Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird (starboard profile)

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird (starboard profile)

A few nice turning parts manufacturer images I found:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird (starboard profile)

Image by Chris Devers
See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:

No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71, the world’s fastest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments during the Cold War.

This Blackbird accrued about 2,800 hours of flight time during 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its last flight, March 6, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 3,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation

Designer:
Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson

Date:
1964

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
Overall: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (5.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (5.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)

Materials:
Titanium

Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft; airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys; vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-type material) to reduce radar cross-section; Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines feature large inlet shock cones.

Long Description:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71 Blackbird. It is the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird’s performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments during the Cold War. The airplane was conceived when tensions with communist Eastern Europe reached levels approaching a full-blown crisis in the mid-1950s. U.S. military commanders desperately needed accurate assessments of Soviet worldwide military deployments, particularly near the Iron Curtain. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s subsonic U-2 (see NASM collection) reconnaissance aircraft was an able platform but the U. S. Air Force recognized that this relatively slow aircraft was already vulnerable to Soviet interceptors. They also understood that the rapid development of surface-to-air missile systems could put U-2 pilots at grave risk. The danger proved reality when a U-2 was shot down by a surface to air missile over the Soviet Union in 1960.

Lockheed’s first proposal for a new high speed, high altitude, reconnaissance aircraft, to be capable of avoiding interceptors and missiles, centered on a design propelled by liquid hydrogen. This proved to be impracticable because of considerable fuel consumption. Lockheed then reconfigured the design for conventional fuels. This was feasible and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), already flying the Lockheed U-2, issued a production contract for an aircraft designated the A-12. Lockheed’s clandestine ‘Skunk Works’ division (headed by the gifted design engineer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson) designed the A-12 to cruise at Mach 3.2 and fly well above 18,288 m (60,000 feet). To meet these challenging requirements, Lockheed engineers overcame many daunting technical challenges. Flying more than three times the speed of sound generates 316° C (600° F) temperatures on external aircraft surfaces, which are enough to melt conventional aluminum airframes. The design team chose to make the jet’s external skin of titanium alloy to which shielded the internal aluminum airframe. Two conventional, but very powerful, afterburning turbine engines propelled this remarkable aircraft. These power plants had to operate across a huge speed envelope in flight, from a takeoff speed of 334 kph (207 mph) to more than 3,540 kph (2,200 mph). To prevent supersonic shock waves from moving inside the engine intake causing flameouts, Johnson’s team had to design a complex air intake and bypass system for the engines.

Skunk Works engineers also optimized the A-12 cross-section design to exhibit a low radar profile. Lockheed hoped to achieve this by carefully shaping the airframe to reflect as little transmitted radar energy (radio waves) as possible, and by application of special paint designed to absorb, rather than reflect, those waves. This treatment became one of the first applications of stealth technology, but it never completely met the design goals.

Test pilot Lou Schalk flew the single-seat A-12 on April 24, 1962, after he became airborne accidentally during high-speed taxi trials. The airplane showed great promise but it needed considerable technical refinement before the CIA could fly the first operational sortie on May 31, 1967 – a surveillance flight over North Vietnam. A-12s, flown by CIA pilots, operated as part of the Air Force’s 1129th Special Activities Squadron under the "Oxcart" program. While Lockheed continued to refine the A-12, the U. S. Air Force ordered an interceptor version of the aircraft designated the YF-12A. The Skunk Works, however, proposed a "specific mission" version configured to conduct post-nuclear strike reconnaissance. This system evolved into the USAF’s familiar SR-71.

Lockheed built fifteen A-12s, including a special two-seat trainer version. Two A-12s were modified to carry a special reconnaissance drone, designated D-21. The modified A-12s were redesignated M-21s. These were designed to take off with the D-21 drone, powered by a Marquart ramjet engine mounted on a pylon between the rudders. The M-21 then hauled the drone aloft and launched it at speeds high enough to ignite the drone’s ramjet motor. Lockheed also built three YF-12As but this type never went into production. Two of the YF-12As crashed during testing. Only one survives and is on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The aft section of one of the "written off" YF-12As which was later used along with an SR-71A static test airframe to manufacture the sole SR-71C trainer. One SR-71 was lent to NASA and designated YF-12C. Including the SR-71C and two SR-71B pilot trainers, Lockheed constructed thirty-two Blackbirds. The first SR-71 flew on December 22, 1964. Because of extreme operational costs, military strategists decided that the more capable USAF SR-71s should replace the CIA’s A-12s. These were retired in 1968 after only one year of operational missions, mostly over southeast Asia. The Air Force’s 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (part of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing) took over the missions, flying the SR-71 beginning in the spring of 1968.

After the Air Force began to operate the SR-71, it acquired the official name Blackbird– for the special black paint that covered the airplane. This paint was formulated to absorb radar signals, to radiate some of the tremendous airframe heat generated by air friction, and to camouflage the aircraft against the dark sky at high altitudes.

Experience gained from the A-12 program convinced the Air Force that flying the SR-71 safely required two crew members, a pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO). The RSO operated with the wide array of monitoring and defensive systems installed on the airplane. This equipment included a sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) system that could jam most acquisition and targeting radar. In addition to an array of advanced, high-resolution cameras, the aircraft could also carry equipment designed to record the strength, frequency, and wavelength of signals emitted by communications and sensor devices such as radar. The SR-71 was designed to fly deep into hostile territory, avoiding interception with its tremendous speed and high altitude. It could operate safely at a maximum speed of Mach 3.3 at an altitude more than sixteen miles, or 25,908 m (85,000 ft), above the earth. The crew had to wear pressure suits similar to those worn by astronauts. These suits were required to protect the crew in the event of sudden cabin pressure loss while at operating altitudes.

To climb and cruise at supersonic speeds, the Blackbird’s Pratt & Whitney J-58 engines were designed to operate continuously in afterburner. While this would appear to dictate high fuel flows, the Blackbird actually achieved its best "gas mileage," in terms of air nautical miles per pound of fuel burned, during the Mach 3+ cruise. A typical Blackbird reconnaissance flight might require several aerial refueling operations from an airborne tanker. Each time the SR-71 refueled, the crew had to descend to the tanker’s altitude, usually about 6,000 m to 9,000 m (20,000 to 30,000 ft), and slow the airplane to subsonic speeds. 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. As soon as the tanks were filled, the jet’s crew disconnected from the tanker, relit the afterburners, and again climbed to high altitude.

Air Force pilots flew the SR-71 from Kadena AB, Japan, throughout its operational career but other bases hosted Blackbird operations, too. The 9th SRW occasionally deployed from Beale AFB, California, to other locations to carryout operational missions. Cuban missions were flown directly from Beale. The SR-71 did not begin to operate in Europe until 1974, and then only temporarily. In 1982, when the U.S. Air Force based two aircraft at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall to fly monitoring mission in Eastern Europe.

When the SR-71 became operational, orbiting reconnaissance satellites had already replaced manned aircraft to gather intelligence from sites deep within Soviet territory. Satellites could not cover every geopolitical hotspot so the Blackbird remained a vital tool for global intelligence gathering. On many occasions, pilots and RSOs flying the SR-71 provided information that proved vital in formulating successful U. S. foreign policy. Blackbird crews provided important intelligence about the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, and pre- and post-strike imagery of the 1986 raid conducted by American air forces on Libya. In 1987, Kadena-based SR-71 crews flew a number of missions over the Persian Gulf, revealing Iranian Silkworm missile batteries that threatened commercial shipping and American escort vessels.

As the performance of space-based surveillance systems grew, along with the effectiveness of ground-based air defense networks, the Air Force started to lose enthusiasm for the expensive program and the 9th SRW ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990. Despite protests by military leaders, Congress revived the program in 1995. Continued wrangling over operating budgets, however, soon led to final termination. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration retained two SR-71As and the one SR-71B for high-speed research projects and flew these airplanes until 1999.

On March 6, 1990, the service career of one Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird ended with a record-setting flight. This special airplane bore Air Force serial number 64-17972. Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding and his RSO, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Vida, flew this aircraft from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging a speed of 3,418 kph (2,124 mph). At the conclusion of the flight, ‘972 landed at Dulles International Airport and taxied into the custody of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. At that time, Lt. Col. Vida had logged 1,392.7 hours of flight time in Blackbirds, more than that of any other crewman.

This particular SR-71 was also flown by Tom Alison, a former National Air and Space Museum’s Chief of Collections Management. Flying with Detachment 1 at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Alison logged more than a dozen ‘972 operational sorties. The aircraft spent twenty-four years in active Air Force service and accrued a total of 2,801.1 hours of flight time.

Wingspan: 55’7"
Length: 107’5"
Height: 18’6"
Weight: 170,000 Lbs

Reference and Further Reading:

Crickmore, Paul F. Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996.

Francillon, Rene J. Lockheed Aircraft Since 1913. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1987.

Johnson, Clarence L. Kelly: More Than My Share of It All. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.

Miller, Jay. Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. Leicester, U.K.: Midland Counties Publishing Ltd., 1995.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird curatorial file, Aeronautics Division, National Air and Space Museum.

DAD, 11-11-01

One of the Seven Sister houses built by Captain Arnold in Mannum in 1911. They are all identical and made of pressed tin.

Image by denisbin
The historic port township of Mannum is located in one of the very scenic regions of the Murray where high cliffs of Tertiary limestone have been exposed by the meandering river. This limestone is laid down over clay layers and the stone was the obvious building material for buildings in Mannum from its origins. The town name came from the local Aboriginal word for place of many ducks. The first white people to see this area were Captain Charles Sturt and his party of explorers who came down the Murray to its mouth in 1830. In 1839 when the government was offering Special Surveys for the huge sum of £4,000 the so called Thirty Nine Sections survey was taken out along the Murray River where Mannum now stands. A consortium of investors took out this Special survey including John Cocks, Osmond Gilles (the Colonial Treasurer), Edward John Eyre (the explorer), and William Leigh (a Staffordshire benefactor of both the Anglican and Catholic churches in SA). Gilles and Leigh held the largest parcels of the 4,000 acres granted with Gilles’ land on the Adelaide side west of the Murray and Leigh’s on the eastern side. Their land covered the areas from Mannum to where Reedy Creek enters the Murray at Caloote. Both were primarily speculators and no real development happened in the area at this time around 1839. The economic activity of the district occurred on the pastoral lease land of John Baker who held most of the land from the Tungkillo area down to Mannum and the Murray from 1843 onwards. A decade (1853) later William Randell of Gumeracha took out pastoral leases on land between Mannum and the Mt Lofty Ranges to the north of Baker’s leases. His run was called Mannum!

Randell’s interest in the Murray and Mannum began back in 1850 when he would have heard that the Governor, Sir Henry Young, his wife, and a party of others cruised up the Murray from Wellington SA to Wentworth in NSW. Governor Young saw the potential of the river for navigation. A committee was established to investigate this and it included William Younghusband, a friend of Captain Cadell of Goolwa, George Fife Angas and John Baker of Tungkillo. The governor offered a reward for the first paddle steamer to venture up the Murray from Goolwa to Wentworth in NSW and Swan Hill in Victoria to prove its navigability. Younghusband worked with Captain Cadell to get this prize money. Cadell named his boat after the wife of the Governor, Lady Augusta. Meantime, without “entering” the race to navigate up to Wentworth, Captain Randell of Mannum readied his paddle steamer to navigate up to Wentworth and beyond. He had taken out his pastoral lease on the Mannum station in 1853. Randell named his boat after his mother, Mary Ann. Randell set out first for Wentworth (and Echuca beyond) but both boats arrived in Wentworth about the same time in August 1853. Because of his connections to Younghusband and the Governor, who had travelled on Cadell’s boat, Captain Cadell received the prize money of £4,000. Because this smacked of favouritism with almost a touch of official corruption the newspapers in Adelaide complained. Randell asked for nothing but was given a “small financial “reward (£300) by the government. The important outcome of the “race” was the beginnings of the River Murray steamer or paddle boat trade.

In turn this river trade led to the establishment of a small settlement at Mannum but it growth was very slow. Randell built a wool store shed on the banks of the Murray at his wharf on his sheep property at Mannum. This was 1854 and the shed was the first structure in what was to become Mannum. Two years later (1856) Randell built a house at Mannum and opened a store here for passing trade. Around that time the government began selling freehold blocks of 50 to 80 acres along the Murray. Consequently the first “settlers” arrived in Mannum, William Baseby and Carl Polack. The first hotel was opened, the Old Bogan, in 1860. The government could see a town emerging privately so they surveyed a government town and port in 1864 downstream from Randell’s wharf area, just beyond what is now the Mary Ann Reserve. Randell had the best spot and the government town did not develop so Randell had a private town surveyed in 1869. This prospered and constitutes the central part of Mannum today. Settlers took up town blocks; Randell donated land for a school in 1871, a flour mill operated by another family opened in 1876, and Mrs. Randell had opened the Bogan store in 1863. More stores followed. The government ferry service began in 1875 and Mannum Council was formed in 1877. Ironically this mid 1870s boom also saw the death of William Randell’s father in Gumeracha. He died at the family estate Kenton Park at Gumeracha in 1876 and is buried in the Baptist church cemetery there. But the town of Mannum was still developing with the churches opening: the Methodist Church in 1880 – replaced 1896; St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in 1882; the Zion Lutheran in 1893; the Presbyterian Church in 1886; the Anglican Church in 1910; and finally the Catholic Church in 1913. The town Institute opened in 1882 and the private school of 1871 was taken over by the state government in 1885. This real boom in the town’s growth came after the settlement of the Murray Flats for wheat farming from 1872 onwards. The founder of Mannum, William Randell died in 1911 but after his father had died in 1876, William Randell had left Mannum and retired to Kenton Park in Gumeracha. His son Murray Randell took over the family river boat business in Mannum from 1899 onwards and had full control of it from 1911. Flour from the family mills in Gumeracha was carted to Mannum and then shipped to the gold mining centres around Bendigo in the 1860s and 1870s. Apart from Mannum, the Randells also had shipping offices in Wentworth.

Among the many stores and businesses in Mannum was the Eudunda Farmers store number 32 which opened in 1926. Like a number of Eudunda Farmers Stores it is still operating in the same location in the Main Street but under the Foodland banner these days.

