amazing spy plane video

It's from a show called "James May on the moon" (captain slow from top gear), that was about the last 10 minutes of an hour long show.

Do a search on the torrent sites, its worth a watch.
 
Sweet GTO chase cars!! I remember them using Z28's and one guy had a 12 second TT Stealth he used that was modded(Turbo Magazine car?)..
 
Ah yes the Dragon lady. One of Kelly Johnson's amazing creations. Hard to believe that he built a plane that can fly way faster and higher than that!

BTW is It just me or does everyone want Clarkston's, May's or Hammond's life? LOL
 
ASRoff said:
Ah yes the Dragon lady. One of Kelly Johnson's amazing creations. Hard to believe that he built a plane that can fly way faster and higher than that!

BTW is It just me or does everyone want Clarkston's, May's or Hammond's life? LOL
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how high is space? i've seen the guy jump out of the balloon at 102,800ft, and that i thought was the edge of space. how high can planes fly like mentioned above? you can go higher then 70,000 feet? :headscrat
 
FLAGMANBILL said:
how high is space? i've seen the guy jump out of the balloon at 102,800ft, and that i thought was the edge of space. how high can planes fly like mentioned above? you can go higher then 70,000 feet? :headscrat
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"F15A, nicknamed "Streak Eagle," broke eight time-to-climb world records between Jan. 16 and Feb. 1, 1975. In setting the last of the eight records, it reached an altitude of 98,425 feet just 3 minutes, 27.8 seconds from brake release at takeoff and "coasted" to nearly 103,000 feet before descending" and that's a run of the mill U.S. fighter jet ;)

the plane in the video was a U2 spy plane which is totally awesome and i believe still in service today.. but here are some spec's on the SR71
"The Blackbird, code-named Oxcart during its development, flies on a tremendous 65,000 lbs. of thrust at an altitude of 100,000+ feet at Mach 3.5, and has a range of four thousand miles. That is not only four times faster than the U-2 but seven miles higher - and the U-2 was then the current high-altitude champion."
"For a long time the Air Force claimed a maximum speed of Mach 3.2 and an operational ceiling of 85,000 feet, but we now know that the SR-71 can soar above 100,000 feet. Some military pilots claim altitudes in excess of 125,000 feet but this is probably stretching it a bit. Compared to the fastest jet fighter America had at the time, the SR-71 flew at least 60 percent faster than its maximum speed on afterburner." Kinda crazy to think about..
 
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I have both shows downloaded. If you go to www.finalgear.com they have links to the torrents of this. The U2 is so badass, To think that the SR-71 is even more wicked. I finished reading the book SKUNKWORKS a little while ago and it talks a bit about those two planes and the F-117. There's a SR-71b in Kalamazoo MI that I want to check out when I get the chance.
 
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89five.o said:
I have both shows downloaded. If you go to www.finalgear.com they have links to the torrents of this. The U2 is so badass, To think that the SR-71 is even more wicked. I finished reading the book SKUNKWORKS a little while ago and it talks a bit about those two planes and the F-117. There's a SR-71b in Kalamazoo MI that I want to check out when I get the chance.
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My all time favorite book on aircraft. Written by Ben R. Rich (they guy who took over lockheeds skunkworks after Kelly Johnson retired.

Kelley Johnson was an amazing engineer. His first design was the P-38 lightning. Just look at the SR-71 it was amercias first "stealth" plane. and all of it was designed with a drafting table and a slide rule. even the engines were a marvel. they were J-58's but at altitude the engine cones moved outward to the point were compression was created by impact. the engines essentually became ram jets. AMAZING! MIND BOGGELING! they figured it out in the late 50's early 60's!

Titanium was so exotic at the time they created the tooling to machine it. (Titanium is so hard steel drill bits dont work.) The best part? at the time the soviets were the largest producer of titamium. So Kelly Johnsons set up a bunch of dummy corps. to purchase Titaium in small enough quantitys that wouldent raise a flag with the russians. Essentually the russians sold us the titanium to build planes to spy on them!!! LOL!!! Tom Clancy couldent write it better!!!
 
ASRoff said:
My all time favorite book on aircraft. Written by Ben R. Rich (they guy who took over lockheeds skunkworks after Kelly Johnson retired.

Kelley Johnson was an amazing engineer. His first design was the P-38 lightning. Just look at the SR-71 it was amercias first "stealth" plane. and all of it was designed with a drafting table and a slide rule. even the engines were a marvel. they were J-58's but at altitude the engine cones moved outward to the point were compression was created by impact. the engines essentually became ram jets. AMAZING! MIND BOGGELING! they figured it out in the late 50's early 60's!

Titanium was so exotic at the time they created the tooling to machine it. (Titanium is so hard steel drill bits dont work.) The best part? at the time the soviets were the largest producer of titamium. So Kelly Johnsons set up a bunch of dummy corps. to purchase Titaium in small enough quantitys that wouldent raise a flag with the russians. Essentually the russians sold us the titanium to build planes to spy on them!!! LOL!!! Tom Clancy couldent write it better!!!
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I was laughing at the part where some cocky Marine was trying to pick up the F-117 on radar in the desert and was all smug when he saw it on his screen. Too bad it was the chase plane and the F-117 they were looking for was already quite a ways past their position. My dad was able to work on both the F-117 and SR-71 which is badass. To him they were just pain in the ass planes that broke down and needed parts though. If I'm not mistaken Kelly was a student at the University of Michigan right?
 
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