Quote:
Originally Posted by DGthe3
For the longest time, top speed was mach 3.0+ for the Black Bird, altitude of 80 000 feet +. Then I was hearing 3.5+ and 100 000+. And yeah, there were Soviet planes that could almost reach its speed, but only for a very short burst. They would have to have a perfect intercept course, wait till the SR71 is right behind them, punch it, and hope that it hasn't gone too far ahead of them.
One plane that might have made things real interesting would have been the Avro Arrow. Odds are you've never heard of it. Unvailed the same day as sputnik launched, it reached mach 2 at 75% throttle with test engines. In the final version, this would be equivelent to about half throttle. It wouldn't be able to reach mach 3, probably would have reached 2.5 or better. But it would have been damm impressive for a Canadian company to do in the 50's. Now into wildass speculation . . . consider what the replacement for that could have done 20 years later. If only . . .
(this thread has been brought way off topic by a Canadian who wants to be an aerospace engineer, thus the Avro CF-105 Arrow is the greatest plane in history in his mind)
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I've heard about that one. Yeah, the Canadian Minister (I think) pulled the plug at the last minute without explaination, because Soviet spies obtained information about it. I guess they destroyed all the molds and manufacturing equipment too so that Russia would not be able to reverse engineer anything. You know, if I remember correctly, I think the MIG-25 and 31s were pretty close in appearance to the Avro, ironically. Too bad they couldn't turn worth a crap without getting pulled apart.
Have you heard of the Valkerie? I forget the designation, but this one was a promising jet also; Mach 3+ bomber. I think the US produced a prototype, but it was scrapped thanks to Kennedy or someone in that era.
Too bad. This is a great discussion. (Sorry for
)