Industry in Mannum.
1. Walker & Sons Flour Mill. Benjamin Walker had managed a flour mill in Mt Torrens for some time. He moved to Mannum and laid the foundation stone of a new flour mill in 1874 opening it two years later just as the farming boom began on the Murray Flats. It was updated with rollers in 1888 and the steam boiler was replaced with a gas one in 1910. Flour milled here often ended up in Bourke or Wentworth or even parts of southern Queensland near Cunnamulla. It was transported upstream by paddle steamers. When Benjamin died in 1884 his son John took over the mill. Amazingly the mill remained in the Walker family and operated for over 100 years, probably a record for SA. It closed in 1978 after 102 years of operation. Today only four flour mills are left in SA – Cummins, Strathalbyn, Port Adelaide and Mile End compared with 65 at the time of federation in 1901. No SA flour is exported today.

2. Dry Dock. William Randell formed ‘The River Murray Dry Dock Company’ around 1874 to finance the dock which he purchased from Landseer Shipping agents in Milang. The dry dock was floated up to Mannum and located into the river bank so that it was no longer a floating dock. A cutting was made into the bank to accommodate the 144 feet long dry dock. It took over a year to complete the work for the dock to open for business in 1876. With so many steamers plying the river the dry dock was always busy repairing barges and steamers and it created employment for a number of local men but it never made any significant financial returns for William Randell. After William Randell died in 1911 the dry dock was sold to a Swedish resident of Mannum, Johan Arnold, a riverboat man. Arnold had settled in Mannum in 1889. He worked the dry dock and built ships in Mannum including the Renmark, J.G. Arnold, Wilcannia, Nellie, Mundoo, Goldsborough and Murrumbidgee and some other barges. He then established his own shipping company called River Steamers Limited. They traded up to Hay, Wentworth and beyond. He later built the largest steamer ever built in SA, the Mannum. It was 150 feet long. Arnold soon had 80 men on his payroll between the dry dock and his shipping company, spread across all the major river ports where he had shipping offices. Disaster struck in 1921 when the Mannum caught fire whilst docked in Mannum. It was destroyed. Arnold’s house was called Esmeralda. He donated nearby land for the Mannum Hospital and the Anglican Church and he subdivided the rest of his land for town blocks. Captain Arnold died in 1949.

3. Shearers. John and David Shearer arrived in SA from Scotland in 1852. John followed in his father’s footsteps and learnt to be a blacksmith opening his first business in Mt Torrens in 1871 the year he married his 15 year old bride. Five years later in 1876 he opened a blacksmithing works in Mannum. It grew slowly. Brother David had joined the business in 1877 and he helped with the expansion of the business. John invented and patented throughout Australia wrought iron plough shears in 1888 that were a quarter of the price of most others. They were also not brittle like the cast iron plough shears and they lasted longer. The business now expanded greatly with an Australia wide market. They also produced stump jump ploughs and mechanical parts for river steamers. By 1919 Shearers employed over 100 people making agricultural implements, most of which were transported interstate although many of these products were produced in their Kilkenny plant in Adelaide which they had opened in 1904. They made strippers, wagons, harrows, ploughs, harvesters etc. In 1910 the partnership dissolved with David and sons keeping the Mannum plant and and John and sons keeping the Kilkenny plant. At that time David moved the Mannum Shearer factory from Anna Street out to Adelaide Road.

During World War One David’s Mannum plant made ammunition wagons, stirrups etc. In 1952 Shearers became a public company and consequently in 1972 it was taken over by another Adelaide agricultural machinery manufacturer Horwood Bagshaws. They then sold up the Adelaide works and continued production in Mannum. At its peak Horwood Bagshaws employed around 380 people in Mannum. After going into receivership in 1990 the struggling manufacturer was purchased in 1998 by Sweeney Investments from Adelaide. This company still markets implements as Horwood Bagshaws but it also does engineering work for mining companies, defence organisations, and other industries located all over Australia. It employs around 50 people and numerous contractors.
But David Shearer the founder is known for more than being an agricultural implement maker. He was a self educated scientists and “dreamer.” In 1907 he joined the NSW Branch of the British Astronomical Association. He went on to build his own telescope and observatory, the first private one in SA. The simple limestone building, now rendered with cement, had a typical domed roof with sliding panels on a steel track. The telescope is gone and the roof would have to be altered again for the building to be used as an observatory. The adjoining David Shearer House has also been altered especially Shearer’s octagonal lookout tower for night sky observations. Both buildings are on the Register of the National Estate. David Shearer’s other claim to fame is the invention of the first motor car in Australia. In the early 1890s he designed and then built in 1897 a steam powered and propelled vehicle which travelled at 15 miles per hour. He based his design on the transfer of power from engine to wheels that had been used for steam powered tractors. The first car to appear in England was in 1899 and Henry Ford developed his first car in the USA in 1908. David Shearer was ahead of his time but his invention was based on steam power and the future for cars was on the petrol based vehicles invented in Germany in 1885. (Benz began manufacturing petrol driven cars in Germany in 1888 and Bernardi invented the first petrol driven motorcycle in 1882 in Italy.) Shearer’s car however, managed trips of up to 100 kms and he drove it from Mannum to Adelaide in 1900. David then turned his inventing attentions to a mechanical harvester. The Shearer car is now in the Birdwood Mill Museum.

4. Butter factory. The old butter factory which has more recently been an antiques and collectibles shop was established in 1924. It opened as the Producers Supply and Butter Company. It competed with Farmers Union which had opened a butter factory in Murray Bridge in 1922. The Mannum butter factory was located by the river as most milk arrived at the factory by milk barge. (Farmers’ Union in Murray Bridge owned four river barges for carting fresh milk to its factory there). Archie Schofield purchased the Mannum butter factory and took control in 1932. After a fire it was rebuilt in 1935. The Schofields operated the butter factory until it was sold to Farmers’ Union in 1955. It was then submerged by the 1956 Murray flood and appears not to have re-opened as a butter factory.

Paddle Steamer Marion and Mannum Dock Museum.
The Museum entrance fee is .50 or for a concession. It includes the Randell Dry Dock, the Paddle Steamer Marion, the Keys Beam engine and displays on Murray River floods, the life cycle of the Murray, the Ngarrindjeri dreaming, and the history of white settlement in Mannum. But from the outside you can still see the restored Paddle Steamer Marion provided it is not cruising the Murray. Its history goes back to 1897 when it was built by Landseers at Milang. At over 100 feet long it was one of the bigger river steamers. After a long history of river trading her transportation days ended when her owners went into liquidation in 1952. She was sold on to several owners before she ended up being a floating boarding house. In 1963 the National Trust purchased her as a monument to the riverboat trade. She was sailed down to Mannum to be the centre piece of the NT Museum there. For over thirty years she languished in a dilapidated state in the Museum. In 1989 she was restored so that she could be used as a working river vessel with her being recommissioned in 1994. She occasionally does river trips for paying passengers. Some of her most interesting journeys were promotional trips paid for by the SA government. One was in 1910 for the Scottish Agricultural Commission when members visited SA. They travelled down from Mildura in the PS Marion. Another was in 1915 when the SA government paid for a trip by Australian parliamentarians, both Federal and state parliamentarians. Politicians from all states except Western Australian participated including the Premier of NSW, the Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher, and the Attorney General, Billy Hughes who became the next Prime Minster. The promotional journey was to familiarise the politicians with the construction of Weir Number One across the Murray at Blanchetown which was then nearing completion.

Some Mannum Buildings.

1. The Anglican Church of St. Andrew was opened in 1910. Before that time the Anglicans attended services when the paddle steamer Etona visited the town.

2. The Mannum hospital was built in 1921 on land donated by Captain Arnold. The grounds incorporated his former home, Esmeralda which he purchased in 1905. Captain Arnold had settled in Mannum in 1889.

3. The Baptist Church. It began life as the Presbyterian Church in 1886 but was sold just three years later to the Baptists. The Randell family were Baptists and worshipped there.

4. Shearer Business Complex dating from 1876. The site of the original Shearer factory is now a car park but with fine memorial gates. Along one side is a fine old stone building which was once the Shearer company offices but it is now a Laundromat. Above the factory site is the Shearer House which is actually in Anna Street. A fine set of steps leads up from the Main Street to Anna Street. It is an imposing house overlooking the Main Street with a central part and two added wings. Originally one wing had a tower for astronomical observations. Adjacent to the house is the ruins of the Shearer Observatory. It is a round structure and once had a domed roof with sliding panels for the telescope to be used for observation. It is on the Register of the National Estate but urgently needs restoration.

5. The Institute was opened in 1882 and extended in 1911 with a Classical style façade with a triangular pediment above the entrance.

6. The Pretoria Hotel in the Main Street. It opened in 1900 when the Boer War was at its height hence the name.

7. The Mannum Hotel. The first hotel was erected on this site in 1866 for Randell. It was rebuilt as the Bogan Hotel in 1869. The upper floor was added in the 1870s. It was also the site for the first Council meetings of Mannum.

8. The Old Woolshed was built by Captain Randell in 1854 as the first structure in his Port of Mannum.

9. St. Martin’s Lutheran Church opened in 1882. A Lutheran school operated here from 1884-1917 when the Government closed all Lutheran schools. For many years (43) the congregation as led by Pastor Ey. A second congregation opened a second Lutheran church in Mannum called the Zion Lutheran in 1893. Its parent church was in Palmer.

10. Bleak House. The four roomed house built by Captain Randell in 1856 is up the hill from his wharf. It was the first stone structure in the town. This structure would be the rear part of the current building. The front part dates from the 1860s, probably 1869 when Randell subdivided part of his land to create the township of Mannum.

11. The Catholic Church of Mount Carmel. This was opened in 1913.

12. The Methodist Church, now the Uniting. The first church was built in 1880. But the construction was poor and the church was pulled down a few years later. In 1896 the second Methodist church opened on the same site. The current church was built in 1954 and replaced the earlier one.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Dornier Do 335A-1 Pfeil (Arrow)

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Dornier Do 335A-1 Pfeil (Arrow)

Verify out these turning components manufacturer images:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Dornier Do 335A-1 Pfeil (Arrow)

Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Dornier Do 335 A- Pfeil (Arrow):

The Do-335 was 1 of a modest group of aircraft marking the pinnacle of international piston-engined development. It was the fastest production piston-engined fighter ever built, attaining 846 kilometers per hour (474 mph) in level flight at a time when the official planet speed record was 755 kph (469 mph). Powered by two 1800-hp engines in a exclusive low-drag configuration and weighing 9600 kg (21,000 lb) loaded, it was an exceptional heavy fighter. This quite innovative design and style also featured an ejection seat, for pilot security, and a jettisoning fin.

The unconventional layout of the Do-335 — a single engine &quotpulling&quot in the nose and another &quotpushing&quot in the tail – was patented by Claudius Dornier in 1937. The configuration offered the power of two engines, but with decreased drag and better maneuverability. The German Aviation Ministry (RLM) was interested in the design, but initially wanted Dornier only to generate bombers. By 1942, Dornier was nevertheless continuing design and style function and the war circumstance was worsening. The Luftwaffe now needed a multi-purpose fighter, and the prototype Do-335V-1 (&quotV&quot indicating &quotversuchs&quot or &quotexperimental&quot) flew in fighter kind in September, 1943 – six years after its conception. Orders had been quickly placed for 14 prototypes, 10 A- preproduction aircraft, 11 production A-1 single-seaters, and 3 A-ten and A-12 two-seat trainers.

The aircraft was really big for a single-seat fighter, with a cruciform tail and a tricycle landing gear. The two massive liquid-cooled Daimler-Benz DB-603 engines have been utilised in 4 different versions, every displacing 44.5 liters (2670 cu in) and weighing 910 kg (2006 lb). The engine developed 1750 hp from 12 cylinders in an inverted V layout making use of fuel injection and an 8.three:1 compression ratio. The rear 3-bladed propeller and dorsal fin were jettisoned by explosive bolts in an emergency, to let the pilot to bail out safely using a pneumatic ejection seat. The seat, inclined 13 degrees to the rear, was ejected with a force of 20 instances gravity. The ventral fin could be jettisoned for a belly landing.

Unlike a regular twin-engined aircraft, with wing-mounted engines, loss of an engine on the Do-335 did not result in a handling issue. Even with one particular engine out, speed was a respectable 621 kph (348 mph). Due to the fact of its look, pilots dubbed it the &quotAnt eater&quot (&quotAmeisenbar&quot), though they described its performance as exceptional, particularly in acceleration and turning radius. The Do-335 was really docile in flight and had no unsafe spin qualities. Many Do-335 prototypes had been built, as the Reich strained desperately to supply day and night fighters and quick reconnaissance aircraft to the failing war work. 1 of the several RLM production plans, issued in December 1943, called for the production of 310 Do-335s by late 1945. Initial production was at the Dornier Manuel plant, but this factory was bombed heavily in March-April, 1944, and the Do-335 tooling was destroyed.

Ten Do-335A- preproduction aircraft have been then produced at Dornier’s Oberpfaffenhofen plant in July-October 1944, by which time the Allied bombing campaign was delaying arrivals of engines, propellers, radios, and structural subcomponents. This had a serious effect, since the Do-335 was not a simple aircraft: installation of the electronics alone took 60 hours of assembly, and the electrical parts list was 112 pages long. Production of Daimler-Benz engines, for example, was switched to factories set up in underground salt mines and gypsum mines, but high humidity caused corrosion issues and production dropped 40 %. Even though numerous preproduction aircraft have been issued to combat conversion units some 10 months prior to the war ended, no Do-335s in fact entered combat. Deliveries started to the 1st Experimental Squadron of the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe ( I/Versuchsverband Ob.d.L.) in late July 1944 for operational trials.

The very first of the Do-335A-1 production version left the Dornier line at Friedrichshafen early in 1945, a single of only four developed in 1945. It was armed with 1 30 mm MK-103 cannon (70 rounds had been carried) firing via the propeller hub and two 15 mm MG-151/15 cannon (200 rounds per gun) firing from the leading of the forward engine. Even with the fighter predicament as desperate as it was, these aircraft were nonetheless equipped to carry 500 kg (1100 lb) of bombs internally. Further operational testing, which includes use of air-to-ground guided missiles, began in Spring 1945 with Trials Unit (Erprobungskommando) 335.

