Incredibly Secret and Extremely Fast

the lockheed sr-71 blackbird remains the world's fastest jet propelled aircraft of all time built in the early 1960s it was able to reach speeds of mach 3.3 at over 90 000 feet if missiles were launched at it the blackbird simply outflew them that's how fast it was in its three decade history with over 2 800 hours of flight time the blackbird flew covert operations over communist skies to gather classified information it was the perfect reconnaissance aircraft still its development was surrounded by secrecy and controversies that only increased the public's interest and the us government continually tried to keep classified information from reaching the soviets with middling success the lockheed sr-71 ultimately embodied the pinnacle of aviation technology during the cold war and its unmatched speed state-of-the-art technology and effective performance elevated it to legendary status a desperate requirement in the aftermath of world war ii the soviet union took over most of eastern europe and gave birth to the invisible border that would later be called the iron curtain with tensions quickly rising between the united states and communist russia in the early 1950s after the outbreak of the korean war and the escalation of the french conflict in vietnam the american government became concerned about soviet military deployments worldwide [Music] the iron curtain was impregnable and gathering information from spies was a risky proposal and hard to achieve the united states required immediate access to the latest news about soviet plans in order to counter attack effectively designer kelly johnson from lockheed skunk works developed the u2 dragon lady to fulfill the desperate requests of the cia for a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft [Music] the u2 spy plane was introduced in 1955 with great success it could fly at 70 thousand feet under any weather conditions to gather intelligence of utmost importance nonetheless as the years passed one of the dragon lady's disadvantages became a real problem for the us air force its low speed made it extremely vulnerable to soviet aircraft interceptors and the newest surface-to-air missiles flying over soviet-controlled territories became a dangerous task for american u-2 pilots this led the cia to ask lockheed to develop another reconnaissance aircraft that could avoid the latest missile systems and aircraft project archangel in 1958 johnson began working on the top secret program called project archangel after studying several airframe designs to build an aircraft that would be almost undetectable to radars the cia awarded a 96 million dollar contract to skunk works in february of 1960. the request was to develop 12 spy planes that would go under the code name a12 work on the program was accelerated after a u2 spy plane was shot down by soviet air defenses in may during a reconnaissance mission deep inside soviet territory pilot gary powers survived the crash and was taken prisoner by the kgb the incident was an embarrassment for the united states and forced the government to acknowledge that they were spying on the soviet union lockheed a12 flew for the first time in april of 1962 at groom lake area 51 in nevada the aircraft was capable of mach 3 speeds above 60 000 feet and had a unique design that was favored by a small radar cross section according to the smithsonian air and space museum quote lockheed engineers overcame many daunting technical challenges flying more than three times the speed of sound generates 600 degree fahrenheit temperatures on external aircraft surfaces which are enough to melt conventional aluminum airframes the design team chose to make the jet's external skin out of titanium alloy which shielded the internal aluminum airframe as there was a shortage of titanium in the us skunkworks had to acquire it through third world countries that brought it to the soviet union in addition johnson shaped the airframe to reflect little to no radio waves and keep a low profile a special stealth paint was applied to the airframe to make it undetectable the military and the cia did everything they could to hide the classified project archangel from the public and the press but it proved impossible engineers and managers related to specific components of the secret aircraft began to speculate about the overall project's intentions and rumors started to circulate that the cia was involved in a secret aircraft on may 24th 1963 an a-12 crashed in a desolate location of utah the pilot survived but the crash was witnessed by a deputy and a family that took photos [Music] the cia showed up confiscated the camera and asked them not to talk about the incident where there would be consequences as an added incentive both the family and the deputy were given twenty five thousand dollars to stay quiet still word got around and the associated press was forced to report that the crash involved an f-105 thunder chief jet trainer but eyewitnesses kept talking about the cia's involvement in a secret project and some went on to say that they had spotted ufos and aliens the agency and the air force did not mind the stories as they helped cover up the reality [Music] the project archangel and a12 would not stay hidden for long president lyndon johnson revealed the existence of