an early loss or near loss due to some control surfaces being damaged and the crew being unaware of this fact.

Fitting periscopes to aircraft for this reason isn't uncommon and I believe the Victor, Vulcan and also the Valkyrie were similarly equipped.

The only proposals for aircraft to have forward facing periscopes that I recall were the Thunderwarrior and the British fast bomber proposal - the AVRO 730 in the 1950's - both for similar reasons - the intended cruise speed was too fast for any existing transparent material to survive in flight.

Ian

Yeah but today they have material that can withstand the heat.

[quote="KryptidIs there some given RCS requirement (i.e. no more than X square meters in such-and-such band radar)? Or is that classified?[/quote]

Yes...and yes.

How long can the Blackbird fly at Mach 3.2? Also if they were to put a forward facing periscope today we have transparent material today that can withstand the heat. They probably had the material in the sixties as well too.

Again with this?? "How long can the Blackbird"? Right now a Blackbird can fly precisely 0.00000 minutes at Mach 3.2.

How long can the Blackbird fly at Mach 3.2? Also if they were to put a forward facing periscope today we have transparent material today that can withstand the heat. They probably had the material in the sixties as well too.

How long? As long as there's fuel and lubricants.

Forward facing periscope? What do you gain?