SR-71 Flight manual declassified

[Dave Siciliano]

One can spend a lot of time perusing this.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i5eucyo7gm67b ... f.pdf?dl=1

[Ralph Jones]

Quite a rabbit hole.

[Dave Siciliano]

Some highlights posted on another board"

“If both the A and B hydraulic systems fail as indicated by illumination of the A HYD and B HYD warning lights and confirmed by loss of A and B hydraulic pressure and deteriorating control effectiveness:
1. Eject
[End of Do List]”
page 3-98

When under missile fire, "the pilot is authorized to use the tactical limits listed...to exit the hostile area by the most expeditious means... Subsequent reentry into situations which rely on use of these limits is NOT authorized."
page 3-135 (On the same page as the procedure for defogging the cockpit.)

RNAV is INS enhanced by "A" as in "Astro".
"The ANS [Astroinertial Navigation System] is an inertial navigation system employing a star tracker to eliminate gyro drift and to limit position error."
page 4-161

Limit speed and altitude envelope.
page 5-9

"Maximum altitude is 85,000 feet. Do not fly over 85,000 feet unless you have prior authorization... No turns are allowed over 70,000 feet. Descend 2,000 feet prior to making any turns is recommended"
page 5-10

“Intentional spins are prohibited. The following technique is suggested if an inadvertent spin occurs; however, ejection may be the best course of action because spin recovery has not been demonstrated and is considered extremely unlikely.”
page 6-7

[John O'Shaughnessy [FCM]]

HA!

[Reams Goodloe]

Dave -

That SR 71 Manual has actually been available for quite a while!!!
Some years ago, I filed a few pages of it as "prior art" in an Information Disclosure Statement with the USPTO on some patent applications directed to supersonic compressors used for compressing various gases in industrial use.....

But, you are right, you can spend some time with it, and it was great getting paid to do so....<g>

Reams

[Dave Siciliano]

I guess it’s new to me :-). Thanks for pointing that out. Some great stuff to peruse!

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

Dave -

That SR 71 Manual has actually been available for quite a while!!!
Some years ago, I filed a few pages of it as "prior art" in an Information Disclosure Statement with the USPTO on some patent applications directed to supersonic compressors used for compressing various gases in industrial use.....

But, you are right, you can spend some time with it, and it was great getting paid to do so....<g>

Reams

Reams -- Yes sir....I think I had a copy of it on a disk about 10 years ago. Fun to read!

[Terry Carraway]

“Intentional spins are prohibited. The following technique is suggested if an inadvertent spin occurs; however, ejection may be the best course of action because spin recovery has not been demonstrated and is considered extremely unlikely.”
page 6-7

Hmm, are there any swept wing aircraft that are cleared for intentional spins?

[Jeff Hartmann]

Hmm, are there any swept wing aircraft that are cleared for intentional spins?

I guess you didn't mean akro planes , like the Jungmeister and Jungmann… ( yes, I know what you meant....I just had to throw that in)

[Stephanie Belser]

IIRC, Nancy Zeitlin gave me a copy of the SR-71 POH maybe fifteen years ago.

[Terry Carraway]

I guess you didn't mean akro planes , like the Jungmeister and Jungmann… ( yes, I know what you meant....I just had to throw that in)

Did not think of them.

I wonder. My experience with swept wings is they do not have a stall break, which should makes snaps very difficult.

[Jeff Hartmann]

Did not think of them.

I wonder. My experience with swept wings is they do not have a stall break, which should makes snaps very difficult.

I never tried to snap roll a jet ;-) , but the slight sweep on Akro planes make a snap roll a lot quicker. Imagine a slight yaw and how one wing is straight into the relative wind and the other at an angle. A Pitts has a sweep on the upper wing and I have seen Mary Gaffaney do 7 consecutive snap rolls. I found this about her, and the Pitts.

“Mary talked of those early Sundays back in 1966 when they would all gather at Curtis Pitts’s strip and sit in the shade and play with his airplane. She spoke of these early times softly, as a woman remembering family reunions. “I always had to use both hands to snap the old Stearman, so the first Pitts I flew, Zoom! Zoom! They said it was a beautiful double snap. I had to tell them I only meant one” As Mary described the Pitts, an inner glow came to her face. She acted it out, bouncing in her chair, hands karate-chopping the air, tossing her head. “It‘s so easy to fly. Point it, it goes; pull it, it snaps! Bang! Bang! Oh, it’s fun.” I had the fleeting impression that to arm-wrestle Mary would be to lose.” She was good at what she did but she worked for it. She also saw the life that she wanted to live, and lived it.

from: https://www.iac.org/hall-fame-1991-mary-gaffaney

She was something!

[Terry Carraway]

Thinking about it, I know that.

But in the swept wing jet, the stall never breaks. And normally, if you are doing strange things (G, yaw, etc), it "departs controlled flight." Which is a wild ride from the videos I have seen,

[Randy Sohn]

She was something

Concur!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also made me recall at our USAF flight school at Bevo Howard's T-6 place (Spence Field, Moultrie, GA) and sitting in that briefing room listening to him describe doing an airshow in his Buecker Jungmiester! Or holding the flags for his inverted ribbon cut! Good ole days!

best, randy

[Tom Tyson]

I haven’t the SR-71 manual (yet ) but I have a copy of the U-2 / TR-1 POH (what do you expect from a glider geek?)