the classified aircraft to the press on july 25th 1964 to counter the criticism that he was receiving for being one step behind the soviet union the world's fastest aircraft was no longer a secret [Music] sr-71 blackbird [Music] the a12 flew over vietnam north korea and the soviet union before it was retired in 1968. throughout these years skunk works and johnson kept making improvements to make the a12 more reliable the us air force suggested an a12 that could be configured to conduct post nuclear strike reconnaissance and one of the proposed versions eventually evolved into the sr-71 blackbird the sr-71 designation was a continuation of the 1960s bomber series of which the xb70 valkyrie was the last sr stood for strategic reconnaissance as air force legend and chief of staff general curtis lemay suggested meanwhile the blackbird nickname was related to the special black paint covering the entire aircraft to absorb radar signals radiate the heat generated by friction and camouflage the aircraft at high altitudes [Music] the red stripes and the fuselage were used to prevent maintenance personnel from damaging the center of the airframe which was delicate and lacked interior support in addition a windscreen made of quartz fused ultrasonically to the titanium frame was required in the cockpit to protect the crew the aircraft's temperature reached up to 600 degrees fahrenheit and cooling was achieved by cycling fuel behind the titanium surfaces in the shines [Music] the air and space museum specifies that quote as velocity decreased so did frictional heat this cooling effect caused the aircraft's skin panels to shrink considerably and those covering the fuel tanks contracted so much that fuel leaked forming a distinctive vapor trail as the tanker topped off the blackbird like the a12 the sr-71 was designed to fly at mach 3.3 speeds at over 85 000 feet these incredible speeds were possible thanks to the pratt whitney j-58 engines able to operate non-stop and afterburner the aircraft featured space for two crewmen a pilot and a reconnaissance systems officer both had to wear pressure suits to protect them from cabinet pressure loss while flying at high altitudes this way the pilot would be focused on flying while the reconnaissance officer operated a state-of-the-art electronic countermeasure system that could jam radars the recon officer also had high resolution cameras and advanced equipment at his disposal that could record the frequency and wavelength signals emitted by command sensor devices a cold war legend the blackbird commenced operations in 1968 the first batch of sr-71s arrived at the kadena air base in okinawa to conduct reconnaissance missions over north vietnam and north korea the u.s air force flew each blackbird once a week before they were grounded for maintenance by 1972 the average sortie had catapulted to one per day over a thousand vietcong surface-to-air missiles were fired against blackbirds but none ever scored a hit only two aircraft were lost but it was due to mechanical failures when the war in vietnam ended the blackbirds were dispatched to europe they were launched from royal air force bases to monitor soviet movements in eastern europe sr-71s also provided vital information to the israeli army when it invaded lebanon during the yom kippur war in 1973. during the 80s blackbirds became essential in the american involvement in libya and the localization of iranian silkworm missile batteries in the persian gulf but the air force eventually lost interest in the sr-71 with the development of satellite surveillance systems that monitored entire continents the program was expensive to maintain and after discussing it with congress the sr-71 was retired in 1989 just before the gulf war began one of the reasons that justified this retirement was the time-consuming process of retrieving the data collected by the sr-71 as it lacked a data link radar and image data collected by the blackbird had to wait to be retrieved until the aircraft returned to base the lack of real-time capabilities to access the information was a disadvantage that the us could no longer afford in the 1990s however the blackbird would come back to action in 1993 following the rising tensions between north korea and the middle east but it was a temporary operation while the us looked for a replacement the sr-71 would continue to fly across the globe until 1998 while the first unmanned aerial vehicles were being developed however nasa kept using two blackbirds for additional research until 1999. they're held at dryden flight research center while numerous blackbirds can be appreciated in museums across the united states according to some military analysts the successor to the blackbird is being developed by skunk works it is supposedly codenamed sr-72 thank you for watching our video don't forget to subscribe to our dark documentaries channels and let us know your thoughts in the comments below on the unique technological innovations of the legendary sr-71 blackbird

Channel: Dark Skies

Views: 229,251

Rating: 4.9612203 out of 5

Keywords: aviation, airplanes, aircraft, air force, history, documentary, history channel, documentary channel, dark docs, dark skies, secret, sr71, sr-71

Id: dzJRDgilm7k

Length: 11min 56sec (716 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021