The Do-335A-6 was to be a two-seat evening fighter version with the sophisticated FFO FuG-217J Neptun radar getting triple &quottrident&quot-like antennas (hence the name &quotNeptun&quot) on the fuselage and wings, but only a prototype was completed. A total of 37 prototypes, 10 A-0s, 11 A-1s and 2 A-12 trainers had been built, even though nearly 85 additional aircraft have been in assembly when U.S. troops overran the Friedrichshafen factory in late April, 1945. The Vienna-Swechat plant of the Ernst Heinkel AG was also scheduled to build the Do-335 starting in February, 1945, but production never ever started.

The NASM aircraft is the second Do-335A-, designated A-02, with building number (werke nummer) 240102 and factory registration VG+PH. It was constructed at Dornier’s Rechlin-Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, plant on April 16, 1945. It was captured by Allied forces at the plant on April 22, 1945. Soon after checkout, it was flown from a grass runway at Oberweisenfeld, close to Munich, to Cherbourg, France. For the duration of this flight, the Do-335 easily outclimbed and outdistanced two escorting P-51s, beating them to Cherbourg by 45 minutes. Below the U.S. Army Air Force’s &quotProject Sea Horse,&quot two Do-335s had been shipped to the United States aboard the Royal Navy ship HMS &quotReaper&quot together with other captured German aircraft, for detailed evaluation. This aircraft was assigned to the U.S. Navy, which tested it at the Test and Evaluation Center, Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Maryland. The other aircraft, with registration FE-1012 (later T2-1012), went to the USAAF at Freeman Field, Indiana, where it was tested in early 1946. Its subsequent fate is unknown, and this is the only Do-335 recognized to exist.

Following Navy flight tests in 1945-48, the aircraft was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Air Museum in 1961 but was stored at NAS Norfolk till 1974. It was then returned to Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, exactly where the Dornier firm restored it to original condition in 1975. The return trip to Germany necessary an exemption beneath U.S. laws concerning the export of munitions. The Dornier craftsmen carrying out the restoration – a lot of of whom had worked on the original aircraft — were astonished to find that the explosive charges fitted to blow off the tail fin and rear propeller in an emergency had been nevertheless in the aircraft and active, 30 years right after their original installation! The Do-335 was put on static display at the Might 1-9, 1976, Hannover Airshow, and then loaned to the Deutsches Museum in Munich, where it was on prominent display till returned to Silver Hill, MD, for storage in 1986.

Nation of Origin:
Germany

Physical Description:
Twin engine, pusher / puller, fighter / bomber grey/green, green late Planet War II improvement.

Image from web page 365 of “The Gardeners’ chronicle : a weekly illustrated journal of horticulture and allied subjects” (1874)

Image by World wide web Archive Book Images
Identifier: gardenerschronic13lond
Title: The Gardeners’ chronicle : a weekly illustrated journal of horticulture and allied subjects
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors:
Subjects: Ornamental horticulture Horticulture Plants, Ornamental Gardening
Publisher: London : [Gardeners Chronicle]
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

View Book Web page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
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Click right here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable on the web version of this book.

Text Appearing Prior to Image:
rs can choose Jrom upwards (7/500 Machines of Hand, Pony, and Horse Power, and liave their Orders executed the identical day they are received. The above Machines are Warranted to give complete Satisfaction, otherwise thsy could be returned AT After, tree of price to the Purchaser, isj 3 These who have Lawn Mowers which need repairing should send them to eitlier our Leeds or London Establishment, exactly where they will have prompt attention, as an Efficient Employees of Workmen is kept at each areas. GREENS PATENT ROLLERS FOR LAWNS, DRIVES, BOWLING GREENS, CRICKET FIELDS,AND GRAVEL PATHS, SULTABLE FOR HAND OR HORSE Energy. These Rollers are produced in Two Components, and are totally free in revolving on the axis, which affords higher facility forturning. The outer edges are rounded off, or turned inwards, so that the unsightly marks left by other Rollersare avoided.Diam. Lengtll. £t s. d, Diam. Length. _ C s. d. 16 inches by 17 inches … … two 15 o I 24 inches by 26 inches 500 20 „ 22 „ four o o I 30 „ 32 „ 900

Text Appearing Right after Image:
Cost Diam. Length. 30 inches by 32 inches30 » 36 „ OF ROLLERS, IN TWO Components, Fitted with Shafos for Pony or Horse. 30 42 £. s. d. Diam. Length. 13 ten 30 inches by 48 inches 14 30 ), 60 „ 15 ten 30 „ 72 „ 17 o19 1022 O Weight Boxes added, and Special Quotations created for Rollers 3, three^, and feet diameter, fitted with Shafts for A single or Two Horses.Delivered, Carriage Free of charge, to the principal Railway Stations and Shipping Ports in England and Scotland. THEY CAN BE HAD OF ALL RESPECTABLE IRONMONGERS AND SEEDSMEN IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, OR DIRECT FRO.M THE Companies, GREENS PATENT STEAIVI ROAD ROLLER AND TRACTION ENGINE COMBINED. Appropriate for Rolling Carriage Drives, Parks, Roads, Walks, &ampc., and for Rolling Lawns, Cricket Flats, Parks, &ampc.. And ivhich caii also be tised as a Stationary Engine for Wood Sazoing, Stone Breaking, Pumping, Farm Purposes, and other various perform. PARTICULARS AND ESTIMATES ON APPLICATION TO THOMAS GREEN k SON, Smithfieid Ironworks, Leeds

Note About Images
Please note that these pictures are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability – coloration and look of these illustrations could not perfectly resemble the original work.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird best view panorama

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird best view panorama

A handful of nice surface grinding aluminum pictures I discovered:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird best view panorama

Image by Chris Devers
See far more images of this, and the Wikipedia report.

Specifics, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:

No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in a lot more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71, the world’s quickest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s functionality and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technologies developments during the Cold War.

This Blackbird accrued about two,800 hours of flight time for the duration of 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its final flight, March 6, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 3,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation

Designer:
Clarence L. &quotKelly&quot Johnson

Date:
1964

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
General: 18ft five 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (5.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (five.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)

Materials:
Titanium

Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-kind material) to minimize radar cross-section Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines function big inlet shock cones.

Long Description:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in a lot more hostile airspace or with such full impunity than the SR-71 Blackbird. It is the quickest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird’s performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technologies developments in the course of the Cold War. The airplane was conceived when tensions with communist Eastern Europe reached levels approaching a complete-blown crisis in the mid-1950s. U.S. military commanders desperately needed accurate assessments of Soviet worldwide military deployments, specifically close to the Iron Curtain. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s subsonic U-two (see NASM collection) reconnaissance aircraft was an able platform but the U. S. Air Force recognized that this comparatively slow aircraft was currently vulnerable to Soviet interceptors. They also understood that the rapid development of surface-to-air missile systems could place U-2 pilots at grave risk. The danger proved reality when a U-two was shot down by a surface to air missile over the Soviet Union in 1960.

Lockheed’s 1st proposal for a new high speed, higher altitude, reconnaissance aircraft, to be capable of avoiding interceptors and missiles, centered on a design and style propelled by liquid hydrogen. This proved to be impracticable since of considerable fuel consumption. Lockheed then reconfigured the design and style for standard fuels. This was feasible and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), already flying the Lockheed U-2, issued a production contract for an aircraft designated the A-12. Lockheed’s clandestine ‘Skunk Works’ division (headed by the gifted design and style engineer Clarence L. &quotKelly&quot Johnson) developed the A-12 to cruise at Mach 3.2 and fly nicely above 18,288 m (60,000 feet). To meet these challenging specifications, Lockheed engineers overcame numerous daunting technical challenges. Flying far more than three instances the speed of sound generates 316° C (600° F) temperatures on external aircraft surfaces, which are sufficient to melt conventional aluminum airframes. The design team chose to make the jet’s external skin of titanium alloy to which shielded the internal aluminum airframe. Two standard, but really potent, afterburning turbine engines propelled this exceptional aircraft. These energy plants had to operate across a massive speed envelope in flight, from a takeoff speed of 334 kph (207 mph) to far more than three,540 kph (two,200 mph). To avert supersonic shock waves from moving inside the engine intake causing flameouts, Johnson’s team had to design and style a complex air intake and bypass method for the engines.

Skunk Operates engineers also optimized the A-12 cross-section style to exhibit a low radar profile. Lockheed hoped to achieve this by carefully shaping the airframe to reflect as small transmitted radar power (radio waves) as feasible, and by application of special paint created to absorb, rather than reflect, these waves. This therapy became one of the very first applications of stealth technology, but it by no means completely met the design ambitions.

Test pilot Lou Schalk flew the single-seat A-12 on April 24, 1962, right after he became airborne accidentally in the course of high-speed taxi trials. The airplane showed wonderful guarantee but it necessary considerable technical refinement ahead of the CIA could fly the very first operational sortie on May possibly 31, 1967 – a surveillance flight over North Vietnam. A-12s, flown by CIA pilots, operated as portion of the Air Force’s 1129th Special Activities Squadron below the &quotOxcart&quot program. Even though Lockheed continued to refine the A-12, the U. S. Air Force ordered an interceptor version of the aircraft designated the YF-12A. The Skunk Works, however, proposed a &quotspecific mission&quot version configured to conduct post-nuclear strike reconnaissance. This method evolved into the USAF’s familiar SR-71.

Lockheed constructed fifteen A-12s, including a particular two-seat trainer version. Two A-12s have been modified to carry a unique reconnaissance drone, designated D-21. The modified A-12s were redesignated M-21s. These had been developed to take off with the D-21 drone, powered by a Marquart ramjet engine mounted on a pylon between the rudders. The M-21 then hauled the drone aloft and launched it at speeds high enough to ignite the drone’s ramjet motor. Lockheed also constructed 3 YF-12As but this variety never ever went into production. Two of the YF-12As crashed throughout testing. Only one survives and is on show at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The aft section of one particular of the &quotwritten off&quot YF-12As which was later utilized along with an SR-71A static test airframe to manufacture the sole SR-71C trainer. 1 SR-71 was lent to NASA and designated YF-12C. Including the SR-71C and two SR-71B pilot trainers, Lockheed constructed thirty-two Blackbirds. The first SR-71 flew on December 22, 1964. Since of intense operational expenses, military strategists decided that the a lot more capable USAF SR-71s should replace the CIA’s A-12s. These were retired in 1968 following only one particular year of operational missions, largely more than southeast Asia. The Air Force’s 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (part of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing) took over the missions, flying the SR-71 beginning in the spring of 1968.

Soon after the Air Force began to operate the SR-71, it acquired the official name Blackbird– for the unique black paint that covered the airplane. This paint was formulated to absorb radar signals, to radiate some of the tremendous airframe heat generated by air friction, and to camouflage the aircraft against the dark sky at high altitudes.

Encounter gained from the A-12 plan convinced the Air Force that flying the SR-71 safely necessary two crew members, a pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO). The RSO operated with the wide array of monitoring and defensive systems installed on the airplane. This equipment included a sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) system that could jam most acquisition and targeting radar. In addition to an array of advanced, high-resolution cameras, the aircraft could also carry equipment designed to record the strength, frequency, and wavelength of signals emitted by communications and sensor devices such as radar. The SR-71 was made to fly deep into hostile territory, avoiding interception with its tremendous speed and high altitude. It could operate safely at a maximum speed of Mach 3.3 at an altitude more than sixteen miles, or 25,908 m (85,000 ft), above the earth. The crew had to put on pressure suits similar to these worn by astronauts. These suits were required to protect the crew in the event of sudden cabin stress loss whilst at operating altitudes.

To climb and cruise at supersonic speeds, the Blackbird’s Pratt &amp Whitney J-58 engines were made to operate constantly in afterburner. Even though this would seem to dictate higher fuel flows, the Blackbird really achieved its greatest &quotgas mileage,&quot in terms of air nautical miles per pound of fuel burned, for the duration of the Mach 3+ cruise. A typical Blackbird reconnaissance flight might call for many aerial refueling operations from an airborne tanker. Each time the SR-71 refueled, the crew had to descend to the tanker’s altitude, normally about 6,000 m to 9,000 m (20,000 to 30,000 ft), and slow the airplane to subsonic speeds. As velocity decreased, so did frictional heat. This cooling effect triggered the aircraft’s skin panels to shrink significantly, and those covering the fuel tanks contracted so a lot that fuel leaked, forming a distinctive vapor trail as the tanker topped off the Blackbird. As quickly as the tanks had been filled, the jet’s crew disconnected from the tanker, relit the afterburners, and once again climbed to high altitude.

Air Force pilots flew the SR-71 from Kadena AB, Japan, all through its operational profession but other bases hosted Blackbird operations, as well. The 9th SRW sometimes deployed from Beale AFB, California, to other areas to carryout operational missions. Cuban missions have been flown straight from Beale. The SR-71 did not begin to operate in Europe until 1974, and then only temporarily. In 1982, when the U.S. Air Force primarily based two aircraft at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall to fly monitoring mission in Eastern Europe.

When the SR-71 became operational, orbiting reconnaissance satellites had currently replaced manned aircraft to collect intelligence from sites deep inside Soviet territory. Satellites could not cover each geopolitical hotspot so the Blackbird remained a vital tool for international intelligence gathering. On numerous occasions, pilots and RSOs flying the SR-71 offered details that proved important in formulating effective U. S. foreign policy. Blackbird crews offered essential intelligence about the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, and pre- and post-strike imagery of the 1986 raid carried out by American air forces on Libya. In 1987, Kadena-based SR-71 crews flew a quantity of missions more than the Persian Gulf, revealing Iranian Silkworm missile batteries that threatened industrial shipping and American escort vessels.

As the efficiency of space-primarily based surveillance systems grew, along with the effectiveness of ground-primarily based air defense networks, the Air Force started to shed enthusiasm for the expensive plan and the 9th SRW ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990. Despite protests by military leaders, Congress revived the program in 1995. Continued wrangling over operating budgets, even so, soon led to final termination. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration retained two SR-71As and the one particular SR-71B for higher-speed investigation projects and flew these airplanes until 1999.

