08/28/2025
The SR-71 was at least 60 years ahead of its time.
The question was …is the SR-71 a product of its time? (Time frame would be late 1950s to 1966.)
The SR-71 Was Way ahead of its time!
Former U-2 technician Damien Leimback wrote; the following *In my opinion, this man is brilliant.*
He disagrees with the statement that the SR-71 was a product of its time. I’m sure that most of us would agree with him. Some people have actually suggested that space aliens had something to do with the development of the SR-71 and A-12 before it. No,  it was the genius leadership of Kelly Johnson. No help from outer space was needed.
I disagree because of the technologies that had to be invented or perfected for the plane to work that did not exist before the types (I include the A-12 here) introduction.
Here are some examples……
Using titanium in such massive amounts was unheard of in an aircraft; most of it is sourced from the Soviet Union through shell companies. New fabrication methods and new titanium alloys had to be created to build the plane.
Corrugated panels that expanded without changing shape were used in a novel way, as well as new types of glass for the windscreen, and new ways of fusing it to the frame without the use of glue (which would melt under high temperatures).
The fuel was routed through the leading edges of the wings to keep them cool and also to preheat the fuel for a better burn, novel approaches used for the first time on this plane.
The fuel itself was a custom blend and had a radioactive isotope added to it that allowed the ionization to scatter Radar waves in the high atmosphere. C-50 was used to secure the contract for the CIA. It was also called panther pi%s
Oils and lubricants had to be custom-blended for the aircraft to function at the high and low temperature extremes the plane would encounter.
The David Clark company built a pressure suit for the pilots, as the one the U-2 pilots wore was insufficient. The U-2 pilots later adopted the same suit.
The tires had aluminum mixed with latex to withstand the temperatures that would be encountered in the wheel wells during flight.
The J-58 engine was a hybrid of the turbojet and ramjet, and was MOST EFFICIENT at Mach 3.2, unheard of anywhere before or since.
And this is just a small sampling of the technologies that had to be invented or perfected for this plane to work. No one else was capable of flying anything like it in the 1960’s and its performance has yet to be matched today, almost 60 years later. If that's not ahead of its time, I don't know what is.
Posted by Linda Sheffield
