Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - January 15, 2025 [TRex]

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.

This is the low profile Wednesday night ONT. For this one, the afterburners are lit and we are in high altitude stealth mode for minimum detection.

There seems to be a positive sentiment among the Horde towards the Lockheed Blackbird. You might sense a theme in this edition of the ONT. This is still an ONT, so feel free to comment as you wish. Just don't be a troll.

Depending on how you count, four main variants were built: A-12, M-21, SR-71 and YF-12A. There is more to it, but:

A-12: First iteration built for the CIA, one pilot.
SR-71: Larger for longer range and more instruments, built for the Air Force, pilot and RSO aboard.
M-21: Mothership concept to carry and launch a drone.
YF-12A: Single seat concept designed for high altitude intercepts.

Thirty surviving Blackbirds are on display, mostly around the United States. The full list is here.

How many have you seen in person? The unofficial and unaudited TRex count is 18 but none in flight.

This is an outstanding overview of the design and technical specs of a Blackbird. It is lengthy but uses three dimensional imagery to provide a detailed tour. There are some great nuggets, illustrations and explanations. For example, I had never seen a full explanation of the mixer at the rear that moves the flight control surfaces. I also never knew that the pilot had a pop up periscope to look back at the rear of the airplane.

The entire Skunk Works design group for the Blackbird totaled seventy-five. Design took a little more than a year.

Kelly Johnson is known for his engineering and design prowess and establishment and operation of the Lockheed Skunkworks. He always wanted to work on airplanes. At the University of Michigan, he helped a professor operate the wind tunnel. He was allowed to use the wind tunnel for his own private contracts. His first customer was Studebaker.

After graduation, he tried to get a job at Lockheed in California, but they had no job for him. It was a difficult job market. They suggested he come back in a year. He went back to Michigan for a master's program and continued working with private contracts. The aerodynamics of five Studebakers in the 1933 Indianapolis 500 were designed by Kelly.

During this time, Lockheed sent a model for wind tunnel testing to Michigan. Kelly's professor did the work. Kelly disagreed with his findings. He graduated, got the job at Lockheed and was given a chance to prove his views. He was sent back to Michigan and came up with his own successful solution.

April 1958 - first evidence in Kelly Johnson's notes of intent to create a U-2 successor (early code name was Archangel)

September 1959 - CIA awards a contract to Lockheed to move forward with a Mach 3+ reconnaissance aircraft under code name Oxcart

November 1959 - Lockheed puts the first full size scale model on a pylon for radar testing at Groom Lake (Area 51)

January 1960 - CIA orders an initial five A-12 aircraft (increased to a dozen the next month)

February 1962 - The first A-12 arrives at Groom Lake

April 1962 - first test flight.

February 1964 - public acknowledgement and photos

You have likely heard the Blackbird "speed check" story, but have you heard it told by Major Bryan Shul of Sled Driver frame?

In motion:

D-21 drone at Blackbird Airpark:

Knowledge comes in many forms:

Some of you were intrigued by the photo in the New Years Day edition of the ONT showing the B2 flyover of the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl. The picture is legit. Mark Holtzman has a commercial aerial photography business and has shot the Rose Bowl from above since 2009.

How does it happen? (hat tip to Joe Pompilano):

A few weeks before the game, Mark obtains approval from various agencies, including Air Traffic Control and Pasadena Air Operations.

Those agencies set a pre-approved altitude limit that leaves sufficient vertical space between Mark and the B-2. This year, he operated at 4,500 feet, about 2,500 feet above the B-2.

Mark flies his personal Cessna 206 to the Rose Bowl and then has a copilot take over while he takes the photographs.

The Cessna does left orbits around the stadium, rotated sideways to allow the camera to look directly down. Timing is crucial.

Mark has less than two seconds to get the photo. The B-2 flies at 250 knots (287 mph).

Mark talks with the flyover pilots in advance. He is in constant contact with Air Traffic Control, but also has a discrete radio channel during flight to talk to the pilots and police on the ground.

Like baseball? Mark does other flyover shots as well. How about this one from the first game of the 2004 World Series above Dodger Stadium? The Navy did the flyover with three F18s and one F16 aggressor.

Red Rider for the big ONT finish:

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking? Come out and play. In God we trust, in all others we verify. TRex is not currently scheduled to perform at the inauguration. Mystery clicks provided at no additional charge.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:55 PM

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