On March 6, 1990, the service profession of one Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird ended with a record-setting flight. This specific airplane bore Air Force serial quantity 64-17972. Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding and his RSO, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Vida, flew this aircraft from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging a speed of 3,418 kph (two,124 mph). At the conclusion of the flight, ‘972 landed at Dulles International Airport and taxied into the custody of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. At that time, Lt. Col. Vida had logged 1,392.7 hours of flight time in Blackbirds, more than that of any other crewman.

This specific SR-71 was also flown by Tom Alison, a former National Air and Space Museum’s Chief of Collections Management. Flying with Detachment 1 at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Alison logged far more than a dozen ‘972 operational sorties. The aircraft spent twenty-4 years in active Air Force service and accrued a total of 2,801.1 hours of flight time.

Wingspan: 55’7&quot
Length: 107’5&quot
Height: 18’6&quot
Weight: 170,000 Lbs

Reference and Further Reading:

Crickmore, Paul F. Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996.

Francillon, Rene J. Lockheed Aircraft Given that 1913. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1987.

Johnson, Clarence L. Kelly: A lot more Than My Share of It All. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.

Miller, Jay. Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Operates. Leicester, U.K.: Midland Counties Publishing Ltd., 1995.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird curatorial file, Aeronautics Division, National Air and Space Museum.

DAD, 11-11-01

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Space Shuttle Enterprise (crew working by a hatch by the back starboard wing)

Image by Chris Devers
See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Specifics, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Space Shuttle Enterprise:

Manufacturer:
Rockwell International Corporation

Nation of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
General: 57 ft. tall x 122 ft. extended x 78 ft. wing span, 150,000 lb.
(1737.36 x 3718.57 x 2377.44cm, 68039.6kg)

Components:
Aluminum airframe and physique with some fiberglass characteristics payload bay doors are graphite epoxy composite thermal tiles are simulated (polyurethane foam) except for test samples of actual tiles and thermal blankets.

The 1st Space Shuttle orbiter, &quotEnterprise,&quot is a complete-scale test car utilized for flights in the atmosphere and tests on the ground it is not equipped for spaceflight. Though the airframe and flight manage elements are like these of the Shuttles flown in space, this vehicle has no propulsion method and only simulated thermal tiles because these features were not necessary for atmospheric and ground tests. &quotEnterprise&quot was rolled out at Rockwell International’s assembly facility in Palmdale, California, in 1976. In 1977, it entered service for a nine-month-extended method-and-landing test flight plan. Thereafter it was utilized for vibration tests and fit checks at NASA centers, and it also appeared in the 1983 Paris Air Show and the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans. In 1985, NASA transferred &quotEnterprise&quot to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• • •

Quoting from Wikipedia | Space Shuttle Enterprise:

The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Car Designation: OV-101) was the initial Space Shuttle orbiter. It was built for NASA as component of the Space Shuttle plan to carry out test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed without having engines or a functional heat shield, and was as a result not capable of spaceflight.

Initially, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have produced it the second space shuttle to fly after Columbia. Even so, during the building of Columbia, details of the final style changed, especially with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. Refitting Enterprise for spaceflight would have involved dismantling the orbiter and returning the sections to subcontractors across the nation. As this was an high-priced proposition, it was determined to be much less costly to develop Challenger about a body frame (STA-099) that had been created as a test post. Similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger following the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was constructed from structural spares alternatively.

Service

Construction started on the initial orbiter on June four, 1974. Designated OV-101, it was originally planned to be named Constitution and unveiled on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976. A write-in campaign by Trekkies to President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the tv show Star Trek. Even though Ford did not mention the campaign, the president—who during Planet War II had served on the aircraft carrier USS&nbspMonterey&nbsp(CVL-26) that served with USS&nbspEnterprise&nbsp(CV-six)—said that he was &quotpartial to the name&quot and overrode NASA officials.

The style of OV-101 was not the identical as that planned for OV-102, the first flight model the tail was constructed differently, and it did not have the interfaces to mount OMS pods. A big quantity of subsystems—ranging from primary engines to radar equipment—were not installed on this car, but the capacity to add them in the future was retained. As an alternative of a thermal protection technique, its surface was mainly fiberglass.

In mid-1976, the orbiter was used for ground vibration tests, permitting engineers to examine information from an actual flight automobile with theoretical models.

On September 17, 1976, Enterprise was rolled out of Rockwell’s plant at Palmdale, California. In recognition of its fictional namesake, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the principal cast of the original series of Star Trek were on hand at the dedication ceremony.

Strategy and landing tests (ALT)

Main post: Approach and Landing Tests

On January 31, 1977, it was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, to start operational testing.

Whilst at NASA Dryden, Enterprise was utilized by NASA for a selection of ground and flight tests intended to validate elements of the shuttle system. The initial nine-month testing period was referred to by the acronym ALT, for &quotApproach and Landing Test&quot. These tests integrated a maiden &quotflight&quot on February 18, 1977 atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking characteristics of the mated technique. Ground tests of all orbiter subsystems were carried out to confirm functionality prior to atmospheric flight.

The mated Enterprise/SCA mixture was then subjected to five test flights with Enterprise unmanned and unactivated. The objective of these test flights was to measure the flight traits of the mated combination. These tests had been followed with 3 test flights with Enterprise manned to test the shuttle flight handle systems.

Enterprise underwent five free flights exactly where the craft separated from the SCA and was landed below astronaut control. These tests verified the flight characteristics of the orbiter design and style and had been carried out below numerous aerodynamic and weight configurations. On the fifth and final glider flight, pilot-induced oscillation difficulties have been revealed, which had to be addressed ahead of the initial orbital launch occurred.

On August 12, 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise flew on its personal for the very first time.

Preparation for STS-1

Following the ALT system, Enterprise was ferried among several NASA facilities to configure the craft for vibration testing. In June 1979, it was mated with an external tank and solid rocket boosters (known as a boilerplate configuration) and tested in a launch configuration at Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A.

Retirement

With the completion of critical testing, Enterprise was partially disassembled to permit particular components to be reused in other shuttles, then underwent an international tour going to France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the U.S. states of California, Alabama, and Louisiana (during the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition). It was also used to fit-verify the never ever-utilised shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg AFB, California. Ultimately, on November 18, 1985, Enterprise was ferried to Washington, D.C., where it became house of the Smithsonian Institution.

Post-Challenger

Soon after the Challenger disaster, NASA regarded as utilizing Enterprise as a replacement. Even so refitting the shuttle with all of the essential equipment required for it to be employed in space was deemed, but as an alternative it was decided to use spares constructed at the very same time as Discovery and Atlantis to construct Endeavour.

Post-Columbia

In 2003, soon after the breakup of Columbia in the course of re-entry, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board carried out tests at Southwest Study Institute, which utilized an air gun to shoot foam blocks of related size, mass and speed to that which struck Columbia at a test structure which mechanically replicated the orbiter wing top edge. They removed a fiberglass panel from Enterprise’s wing to carry out evaluation of the material and attached it to the test structure, then shot a foam block at it. Although the panel was not broken as a result of the test, the effect was enough to permanently deform a seal. As the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panel on Columbia was two.5 times weaker, this recommended that the RCC leading edge would have been shattered. Extra tests on the fiberglass had been canceled in order not to threat damaging the test apparatus, and a panel from Discovery was tested to determine the effects of the foam on a similarly-aged RCC leading edge. On July 7, 2003, a foam effect test produced a hole 41&nbspcm by 42.five&nbspcm (16.1&nbspinches by 16.7&nbspinches) in the protective RCC panel. The tests clearly demonstrated that a foam effect of the kind Columbia sustained could seriously breach the protective RCC panels on the wing top edge.

The board determined that the probable lead to of the accident was that the foam impact caused a breach of a reinforced carbon-carbon panel along the leading edge of Columbia’s left wing, permitting hot gases generated in the course of re-entry to enter the wing and lead to structural collapse. This brought on Columbia to spin out of control, breaking up with the loss of the entire crew.

Museum exhibit

Enterprise was stored at the Smithsonian’s hangar at Washington Dulles International Airport before it was restored and moved to the newly built Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum‘s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport, exactly where it has been the centerpiece of the space collection. On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that Space Shuttle Discovery, the most traveled orbiter in the fleet, will be added to the collection as soon as the Shuttle fleet is retired. When that happens, Enterprise will be moved to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, to a newly constructed hangar adjacent to the museum. In preparation for the anticipated relocation, engineers evaluated the vehicle in early 2010 and determined that it was protected to fly on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft once once again.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: south hangar panorama, which includes Vought OS2U-three Kingfisher seaplane, B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay”, amongst other people

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: south hangar panorama, which includes Vought OS2U-three Kingfisher seaplane, B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay”, amongst other people

A couple of nice prototype manufacturing business images I found:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: south hangar panorama, which includes Vought OS2U-three Kingfisher seaplane, B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay”, among other individuals

Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Vought OS2U-three Kingfisher:

The Kingfisher was the U.S. Navy’s principal ship-primarily based, scout and observation aircraft throughout Globe War II. Revolutionary spot welding methods gave it a smooth, non-buckling fuselage structure. Deflector plate flaps that hung from the wing’s trailing edge and spoiler-augmented ailerons functioned like extra flaps to let slower landing speeds. Most OS2Us operated in the Pacific, exactly where they rescued several downed airmen, which includes Globe War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker and the crew of his B-17 Flying Fortress.

In March 1942, this airplane was assigned to the battleship USS Indiana. It later underwent a six-month overhaul in California, returned to Pearl Harbor, and rejoined the Indiana in March 1944. Lt. j.g. Rollin M. Batten Jr. was awarded the Navy Cross for generating a daring rescue in this airplane under heavy enemy fire on July four, 1944.

Transferred from the United States Navy.

Manufacturer:
Vought-Sikorsky Aircraft Division

Date:
1937

Nation of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
General: 15ft 1 1/8in. x 33ft 9 1/2in., 4122.6lb., 36ft 1 1/16in. (460 x 1030cm, 1870kg, 1100cm)

Materials:
Wings covered with fabric aft of the principal spar

Physical Description:
Two-seat monoplane, deflector plate flaps hung from the trailing edge of the wing, ailerons drooped at low airspeeds to function like additional flaps, spoilers.

• • • • •

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress &quotEnola Gay&quot:

Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to property its crew in pressurized compartments. Though designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 discovered its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a range of aerial weapons: traditional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.

On August 6, 1945, this Martin-constructed B-29-45-MO dropped the 1st atomic weapon utilised in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. 3 days later, Bockscar (on show at the U.S. Air Force Museum close to Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on both missions.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Martin Co., Omaha, Nebr.

Date:
1945

Nation of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
General: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft six five/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)

Materials:
Polished all round aluminum finish

Physical Description:
4-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish general, common late-World War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin 509th Composite Group markings painted in black &quotEnola Gay&quot in black, block letters on decrease left nose.

1960 Borgward Isabella Coupé (02)

Image by Georg Sander
The Borgward Isabella is a medium sized two door saloon that was manufactured by the Bremen based auto-manufacturer Carl F. W. Borgward GmbH among 1954 and 1962. Initially the car was badged, like its predecessor, as the Hansa 1500, but within the firm it was identified from the starting by the code name, Isabella (following Carl Borgward’s wife), and automobiles developed after 1957 bore the ‘Isabella’ name, inscribed eye catchingly within the rhombus at the centre of the front grill: in retrospect the car produced from 1954 is identified as the Isabella to differentiate it from the (initial) Hansa 1500/1800 which the company produced among 1949 and 1954.

Regardless of its aspirational positioning in the marketplace, the Isabella had a smaller engine (and was marginally shorter) than its immediate predecessor. Late in 1952 the firm had launched their six cylinder Hansa 2400 model. The bigger automobile by no means identified many purchasers but in 1954 it created industrial sense to hold the two models from competing too straight with a single another.

Initial sales volumes have been not maintained. Responding to a sales decline of nearly a third between 1955 and 1956, Carl Borgward decided to produce a more beautiful Isabella with a shortened roof line. The Borgward Isabella Coupé was created, and the four hand built prototypes were well received by the press. Borgward gave one particular of these prototypes to his wife, Elizabeth, who would continue to drive it into the 1980s. Commercial production of the coupé, powered by the more strong TS version of the engine first seen in the cabriolet, commenced in January 1957. The coupe seems to have accomplished it is marketing and advertising objective of further distancing the Isabella’s image from similarly sized competitors from Opel and Ford.

(Wikipedia)

– – –

Die Borgward Isabella ist ein Mittelklassewagen der Carl F. W. Borgward G.m.b.H. in Bremen-Sebaldsbrück, das erfolgreichste Modell der Borgward-Gruppe, das ab ten. Juni 1954 zunächst unter dem Namen „Hansa 1500“ vom Band lief.

Der spätere Name „Isabella“ war nicht das Ergebnis von Marktuntersuchungen, sondern eine spontane Eingebung von Carl F. W. Borgward selbst. Gefragt, was man auf die noch streng geheimen Vorserien-Modelle schreiben solle, wenn sie Probefahrten im öffentlichen Verkehr machen, soll Borgward geantwortet haben: „Das ist mir egal schreibt meinetwegen Isabella drauf.&quot

Ab 1957 war der ursprüngliche Tarnname im Borgward-Rhombus des Kühlergrills zu lesen.

Die moderne Konzeption und die gefällige Erscheinung des Hansa 1500 (Isabella) wurden bei der Vorstellung 1954 enthusiastisch begrüßt. Der Wagen traf den Publikumsgeschmack und war vom ersten Tag an ein Verkaufserfolg. Der Wagen war nach einer Entwicklungszeit von nur zehn Monaten anfangs mit zahlreichen Kinderkrankheiten behaftet, die jedoch nach und nach abgestellt wurden.

