The SR-71 Blackbird- a bit of interesting information

Please read the comment from Ian Kennedy below for some extra information and corrections.

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was a US spy plane which first flew in 1964. It was used to spy mostly on Russia for many years. It was first built to replace the Lockheed U-2, another older spy plane. The U2 was very good (it flew high and fast) but when one was shot down by a Russian interceptor, it was thought that a new, better spy plane was needed. The SR-71 Blackbird was the perfect answer as, in those days, when Stealth technology did not exist, the way to make spy planes hard to detect and hard to shoot down was speed and height and the SR-71 flew very fast and very high (even faster and even higher than the U-2). Though no longer in service, the SR-71 has set many speed and height records and remains the fastest (with speeds of over Mach 3.2) and highest (with heights of about 85,000 feet) flying plane ever built. Now speed and height is not needed quite so much for spy planes, thanks to Stealth technology, making a plane invisible to radar.

The SR-71 Blackbird was developed from the A-12 Blackbird which looks so similar it is almost impossible to tell them apart. Originally it was going to be designated as the RS-71 for Reconnaisance Strike. But the USAF chief of staff (Curtis LeMay) wanted to call it the SR-71 for Strategic Reconnaisance, which he preferred. So, he modified President Johnson’s speech about the aircraft to say SR-71 instead of RS-71, which created the belief that Johnson had made a mistake. It was easy to believe that Johnson had made a mistake, as he had done it before, calling the A-12 the A-11.

Another close cousin of the SR-71 Blackbird is the YF-12 Blackbird. This, also looking extremely similar (except the end of the nose) was a high speed interceptor version of the SR-71. It was never used.

An SR-71 Blackbird can be seen at Duxford Aviation Museum.

Left: A-12 Blackbird from http://greyfalcon.us/

Middle: SR-71 Blackbird from http://www.globalaircraft.org

Right: YF-12 Blackbird from http://www.wvi.com

A very ugly plane

Possibly one of the most ugly planes I have found yet is the Dassault Super Etendard. Dassault is French and they make a lot of very nice planes, such as the Dassault Mirage 2000 and Dassault Rafale (both among my favourites). But the same cannot be said for the Super Etendard. I am sure that it is probably a very good plane in the way that it works, but how much more ugly can a plane get!? Looks a bit like a very strange duck (no offence to any very strange ducks reading this). The worst part is the nose!

Dassault Super Etendard

Picture from http://www.militaryfactory.com

Hello!

Hey everybody! I am Julian and this is my blog on aircraft. I have for a long time been interested in flight (especially military jets) and I decided to share my knowledge and opinions with you all. This I shall do using this blog. Have a look around, please comment and tell your friends about it! I will try my best to make it interesting!