Als 1956 der Absatz der Isabella gegenüber 1955 um fast ein Drittel zurückgegangen war, entschloss sich Carl Borgward, ein „schönes Auto“ mit verkürztem Dach zu bauen. Daraufhin entstand das Borgward Isabella Coupé, von dem zunächst vier Prototypen in die Öffentlichkeit gelangten und das Interesse der Presse weckten. Einen dieser handgefertigten Prototypen schenkte Borgward seiner Frau Elisabeth, die ihn bis in die 1980er Jahre fuhr.

Die Serienproduktion des Coupés (mit dem TS-Motor) begann im Januar 1957. Karl Deutsch in Köln wandelte auch dieses Modell in ein Cabriolet um, das aber den Schriftzug „Coupé“ am Heck behielt. Die Coupé-Cabriolets kosteten zwischen 15.600 und 17.000 DM.

(Wikipedia)

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Lockheed Martin X-35B Joint Strike Fighter, with other modern jet aircraft

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Lockheed Martin X-35B Joint Strike Fighter, with other modern jet aircraft

Some cool precision turning and machining pictures:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Lockheed Martin X-35B Joint Strike Fighter, with other modern day jet aircraft

Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed Martin X-35B STOVL:

This aircraft is the initial X-35 ever constructed. It was initially the X-35A and was modified to include the lift-fan engine for testing of the STOVL concept. Among its numerous test records, this aircraft was the first in history to obtain a quick takeoff, level supersonic dash, and vertical landing in a single flight. It is also the very first aircraft to fly using a shaft-driven lift-fan propulsion program. The X-35B flight test system was a single of the shortest, most powerful in history, lasting from June 23, 2001 to August 6, 2001.

The lift-fan propulsion technique is now displayed next to the X-35B at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center close to Dulles Airport.

On July 7, 2006, the production model F-35 was officially named F-35 Lightning II by T. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff USAF.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Date:
2001

Dimensions:
Wing span: 10.05 m (33 ft in)
Length: 15.47 m (50 ft 9 in)
Height: around five m (15 ft in)
Weight: around 35,000 lb.

Materials:
Composite material aircraft skin, alternating steel and titanium spars. Single-engine, single-seat configuration consists of lift-fan and steering bars for vertical flight.

Physical Description:
Short takeoff/vertical landing variant to be utilised by U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marines and the United Kingdom, equipped with a shaft-driven lift fan propulsion system which enables the aircraft to take off from a quick runway or modest aircraft carrier and to land vertically.
Engine: Pratt &amp Whitney JSF 119-PW-611 turbofan deflects thrust downward for short takeoff/vertical landing capability. The Air Force and Navy versions use a thrust-vectoring exhaust nozzle. The Marine Corps and Royal Air Force/Navy version has a swivel-duct nozzle an engine-driven fan behind the cockpit and air-reaction manage valves in the wings to provide stability at low speeds.
Other key subcontractors are Rolls Royce and BAE.

• • • • •

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Grumman A-6E Intruder:

The Navy’s expertise in the Korean War showed the need for a new extended-range strike aircraft with higher subsonic functionality at extremely low altitude–an aircraft that could penetrate enemy defenses and discover and destroy tiny targets in any climate. The Grumman A-6 Intruder was designed with these wants in mind. The Intruder very first flew in 1960 and was delivered to the Navy in 1963 and the Marine Corps in 1964.

The Navy accepted this airplane as an &quotA&quot model in 1968. It served under harsh combat situations in the skies more than Vietnam and is a veteran of the 1991 Desert Storm campaign, when it flew missions in the course of the initial 72 hours of the war. It has accumulated much more than 7,500 flying hours, more than 6,500 landings, 767 carrier landings, and 712 catapult launches.

Transferred from the United States Navy, Workplace of the Secretary

Date:
1960

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 16ft 2in. x 52ft 12in. x 54ft 9in., 26745.8lb. (4.928m x 16.154m x 16.688m, 12131.8kg)

Components:
Standard all-metal, graphite/epoxy wing (retrofit), aluminium handle surfaces, titanium high-strength fittings (wing-fold).

Physical Description:
Dual spot (side by side), twin-engine, all-weather attack aircraft several variants.

The Machine Keeps Turning

Image by Specialist Photography

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird port panorama (F-4 Corsair & P-40 Warhawk overhead)

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird port panorama (F-4 Corsair & P-40 Warhawk overhead)

Some cool plastic machining business images:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird port panorama (F-4 Corsair & P-40 Warhawk overhead)

Image by Chris Devers
See a lot more pictures of this, and the Wikipedia report.

Specifics, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Curtiss P-40E Warhawk (Kittyhawk IA):

Regardless of whether known as the Warhawk, Tomahawk, or Kittyhawk, the Curtiss P-40 proved to be a productive, versatile fighter during the initial half of Globe War II. The shark-mouthed Tomahawks that Gen. Claire Chennault’s &quotFlying Tigers&quot flew in China against the Japanese remain among the most common airplanes of the war. P-40E pilot Lt. Boyd D. Wagner became the very first American ace of Planet War II when he shot down six Japanese aircraft in the Philippines in mid-December 1941.

Curtiss-Wright constructed this airplane as Model 87-A3 and delivered it to Canada as a Kittyhawk I in 1941. It served until 1946 in No. 111 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. U.S. Air Force personnel at Andrews Air Force Base restored it in 1975 to represent an aircraft of the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, 14th Air Force.

Donated by the Exchange Club in Memory of Kellis Forbes.

Manufacturer:
Curtiss Aircraft Business

Date:
1939

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 330 x 970cm, 2686kg, 1140cm (10ft 9 15/16in. x 31ft 9 7/8in., 5921.6lb., 37ft 4 13/16in.)

Components:
All-metal, semi-monocoque

Physical Description:
Single engine, single seat, fighter aircraft.

• • • • •

See far more images of this, and the Wikipedia post.

Specifics, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:

No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in much more hostile airspace or with such total impunity than the SR-71, the world’s fastest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s efficiency and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technologies developments in the course of the Cold War.

This Blackbird accrued about two,800 hours of flight time throughout 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its final flight, March six, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, four minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging three,418 kilometers (two,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane more than to the Smithsonian.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation

Designer:
Clarence L. &quotKelly&quot Johnson

Date:
1964

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
Overall: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (5.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (5.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)

Materials:
Titanium

Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-type material) to lessen radar cross-section Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines function large inlet shock cones.

• • • • •

See more photographs of this, and the Wikipedia report.

Particulars, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Vought F4U-1D Corsair:

By V-J Day, September two, 1945, Corsair pilots had amassed an 11:1 kill ratio against enemy aircraft. The aircraft’s distinctive inverted gull-wing design and style allowed ground clearance for the huge, 3-bladed Hamilton Regular Hydromatic propeller, which spanned much more than 4 meters (13 feet). The Pratt and Whitney R-2800 radial engine and Hydromatic propeller was the biggest and a single of the most strong engine-propeller combinations ever flown on a fighter aircraft.

Charles Lindbergh flew bombing missions in a Corsair with Marine Air Group 31 against Japanese strongholds in the Pacific in 1944. This airplane is painted in the colors and markings of the Corsair Sun Setter, a Marine close-help fighter assigned to the USS Essex in July 1944.

Transferred from the United States Navy.

Manufacturer:
Vought Aircraft Firm

Date:
1940

Nation of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
Overall: 460 x 1020cm, 4037kg, 1250cm (15ft 1 1/8in. x 33ft 5 9/16in., 8900lb., 41ft 1/8in.)

Components:
All metal with fabric-covered wings behind the main spar.

Physical Description:
R-2800 radial air-cooled engine with 1,850 horsepower, turned a three-blade Hamilton Normal Hydromatic propeller with solid aluminum blades spanning 13 feet 1 inch wing bent gull-shaped on both sides of the fuselage.

Hasegawa 1/72 Grumman F-11F-1 Tiger, extended nose, Blue Angel #1

Image by wbaiv
Blue Angels Tigers have been the longest serving Tigers. Its a pretty tiny airplane but technologies was moving so speedily that supersonic in level flight, four X 20mm cannon, and in-flight refueling capability weren’t enough to make a Visual Flight Guidelines (VFR – ie not evening/all weather, no radar in the nose…) fighter extremely interesting to the Navy. For a complete redesign that was initially pitched as a derivative of the F9F Cougar/Panther, the TIger is a fairly neat piece of function.
But with Vought’s F8U-1 Crusader and McDonnell F3H-1 Demon carrying some radar and promising much more, along with much more internal volume for fuel, the Tiger was good, but not very great sufficient.
The massive fin and rudder had been direct final results of the F-100C crash that killed test pilot George Welch- North American doubled the size of the F-100D’s fin and rudder. Grumman revised their prototype really swiftly when word got back from Edwards AFB, where both the F9F-11 and F-one hundred had been getting tested. Soon the F9F-11 was the F-11F-1 and a really modern-sized fin and rudder graced every Tiger that flew. The Tiger was also region ruled from the onset – taking a lesson from the tough luck of the Lockheed YP-90 and Convair YF-102, which looked great but could not get past the drag boost of the &quotsound barrier&quot.
It all seems so incredible, Vought, Lockheed, Grumman, North American, McDonnell, Convair, not to overlook Douglas, Republic, (and dark-horses Northrup, Boeing and Martin) all creating single-seat jet fighters in the USA, although AVRO Canada was conceiving the CF-105 to follow the CF-100s. AVRO, de Havilland, Bristol, Hawker, Supermarine (and other individuals?) have been designing single-seat fighters in the UK NORD and Dassault were lighting up French skies, and Bill Lear Jr was leading the design and style of an indigenous *Swiss* single seat jet. MiG, Yak, Sukoi and Tupolev had been all at it in the Soviet Union also.
Jet engine power and economy were nothing like today- they were heavy, weak, and blew fuel out the tail-pipe as if it expense

An Odd Sense of Tidiness?

Image by Alan Stanton
Beer can on the railings of Chestnuts Park. 30 January 2013.

Our buddy Lix Ixer and I have attempted to envision what may well be in people’s minds when they litter. Especially when an individual seems to take slightly more care than just dropping or tossing away a drink can.

On Harringay Online internet site Liz recommended a list of nine &quottypes&quot of litterers. Study the full version here. The drink-can spiker may belong to Liz’s very first variety.

Liz Ixer’s List of &quottypes&quot of litterers.

1 &quotThere is often an odd sense of ‘tidiness’ about some litterers: these are the ones who meticulously pop their cans and paper down the backs of utility cabinets, balance them on walls or tuck them down the side of planters. A small bit of them knows what they are performing is wrong and they hope by getting ‘tidy’, they offend less (perhaps there is a distant memory of a mum or dad telling them to put it in the bin).&quot

two &quotFervent believers in the Haringey litter gods who should be propitiated with frequent offerings&quot.
3 &quotThose for whom littering is a civil liberties situation. You don’t have the right to inform them what to do with their lives, which includes what they do with their litter.&quot
four &quotSweet old ladies who cautiously sweep their front step and garden every single morning and then open the front gate and whoosh it all into the street. &quot
5 &quotThe group who believe they are keeping men and women in employment by spreading the litter far and wide.&quot
six &quotThe bone idle litterer . . . who can see a litter bin within a stride but can not be arsed to go 1 step out of their way to deposit their waste.&quot
7 &quotCar diners . . . who park up, acquire a fast meals delicacy from the several fine establishments in the area, return to their automobile, fill up on grease and carbs then pile the packaging into the gutter prior to driving off.&quot
eight &quotThe litter deniers …. have two excuses for themselves: ‘my one particular bottle/can/wrapper will not hurt as there is a bag awaiting collection anyway’ or ‘I would use a bin but they are as well manky/complete/hard to use’,&quot
9 &quotThe inebriated. After six lagers for £5, I doubt you could see the bin, let alone navigate your way to it.&quot

The aim is that by by understanding people’s behaviour it may possibly be changed. &quotWe require&quot, says Liz Ixer, &quotto be far more inventive and inventive in how we get people to be far more accountable.&quot

Liz mentions past public education campaigns. Also some current initiatives. Examples incorporate: a lot more incentives for people to recycle decreasing the use of plastic bags higher engagement with little quick meals outlets to assist clean up and with businesses to decrease packaging.

___________________________________

§ Read Liz Ixer’s comprehensive comment on Harringay On the internet web site..
§ This approach to behaviour alter has parallels with concepts in the book: Nudge: Enhancing Choices about Wellness, Wealth and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (2008).
§ Nudge employing a image of a housefly. Explained in a video of Richard Thaler.
§ Video of Cass Sunstein explaining Nudge at the WGBH Cambridge Forum.
§ Aerial view of exactly where I took this photo.
§ Pictures by Liz Ixer on Flickr.
§ By an Edinburgh cash machine – an impulse to tidiness?

.ten a gallon, which it most likely did. But they went faster the propeller engines. Compare the subterfuge and trickery all of these airframe firms of the 1950s were applying to the jet fighters of right now – tail surfaces are are nonetheless sharply swept, but wings got a lot straighter, since yet another ton or two of thrust is easier to make than a thin, tapering, swept structure that is stiff enough to do the job and cheap adequate to construct.
But the F11F or MiG-19, F-one hundred, F-8 Crusader, even the F-4 Phantom look like they’re going twice the speed of an F/A-18 or even the supercruise-capable F-22. (Supersonic without having afterburner).

IMG_6562

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Space exhibit panorama (Space Shuttle Enterprise)

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Space exhibit panorama (Space Shuttle Enterprise)

Check out these surface grinding stainless steel images:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Space exhibit panorama (Space Shuttle Enterprise)

Image by Chris Devers
See a lot more photos of this, and the Wikipedia report.

Specifics, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Space Shuttle Enterprise:

Manufacturer:
Rockwell International Corporation

Nation of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 57 ft. tall x 122 ft. extended x 78 ft. wing span, 150,000 lb.
(1737.36 x 3718.57 x 2377.44cm, 68039.6kg)

Components:
Aluminum airframe and physique with some fiberglass features payload bay doors are graphite epoxy composite thermal tiles are simulated (polyurethane foam) except for test samples of actual tiles and thermal blankets.

The first Space Shuttle orbiter, &quotEnterprise,&quot is a full-scale test vehicle utilised for flights in the atmosphere and tests on the ground it is not equipped for spaceflight. Though the airframe and flight manage components are like these of the Shuttles flown in space, this car has no propulsion method and only simulated thermal tiles since these characteristics had been not required for atmospheric and ground tests. &quotEnterprise&quot was rolled out at Rockwell International’s assembly facility in Palmdale, California, in 1976. In 1977, it entered service for a nine-month-lengthy method-and-landing test flight system. Thereafter it was used for vibration tests and fit checks at NASA centers, and it also appeared in the 1983 Paris Air Show and the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans. In 1985, NASA transferred &quotEnterprise&quot to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• • •

Quoting from Wikipedia | Space Shuttle Enterprise:

The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Automobile Designation: OV-101) was the initial Space Shuttle orbiter. It was constructed for NASA as element of the Space Shuttle plan to execute test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed with no engines or a functional heat shield, and was for that reason not capable of spaceflight.

Initially, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have made it the second space shuttle to fly soon after Columbia. Nonetheless, during the building of Columbia, details of the final style changed, particularly with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. Refitting Enterprise for spaceflight would have involved dismantling the orbiter and returning the sections to subcontractors across the country. As this was an high-priced proposition, it was determined to be less pricey to build Challenger around a physique frame (STA-099) that had been produced as a test post. Similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger after the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was built from structural spares alternatively.

Service

Construction started on the 1st orbiter on June four, 1974. Designated OV-101, it was initially planned to be named Constitution and unveiled on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976. A write-in campaign by Trekkies to President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named following the Starship Enterprise, featured on the tv show Star Trek. Even though Ford did not mention the campaign, the president—who during World War II had served on the aircraft carrier USS&nbspMonterey&nbsp(CVL-26) that served with USS&nbspEnterprise&nbsp(CV-six)—said that he was &quotpartial to the name&quot and overrode NASA officials.

The design of OV-101 was not the same as that planned for OV-102, the initial flight model the tail was constructed differently, and it did not have the interfaces to mount OMS pods. A large number of subsystems—ranging from major engines to radar equipment—were not installed on this car, but the capacity to add them in the future was retained. As an alternative of a thermal protection method, its surface was primarily fiberglass.

In mid-1976, the orbiter was used for ground vibration tests, permitting engineers to evaluate data from an actual flight automobile with theoretical models.

On September 17, 1976, Enterprise was rolled out of Rockwell’s plant at Palmdale, California. In recognition of its fictional namesake, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the principal cast of the original series of Star Trek were on hand at the dedication ceremony.

Strategy and landing tests (ALT)

Principal write-up: Method and Landing Tests

On January 31, 1977, it was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, to commence operational testing.

Whilst at NASA Dryden, Enterprise was utilised by NASA for a variety of ground and flight tests intended to validate elements of the shuttle system. The initial nine-month testing period was referred to by the acronym ALT, for &quotApproach and Landing Test&quot. These tests incorporated a maiden &quotflight&quot on February 18, 1977 atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking qualities of the mated technique. Ground tests of all orbiter subsystems had been carried out to verify functionality prior to atmospheric flight.

The mated Enterprise/SCA combination was then subjected to five test flights with Enterprise unmanned and unactivated. The purpose of these test flights was to measure the flight qualities of the mated mixture. These tests were followed with three test flights with Enterprise manned to test the shuttle flight control systems.

Enterprise underwent 5 totally free flights where the craft separated from the SCA and was landed below astronaut control. These tests verified the flight qualities of the orbiter style and had been carried out beneath several aerodynamic and weight configurations. On the fifth and final glider flight, pilot-induced oscillation problems had been revealed, which had to be addressed prior to the 1st orbital launch occurred.

On August 12, 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise flew on its own for the initial time.

Preparation for STS-1

Following the ALT program, Enterprise was ferried among numerous NASA facilities to configure the craft for vibration testing. In June 1979, it was mated with an external tank and strong rocket boosters (identified as a boilerplate configuration) and tested in a launch configuration at Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A.

Retirement

With the completion of critical testing, Enterprise was partially disassembled to let specific elements to be reused in other shuttles, then underwent an international tour going to France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the U.S. states of California, Alabama, and Louisiana (throughout the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition). It was also utilized to match-verify the never ever-used shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg AFB, California. Ultimately, on November 18, 1985, Enterprise was ferried to Washington, D.C., where it became home of the Smithsonian Institution.

Post-Challenger

Right after the Challenger disaster, NASA regarded as employing Enterprise as a replacement. Nonetheless refitting the shuttle with all of the needed gear necessary for it to be utilised in space was considered, but alternatively it was decided to use spares constructed at the identical time as Discovery and Atlantis to construct Endeavour.

Post-Columbia

In 2003, right after the breakup of Columbia for the duration of re-entry, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board carried out tests at Southwest Investigation Institute, which used an air gun to shoot foam blocks of similar size, mass and speed to that which struck Columbia at a test structure which mechanically replicated the orbiter wing leading edge. They removed a fiberglass panel from Enterprise’s wing to carry out analysis of the material and attached it to the test structure, then shot a foam block at it. Whilst the panel was not broken as a result of the test, the influence was sufficient to permanently deform a seal. As the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panel on Columbia was 2.five times weaker, this suggested that the RCC major edge would have been shattered. Further tests on the fiberglass have been canceled in order not to danger damaging the test apparatus, and a panel from Discovery was tested to establish the effects of the foam on a similarly-aged RCC top edge. On July 7, 2003, a foam effect test developed a hole 41&nbspcm by 42.5&nbspcm (16.1&nbspinches by 16.7&nbspinches) in the protective RCC panel. The tests clearly demonstrated that a foam influence of the variety Columbia sustained could seriously breach the protective RCC panels on the wing major edge.

The board determined that the probable trigger of the accident was that the foam impact caused a breach of a reinforced carbon-carbon panel along the top edge of Columbia’s left wing, permitting hot gases generated in the course of re-entry to enter the wing and cause structural collapse. This brought on Columbia to spin out of manage, breaking up with the loss of the whole crew.

Museum exhibit

Enterprise was stored at the Smithsonian’s hangar at Washington Dulles International Airport just before it was restored and moved to the newly constructed Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum‘s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport, where it has been the centerpiece of the space collection. On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that Space Shuttle Discovery, the most traveled orbiter in the fleet, will be added to the collection after the Shuttle fleet is retired. When that takes place, Enterprise will be moved to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, to a newly constructed hangar adjacent to the museum. In preparation for the anticipated relocation, engineers evaluated the automobile in early 2010 and determined that it was safe to fly on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft once again.

Korean War Memorial

Image by StarrGazr
From 1950 to 1953, the United States joined with the United Nations forces in Korea to take a stand against what was deemed a threat to democratic nations worldwide. At war’s end, a million and a half American veterans returned to a peacetime planet of households, houses, and jobs – and to a country long reluctant to view the Korean War as anything to memorialize. But to the men and females who served, the Korean War could never ever be a forgotten war.
The passing of more than four decades has brought a new perspective to the war and its aftermath. The time has come, in the eyes of the Nation, to set aside a location of remembrance for the people who served in this hard-fought war half a planet away. The Korean War Veterans Memorial honors these Americans who answered the get in touch with, these who worked and fought beneath the most attempting circumstances, and these who gave their lives for the lead to of freedom.

A War Half a Globe Away

Only 5 years had passed since the finish of Planet War II when the United States as soon as once more located itself embroiled in a key international conflict. In the early morning hours of June 25, 1950, the communist government of North Korea launched an attack into South Korea. Determined to help the world’s imperiled democracies, the United States immediately sent troops from Japan to join those already stationed in Korea they fought with other nations below the U.N. flag. What was envisioned as a brief, decisive campaign became a prolonged, bitter, frustrating fight that threatened to explode beyond Korean borders. For three years the fighting raged. In 1953 an uneasy peace returned by implies of a negotiated settlement that established a new boundary near the original one at the 38th parallel.
One particular-and-a-half million American guys and ladies, a true cross-section of the Nation’s populace, struggled side by side for the duration of the conflict. They served as soldiers, chaplains, nurses, clerks, and in a host of other combat and support roles. Several risked their lives in extraordinary acts of heroism. Of these, 131 received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Nation’s most esteemed tribute for combat bravery.

A Place for Reflection

Viewed from above, the memorial is a circle interesected by a triangle. Visitors approaching the memorial come first to the triangular Field of Service. Right here, a group of 19 stainless-steel statues, produced by Globe War II veteran Frank Gaylord, depicts a squad on patrol and evokes the encounter of American ground troops in Korea. Strips of granite and scrubby juniper bushes suggest the rugged Korean terrain, even though windblown ponchos recall the harsh climate. This symbolic patrol brings with each other members of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marines, and Navy the males portrayed are from a selection of ethnic backgrounds.
A granite curb on the north side of the statues lists the 22 countries of the United Nations that sent troops or gave healthcare assistance in defense of South Korea. On the south side is a black granite wall. Its polished surface mirrors the statues, intermingling the reflected images with the faces etched into the granite. The etched mural is primarily based on actual photographs of unidentified American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. The faces represent all these who offered help for the ground troops. Collectively these pictures reflect the determination of U.S. forces and the countless techniques in which Americans answered their country’s contact to duty.

The adjacent Pool of Remembrance, encircled by a grove of trees, provides a quiet setting. Numbers of those killed, wounded, missing in action, and held prisoner-of-war are etched in stone nearby. Opposite this counting of the war’s toll another granite wall bears a message inlaid in silver:
Freedom Is Not Cost-free.

Establishment and Dedication

On October 28, 1986, Congress authorized the American Battle Monuments Commission to establish a memorial in Washington, D.C., to honor members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Korean War. The Korean War Veterans Memorial Advisory Board was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to suggest a internet site and style, and to raise building funds. Ground was broken in November 1993. Frank Gaylord was selected as the principal sculptor of the statues and Louis Nelson was chosen to create the mural of etched faces on the wall. On July 27, 1995, the 42nd anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War, the memorial was devoted by President William J. Clinton and Kim Young Sam, President of the Republic of Korea.

Going to the Memorial

The memorial is staffed from eight a.m. to midnight each and every day of the year except December 25 by park rangers who are obtainable to answer inquiries and give talks. A bookstore in the nearby Lincoln Memorial sells informational products relating to both the memorial and the Korean War.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial is element of the National Park Technique, one of a lot more than 370 parks representing our nation’s all-natural and cultural heritage. Address inqueries to: Superintendent, National Capital Parks-Central, 900 Ohio Drive, SW, Washington, DC 20024-2000.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Photomontage of SR-71 on the port side

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Photomontage of SR-71 on the port side

A handful of nice surface grinding aluminum photos I found:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Photomontage of SR-71 on the port side

Image by Chris Devers
Posted by way of e-mail to ☛ HoloChromaCinePhotoRamaScope‽: cdevers.posterous.com/panoramas-of-the-sr-71-blackbird-at…. See the full gallery on Posterous …

• • • • •

See a lot more images of this, and the Wikipedia post.

Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:

No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in a lot more hostile airspace or with such comprehensive impunity than the SR-71, the world’s quickest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s efficiency and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments throughout the Cold War.

This Blackbird accrued about 2,800 hours of flight time for the duration of 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its final flight, March 6, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 3,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation

Designer:
Clarence L. &quotKelly&quot Johnson

Date:
1964

Nation of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 18ft five 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (5.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (5.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)

Components:
Titanium

Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-type material) to minimize radar cross-section Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines function huge inlet shock cones.

Long Description:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in more hostile airspace or with such full impunity than the SR-71 Blackbird. It is the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird’s performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technologies developments throughout the Cold War. The airplane was conceived when tensions with communist Eastern Europe reached levels approaching a complete-blown crisis in the mid-1950s. U.S. military commanders desperately required precise assessments of Soviet worldwide military deployments, particularly near the Iron Curtain. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s subsonic U-2 (see NASM collection) reconnaissance aircraft was an able platform but the U. S. Air Force recognized that this fairly slow aircraft was currently vulnerable to Soviet interceptors. They also understood that the fast development of surface-to-air missile systems could put U-two pilots at grave threat. The danger proved reality when a U-2 was shot down by a surface to air missile over the Soviet Union in 1960.

Lockheed’s initial proposal for a new higher speed, higher altitude, reconnaissance aircraft, to be capable of avoiding interceptors and missiles, centered on a design and style propelled by liquid hydrogen. This proved to be impracticable simply because of considerable fuel consumption. Lockheed then reconfigured the design and style for conventional fuels. This was feasible and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), already flying the Lockheed U-two, issued a production contract for an aircraft designated the A-12. Lockheed’s clandestine ‘Skunk Works’ division (headed by the gifted style engineer Clarence L. &quotKelly&quot Johnson) developed the A-12 to cruise at Mach 3.two and fly well above 18,288 m (60,000 feet). To meet these difficult requirements, Lockheed engineers overcame a lot of daunting technical challenges. Flying far more than three instances the speed of sound generates 316° C (600° F) temperatures on external aircraft surfaces, which are adequate to melt standard aluminum airframes. The style group chose to make the jet’s external skin of titanium alloy to which shielded the internal aluminum airframe. Two standard, but extremely effective, afterburning turbine engines propelled this exceptional aircraft. These energy plants had to operate across a large speed envelope in flight, from a takeoff speed of 334 kph (207 mph) to much more than 3,540 kph (2,200 mph). To avoid supersonic shock waves from moving inside the engine intake causing flameouts, Johnson’s group had to style a complicated air intake and bypass program for the engines.

Skunk Functions engineers also optimized the A-12 cross-section design and style to exhibit a low radar profile. Lockheed hoped to attain this by carefully shaping the airframe to reflect as tiny transmitted radar energy (radio waves) as attainable, and by application of particular paint designed to absorb, rather than reflect, those waves. This treatment became one particular of the very first applications of stealth technologies, but it never totally met the style objectives.

Test pilot Lou Schalk flew the single-seat A-12 on April 24, 1962, following he became airborne accidentally in the course of high-speed taxi trials. The airplane showed great promise but it required considerable technical refinement prior to the CIA could fly the first operational sortie on May possibly 31, 1967 – a surveillance flight more than North Vietnam. A-12s, flown by CIA pilots, operated as portion of the Air Force’s 1129th Specific Activities Squadron beneath the &quotOxcart&quot program. While Lockheed continued to refine the A-12, the U. S. Air Force ordered an interceptor version of the aircraft designated the YF-12A. The Skunk Performs, nevertheless, proposed a &quotspecific mission&quot version configured to conduct post-nuclear strike reconnaissance. This system evolved into the USAF’s familiar SR-71.

Lockheed built fifteen A-12s, which includes a specific two-seat trainer version. Two A-12s have been modified to carry a particular reconnaissance drone, designated D-21. The modified A-12s have been redesignated M-21s. These have been designed to take off with the D-21 drone, powered by a Marquart ramjet engine mounted on a pylon among the rudders. The M-21 then hauled the drone aloft and launched it at speeds high enough to ignite the drone’s ramjet motor. Lockheed also built 3 YF-12As but this kind in no way went into production. Two of the YF-12As crashed in the course of testing. Only 1 survives and is on show at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The aft section of one particular of the &quotwritten off&quot YF-12As which was later employed along with an SR-71A static test airframe to manufacture the sole SR-71C trainer. 1 SR-71 was lent to NASA and designated YF-12C. Which includes the SR-71C and two SR-71B pilot trainers, Lockheed constructed thirty-two Blackbirds. The initial SR-71 flew on December 22, 1964. Because of extreme operational fees, military strategists decided that the far more capable USAF SR-71s need to replace the CIA’s A-12s. These have been retired in 1968 soon after only 1 year of operational missions, mainly over southeast Asia. The Air Force’s 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (portion of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing) took more than the missions, flying the SR-71 beginning in the spring of 1968.

Right after the Air Force began to operate the SR-71, it acquired the official name Blackbird– for the unique black paint that covered the airplane. This paint was formulated to absorb radar signals, to radiate some of the tremendous airframe heat generated by air friction, and to camouflage the aircraft against the dark sky at high altitudes.

Knowledge gained from the A-12 system convinced the Air Force that flying the SR-71 safely necessary two crew members, a pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO). The RSO operated with the wide array of monitoring and defensive systems installed on the airplane. This gear included a sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) technique that could jam most acquisition and targeting radar. In addition to an array of sophisticated, high-resolution cameras, the aircraft could also carry equipment designed to record the strength, frequency, and wavelength of signals emitted by communications and sensor devices such as radar. The SR-71 was made to fly deep into hostile territory, avoiding interception with its tremendous speed and high altitude. It could operate safely at a maximum speed of Mach 3.3 at an altitude more than sixteen miles, or 25,908 m (85,000 ft), above the earth. The crew had to put on stress suits comparable to these worn by astronauts. These suits were essential to shield the crew in the event of sudden cabin stress loss although at operating altitudes.

To climb and cruise at supersonic speeds, the Blackbird’s Pratt &amp Whitney J-58 engines had been made to operate constantly in afterburner. Even though this would appear to dictate high fuel flows, the Blackbird truly accomplished its very best &quotgas mileage,&quot in terms of air nautical miles per pound of fuel burned, during the Mach 3+ cruise. A typical Blackbird reconnaissance flight might require many aerial refueling operations from an airborne tanker. Each time the SR-71 refueled, the crew had to descend to the tanker’s altitude, typically about six,000 m to 9,000 m (20,000 to 30,000 ft), and slow the airplane to subsonic speeds. As velocity decreased, so did frictional heat. This cooling impact triggered the aircraft’s skin panels to shrink considerably, and these covering the fuel tanks contracted so considerably that fuel leaked, forming a distinctive vapor trail as the tanker topped off the Blackbird. As quickly as the tanks were filled, the jet’s crew disconnected from the tanker, relit the afterburners, and again climbed to higher altitude.

Air Force pilots flew the SR-71 from Kadena AB, Japan, throughout its operational career but other bases hosted Blackbird operations, also. The 9th SRW sometimes deployed from Beale AFB, California, to other places to carryout operational missions. Cuban missions had been flown straight from Beale. The SR-71 did not begin to operate in Europe until 1974, and then only temporarily. In 1982, when the U.S. Air Force primarily based two aircraft at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall to fly monitoring mission in Eastern Europe.

When the SR-71 became operational, orbiting reconnaissance satellites had already replaced manned aircraft to collect intelligence from sites deep inside Soviet territory. Satellites could not cover each geopolitical hotspot so the Blackbird remained a important tool for global intelligence gathering. On numerous occasions, pilots and RSOs flying the SR-71 offered data that proved crucial in formulating successful U. S. foreign policy. Blackbird crews provided crucial intelligence about the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, and pre- and post-strike imagery of the 1986 raid conducted by American air forces on Libya. In 1987, Kadena-primarily based SR-71 crews flew a quantity of missions more than the Persian Gulf, revealing Iranian Silkworm missile batteries that threatened commercial shipping and American escort vessels.

As the overall performance of space-primarily based surveillance systems grew, along with the effectiveness of ground-based air defense networks, the Air Force started to lose enthusiasm for the expensive plan and the 9th SRW ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990. Despite protests by military leaders, Congress revived the program in 1995. Continued wrangling more than operating budgets, even so, soon led to final termination. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration retained two SR-71As and the a single SR-71B for high-speed investigation projects and flew these airplanes till 1999.

On March 6, 1990, the service career of a single Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird ended with a record-setting flight. This special airplane bore Air Force serial number 64-17972. Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding and his RSO, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Vida, flew this aircraft from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in 1 hour, four minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging a speed of 3,418 kph (two,124 mph). At the conclusion of the flight, ‘972 landed at Dulles International Airport and taxied into the custody of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. At that time, Lt. Col. Vida had logged 1,392.7 hours of flight time in Blackbirds, much more than that of any other crewman.

This particular SR-71 was also flown by Tom Alison, a former National Air and Space Museum’s Chief of Collections Management. Flying with Detachment 1 at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Alison logged a lot more than a dozen ‘972 operational sorties. The aircraft spent twenty-four years in active Air Force service and accrued a total of 2,801.1 hours of flight time.

Wingspan: 55’7&quot
Length: 107’5&quot
Height: 18’6&quot
Weight: 170,000 Lbs

Reference and Further Reading:

Crickmore, Paul F. Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996.

Francillon, Rene J. Lockheed Aircraft Since 1913. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1987.

Johnson, Clarence L. Kelly: More Than My Share of It All. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.

Miller, Jay. Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Functions. Leicester, U.K.: Midland Counties Publishing Ltd., 1995.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird curatorial file, Aeronautics Division, National Air and Space Museum.

DAD, 11-11-01

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Vought F4U-1D Corsair

Verify out these surface grinding manufacturer images:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Vought F4U-1D Corsair

Image by Chris Devers
See more images of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Vought F4U-1D Corsair:

By V-J Day, September 2, 1945, Corsair pilots had amassed an 11:1 kill ratio against enemy aircraft. The aircraft’s distinctive inverted gull-wing design permitted ground clearance for the huge, 3-bladed Hamilton Regular Hydromatic propeller, which spanned more than 4 meters (13 feet). The Pratt and Whitney R-2800 radial engine and Hydromatic propeller was the biggest and one of the most effective engine-propeller combinations ever flown on a fighter aircraft.

Charles Lindbergh flew bombing missions in a Corsair with Marine Air Group 31 against Japanese strongholds in the Pacific in 1944. This airplane is painted in the colors and markings of the Corsair Sun Setter, a Marine close-help fighter assigned to the USS Essex in July 1944.

Transferred from the United States Navy.

Manufacturer:
Vought Aircraft Firm

Date:
1940

Nation of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 460 x 1020cm, 4037kg, 1250cm (15ft 1 1/8in. x 33ft 5 9/16in., 8900lb., 41ft 1/8in.)

Components:
All metal with fabric-covered wings behind the major spar.

Physical Description:
R-2800 radial air-cooled engine with 1,850 horsepower, turned a 3-blade Hamilton Normal Hydromatic propeller with solid aluminum blades spanning 13 feet 1 inch wing bent gull-shaped on each sides of the fuselage.

Extended Description:
On February 1, 1938, the United States Navy Bureau of Aeronautics requested proposals from American aircraft companies for a new carrier-based fighter airplane. During April, the Vought Aircraft Corporation responded with two styles and 1 of them, powered by a Pratt &amp Whitney R-2800 engine, won the competitors in June. Much less than a year later, Vought test pilot Lyman A. Bullard, Jr., first flew the Vought XF4U-1 prototype on Might 29, 1940. At that time, the largest engine driving the biggest propeller ever flown on a fighter aircraft propelled Bullard on this test flight. The R-2800 radial air-cooled engine developed 1,850 horsepower and it turned a three-blade Hamilton Normal Hydromatic propeller with solid aluminum blades spanning 13 feet 1 inch.

The airplane Bullard flew also had yet another striking function, a wing bent gull-shaped on each sides of the fuselage. This arrangement gave additional ground clearance for the propeller and reduced drag at the wing-to-fuselage joint. Ironically for a 644-kph (400 mph) airplane, Vought covered the wing with fabric behind the principal spar, a practice the firm also followed on the OS2U Kingfisher (see NASM collection).

When naval air strategists had crafted the specifications for the new fighter, the require for speed had overridden all other functionality targets. With this in thoughts, the Bureau of Aeronautics selected the most powerful air-cooled engine available, the R-2800. Vought assembled a team, lead by chief designer Rex Biesel, to design the ideal airframe about this strong engine. The group incorporated project engineer Frank Albright, aerodynamics engineer Paul Baker, and propulsion engineer James Shoemaker. Biesel and his team succeeded in developing a very quickly fighter but when they redesigned the prototype for production, they have been forced to make an unfortunate compromise.

The Navy requested heavier armament for production Corsairs and Biesel redesigned each and every outboard folding wing panel to carry three .50 caliber machine guns. These guns displaced fuel tanks installed in every single wing top edge. To replace this lost capacity, an 897-liter (237 gal) fuselage tank was installed in between the cockpit and the engine. To maintain the speedy and narrow fuselage profile, Biesel could not stack the cockpit on leading of the tank, so he moved it almost three feet aft. Now the wing totally blocked the pilot’s line of sight for the duration of the most vital stages of landing. The early Corsair also had a vicious stall, effective torque and propeller effects at slow speed, a brief tail wheel strut, major gear struts that often bounced the airplane at touchdown, and cowl flap actuators that leaked oil onto the windshield. These issues, combined with the lack of cockpit visibility, made the airplane almost not possible to land on the tiny deck of an aircraft carrier. Navy pilots quickly nicknamed the F4U the ‘ensign eliminator’ for its tendency to kill these inexperienced aviators. The Navy refused to clear the F4U for carrier operations until late in 1944, a lot more than seven years right after the project started.

This flaw did not deter the Navy from accepting Corsairs since Navy and Marine pilots sorely necessary an enhanced fighter to replace the Grumman F4F Wildcat (see NASM collection). By New Year’s Eve, 1942, the service owned 178 F4U-1 airplanes. Early in 1943, the Navy decided to divert all Corsairs to land-based United States Marine Corps squadrons and fill Navy carrier-based units with the Grumman F6F Hellcat (see NASM collection). At its ideal speed of 612 kph (380 mph) at six,992 m (23,000 ft), the Hellcat was about 24 kph (15 mph) slower than the Corsair but it was a joy to fly aboard the carrier. The F6F filled in splendidly until improvements to the F4U certified it for carrier operations. Meanwhile, the Marines on Guadalcanal took their Corsairs into combat and engaged the enemy for the first time on February 14, 1943, six months prior to Hellcat pilots on that battle-scared island initial encountered enemy aircraft.

The F4U had an quick influence on the Pacific air war. Pilots could use the Corsair’s speed and firepower to engage the more maneuverable Japanese airplanes only when the benefit favored the Americans. Unprotected by armor or self-sealing fuel tanks, no Japanese fighter or bomber could withstand for far more than a few seconds the concentrated volley from the six .50 caliber machine guns carried by a Corsair. Major Gregory &quotPappy&quot Boyington assumed command of Marine Corsair squadron VMF-214, nicknamed the ‘Black Sheep’ squadron, on September 7, 1943. During much less than five months of action, Boyington received credit for downing 28 enemy aircraft. Enemy aircraft shot him down on January three, 1944, but he survived the war in a Japanese prison camp.

In Might and June 1944, Charles A. Lindbergh flew Corsair missions with Marine pilots at Green Island and Emirau. On September three, 1944, Lindbergh demonstrated the F4U’s bomb hauling capacity by flying a Corsair from Marine Air Group 31 carrying three bombs every single weighing 450 kg (1,000 lb). He dropped this load on enemy positions at Wotje Atoll. On the September 8, Lindbergh dropped the first 900-kg (two,000 lb) bomb during an attack on the atoll. For the finale 5 days later, the Atlantic flyer delivered a 900-kg (2,000 lb) bomb and two 450-kg (1,000 lb) bombs. Lindbergh went ahead and flew these missions following the commander of MAG-31 informed him that if he was forced down and captured, the Japanese would nearly certainly execute him.

As of V-J Day, September 2, 1945, the Navy credited Corsair pilots with destroying two,140 enemy aircraft in aerial combat. The Navy and Marines lost 189 F4Us in combat and 1,435 Corsairs in non-combat accidents. Starting on February 13, 1942, Marine and Navy pilots flew 64,051 operational sorties, 54,470 from runways and 9,581 from carrier decks. During the war, the British Royal Navy accepted 2,012 Corsairs and the Royal New Zealand Air Force accepted 364. The demand was so fantastic that the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation and the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation also produced the F4U.

Corsairs returned to Navy carrier decks and Marine airfields for the duration of the Korean War. On September 10, 1952, Captain Jesse Folmar of Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-312 destroyed a MiG-15 in aerial combat more than the west coast of Korea. However, F4U pilots did not have several air-to-air encounters over Korea. Their major mission was to assistance Allied ground units along the battlefront.

Following the World War II, civilian pilots adapted the speedy bent-wing bird from Vought to fly in competitive air races. They preferred modified versions of the F2G-1 and -2 originally built by Goodyear. Corsairs won the prestigious Thompson Trophy twice. In 1952, Vought manufactured 94 F4U-7s for the French Navy, and these aircraft saw action more than Indochina but this order marked the end of Corsair production. In production longer than any other U.S. fighter to see service in Globe War II, Vought, Goodyear, and Brewster built a total of 12,582 F4Us.

The United States Navy donated an F4U-1D to the National Air and Space Museum in September 1960. Vought delivered this Corsair, Bureau of Aeronautics serial quantity 50375, to the Navy on April 26, 1944. By October, pilots of VF-ten had been flying it but in November, the airplane was transferred to VF-89 at Naval Air Station Atlantic City. It remained there as the squadron moved to NAS Oceana and NAS Norfolk. During February 1945, the Navy withdrew the airplane from active service and transferred it to a pool of surplus aircraft stored at Quantico, Virginia. In 1980, NASM craftsmen restored the F4U-1D in the colors and markings of a Corsair named &quotSun Setter,&quot a fighter assigned to Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-114 when that unit served aboard the &quotUSS Essex&quot in July 1944.

• • •

Quoting from Wikipedia | Vought F4U Corsair:

The Likelihood Vought F4U Corsair was a carrier-capable fighter aircraft that saw service mainly in Globe War II and the Korean War. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought’s manufacturing capability, resulting in production by Goodyear and Brewster: Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and Brewster-constructed aircraft F3A. From the initial prototype delivery to the U.S. Navy in 1940, to final delivery in 1953 to the French, 12,571 F4U Corsairs had been manufactured by Vought, in 16 separate models, in the longest production run of any piston-engined fighter in U.S. history (1942–1953).

The Corsair served in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marines, Fleet Air Arm and the Royal New Zealand Air Force, as nicely as the French Navy Aeronavale and other, smaller sized, air forces until the 1960s. It rapidly became the most capable carrier-based fighter-bomber of World War II. Some Japanese pilots regarded it as the most formidable American fighter of World War II, and the U.S. Navy counted an 11:1 kill ratio with the F4U Corsair.

F4U-1D (Corsair Mk IV): Constructed in parallel with the F4U-1C, but was introduced in April 1944. It had the new -8W water-injection engine. This adjust gave the aircraft up to 250&nbsphp (190&nbspkW) far more power, which, in turn, improved performance. Speed, for example, was boosted from 417 miles per hour (671&nbspkm/h) to 425 miles per hour (684&nbspkm/h). Since of the U.S. Navy’s require for fighter-bombers, it had a payload of rockets double the -1A’s, as nicely as twin-rack plumbing for an extra belly drop tank. Such modifications necessitated the require for rocket tabs (attached to totally metal-plated underwing surfaces) and bomb pylons to be bolted on the fighter, nonetheless, causing additional drag. Moreover, the role of fighter-bombing was a new task for the Corsair and the wing fuel cells proved also vulnerable and had been removed.[] The additional fuel carried by the two drop tanks would nonetheless allow the aircraft to fly relatively extended missions despite the heavy, un-aerodynamic load. The normal armament of six machine guns have been implemented as properly. The canopies of most -1Ds had their struts removed along with their metal caps, which had been utilized&nbsp— at one point&nbsp— as a measure to avoid the canopies’ glass from cracking as they moved along the fuselage spines of the fighters.[] Also, the clear-view style &quotMalcolm Hood&quot canopy utilised initially on Supermarine Spitfire and P-51C Mustang aircraft was adopted as standard equipment for the -1D model, and all later F4U production aircraft. Additional production was carried out by Goodyear (FG-1D) and Brewster (F3A-1D). In Fleet Air Arm service, the latter was known as the Corsair III, and both had their wingtips clipped by 8&quot per wing to enable storage in the reduce hangars of British carriers.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Space Shuttle Enterprise (starboard view)

Image by Chris Devers

See much more photographs of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Specifics, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Space Shuttle Enterprise:

Manufacturer:
Rockwell International Corporation

Nation of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 57 ft. tall x 122 ft. lengthy x 78 ft. wing span, 150,000 lb.
(1737.36 x 3718.57 x 2377.44cm, 68039.6kg)

Materials:
Aluminum airframe and body with some fiberglass attributes payload bay doors are graphite epoxy composite thermal tiles are simulated (polyurethane foam) except for test samples of actual tiles and thermal blankets.

The initial Space Shuttle orbiter, &quotEnterprise,&quot is a full-scale test vehicle employed for flights in the atmosphere and tests on the ground it is not equipped for spaceflight. Though the airframe and flight control elements are like those of the Shuttles flown in space, this car has no propulsion program and only simulated thermal tiles due to the fact these attributes had been not required for atmospheric and ground tests. &quotEnterprise&quot was rolled out at Rockwell International’s assembly facility in Palmdale, California, in 1976. In 1977, it entered service for a nine-month-extended strategy-and-landing test flight system. Thereafter it was utilised for vibration tests and fit checks at NASA centers, and it also appeared in the 1983 Paris Air Show and the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans. In 1985, NASA transferred &quotEnterprise&quot to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• • •

Quoting from Wikipedia | Space Shuttle Enterprise:

The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Automobile Designation: OV-101) was the very first Space Shuttle orbiter. It was constructed for NASA as element of the Space Shuttle program to execute test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed without having engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight.

Originally, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have created it the second space shuttle to fly soon after Columbia. Even so, during the construction of Columbia, information of the final style changed, particularly with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. Refitting Enterprise for spaceflight would have involved dismantling the orbiter and returning the sections to subcontractors across the country. As this was an pricey proposition, it was determined to be significantly less expensive to develop Challenger around a physique frame (STA-099) that had been designed as a test post. Similarly, Enterprise was deemed for refit to replace Challenger following the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was constructed from structural spares instead.

Service

Construction started on the very first orbiter on June four, 1974. Designated OV-101, it was originally planned to be named Constitution and unveiled on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976. A create-in campaign by Trekkies to President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the television show Star Trek. Although Ford did not mention the campaign, the president—who throughout Globe War II had served on the aircraft carrier USS&nbspMonterey&nbsp(CVL-26) that served with USS&nbspEnterprise&nbsp(CV-6)—said that he was &quotpartial to the name&quot and overrode NASA officials.

The design of OV-101 was not the exact same as that planned for OV-102, the first flight model the tail was constructed differently, and it did not have the interfaces to mount OMS pods. A big number of subsystems—ranging from main engines to radar equipment—were not installed on this vehicle, but the capacity to add them in the future was retained. As an alternative of a thermal protection program, its surface was mostly fiberglass.

In mid-1976, the orbiter was utilized for ground vibration tests, permitting engineers to evaluate information from an actual flight vehicle with theoretical models.

On September 17, 1976, Enterprise was rolled out of Rockwell’s plant at Palmdale, California. In recognition of its fictional namesake, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the principal cast of the original series of Star Trek have been on hand at the dedication ceremony.

Method and landing tests (ALT)

Major write-up: Strategy and Landing Tests

On January 31, 1977, it was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, to commence operational testing.

Although at NASA Dryden, Enterprise was used by NASA for a range of ground and flight tests intended to validate elements of the shuttle plan. The initial nine-month testing period was referred to by the acronym ALT, for &quotApproach and Landing Test&quot. These tests incorporated a maiden &quotflight&quot on February 18, 1977 atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking traits of the mated method. Ground tests of all orbiter subsystems have been carried out to verify functionality prior to atmospheric flight.

The mated Enterprise/SCA combination was then subjected to five test flights with Enterprise unmanned and unactivated. The objective of these test flights was to measure the flight qualities of the mated mixture. These tests were followed with three test flights with Enterprise manned to test the shuttle flight manage systems.

Enterprise underwent five cost-free flights where the craft separated from the SCA and was landed beneath astronaut handle. These tests verified the flight qualities of the orbiter style and were carried out below numerous aerodynamic and weight configurations. On the fifth and final glider flight, pilot-induced oscillation issues have been revealed, which had to be addressed ahead of the very first orbital launch occurred.

On August 12, 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise flew on its personal for the initial time.

Preparation for STS-1

Following the ALT plan, Enterprise was ferried among several NASA facilities to configure the craft for vibration testing. In June 1979, it was mated with an external tank and solid rocket boosters (known as a boilerplate configuration) and tested in a launch configuration at Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A.

Retirement

With the completion of vital testing, Enterprise was partially disassembled to allow specific elements to be reused in other shuttles, then underwent an international tour visiting France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the U.S. states of California, Alabama, and Louisiana (in the course of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition). It was also used to match-check the never-utilised shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg AFB, California. Lastly, on November 18, 1985, Enterprise was ferried to Washington, D.C., where it became property of the Smithsonian Institution.

Post-Challenger

Soon after the Challenger disaster, NASA regarded as employing Enterprise as a replacement. However refitting the shuttle with all of the necessary gear required for it to be utilized in space was considered, but alternatively it was decided to use spares constructed at the identical time as Discovery and Atlantis to develop Endeavour.

Post-Columbia

In 2003, right after the breakup of Columbia in the course of re-entry, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board performed tests at Southwest Research Institute, which used an air gun to shoot foam blocks of similar size, mass and speed to that which struck Columbia at a test structure which mechanically replicated the orbiter wing major edge. They removed a fiberglass panel from Enterprise’s wing to perform analysis of the material and attached it to the test structure, then shot a foam block at it. Even though the panel was not broken as a outcome of the test, the influence was sufficient to permanently deform a seal. As the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panel on Columbia was 2.five occasions weaker, this recommended that the RCC major edge would have been shattered. Further tests on the fiberglass had been canceled in order not to threat damaging the test apparatus, and a panel from Discovery was tested to determine the effects of the foam on a similarly-aged RCC leading edge. On July 7, 2003, a foam influence test designed a hole 41&nbspcm by 42.five&nbspcm (16.1&nbspinches by 16.7&nbspinches) in the protective RCC panel. The tests clearly demonstrated that a foam impact of the sort Columbia sustained could seriously breach the protective RCC panels on the wing leading edge.

The board determined that the probable trigger of the accident was that the foam effect triggered a breach of a reinforced carbon-carbon panel along the major edge of Columbia’s left wing, permitting hot gases generated for the duration of re-entry to enter the wing and trigger structural collapse. This caused Columbia to spin out of handle, breaking up with the loss of the entire crew.

Museum exhibit

Enterprise was stored at the Smithsonian’s hangar at Washington Dulles International Airport just before it was restored and moved to the newly constructed Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum‘s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport, where it has been the centerpiece of the space collection. On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that Space Shuttle Discovery, the most traveled orbiter in the fleet, will be added to the collection when the Shuttle fleet is retired. When that occurs, Enterprise will be moved to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, to a newly constructed hangar adjacent to the museum. In preparation for the anticipated relocation, engineers evaluated the vehicle in early 2010 and determined that it was secure to fly on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft after once more.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: P-40 Warhawk & F-4 Corsair hanging more than the SR-71 Blackbird, amongst other folks

Some cool machined components companies photos:

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: P-40 Warhawk & F-4 Corsair hanging over the SR-71 Blackbird, amongst other folks

Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Curtiss P-40E Warhawk (Kittyhawk IA):

Whether or not identified as the Warhawk, Tomahawk, or Kittyhawk, the Curtiss P-40 proved to be a profitable, versatile fighter in the course of the very first half of World War II. The shark-mouthed Tomahawks that Gen. Claire Chennault’s &quotFlying Tigers&quot flew in China against the Japanese stay among the most popular airplanes of the war. P-40E pilot Lt. Boyd D. Wagner became the very first American ace of Globe War II when he shot down six Japanese aircraft in the Philippines in mid-December 1941.

Curtiss-Wright constructed this airplane as Model 87-A3 and delivered it to Canada as a Kittyhawk I in 1941. It served till 1946 in No. 111 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. U.S. Air Force personnel at Andrews Air Force Base restored it in 1975 to represent an aircraft of the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, 14th Air Force.

Donated by the Exchange Club in Memory of Kellis Forbes.

Manufacturer:
Curtiss Aircraft Firm

Date:
1939

Nation of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 330 x 970cm, 2686kg, 1140cm (10ft 9 15/16in. x 31ft 9 7/8in., 5921.6lb., 37ft four 13/16in.)

Supplies:
All-metal, semi-monocoque

Physical Description:
Single engine, single seat, fighter aircraft.

• • • • •

See much more images of this, and the Wikipedia article.

Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:

No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in more hostile airspace or with such total impunity than the SR-71, the world’s quickest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s functionality and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments for the duration of the Cold War.

This Blackbird accrued about two,800 hours of flight time throughout 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its last flight, March 6, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 3,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation

Designer:
Clarence L. &quotKelly&quot Johnson

Date:
1964

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 18ft five 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (5.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (5.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)

Components:
Titanium

Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-kind material) to reduce radar cross-section Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines feature massive inlet shock cones.

• • • • •

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Vought F4U-1D Corsair :

By V-J Day, September 2, 1945, Corsair pilots had amassed an 11:1 kill ratio against enemy aircraft. The aircraft’s distinctive inverted gull-wing style permitted ground clearance for the enormous, three-bladed Hamilton Common Hydromatic propeller, which spanned a lot more than four meters (13 feet). The Pratt and Whitney R-2800 radial engine and Hydromatic propeller was the largest and one particular of the most strong engine-propeller combinations ever flown on a fighter aircraft.

Charles Lindbergh flew bombing missions in a Corsair with Marine Air Group 31 against Japanese strongholds in the Pacific in 1944. This airplane is painted in the colors and markings of the Corsair Sun Setter, a Marine close-help fighter assigned to the USS Essex in July 1944.

Transferred from the United States Navy.

Manufacturer:
Vought Aircraft Business

Date:
1940

Country of Origin:
United States of America

Dimensions:
All round: 460 x 1020cm, 4037kg, 1250cm (15ft 1 1/8in. x 33ft 5 9/16in., 8900lb., 41ft 1/8in.)

Supplies:
All metal with fabric-covered wings behind the primary spar.

Physical Description:
R-2800 radial air-cooled engine with 1,850 horsepower, turned a three-blade Hamilton Standard Hydromatic propeller with solid aluminum blades spanning 13 feet 1 inch wing bent gull-shaped on each sides of the fuselage.