3D View of Cockpit of SR71 Blackbird

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 6:52 pm

yikes that's a lot of switches!

http://nmusafvirtualtour.com/media/068/ ... ckpit.html

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 9:14 pm

Hopefully most of those switches are only for the music systems effects, nothing that could make the flight go terribly wrong

Losbot · Post by **Losbot** » Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:50 am

So much ANALOG. I wonder what a new, updated version would look like.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Sun Nov 16, 2014 2:23 pm

Losbot · Post by **Losbot** » Sun Nov 16, 2014 2:51 pm

I had no idea the fuel tanks were practically empty after takeoff. So much wasted fuel. Wow!

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Nov 16, 2014 4:44 pm

Yeah the tanks leak like a sieve on the ground - on purpose (6:00 mark in that video). When the plane reaches cruise speed the metal shrinks and the seams seal. So while it's being fueled there's this giant pan under the plane and fuel just drips out of the tank seams. Not exactly a safe situation.

That's the way they dealt with the metal contraction issues of supersonic flight at the time. They handled it better with newer designs using special metals. The Concorde had a similar problem in that it would shrink a few inches once at cruise speed. There's a place next to the engineer's console in the Concorde that you can insert your hand into on the ground, but not in flight.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 2:42 am

Losbot wrote:So much ANALOG. I wonder what a new, updated version would look like.

Same thing I was gonna say. Crazy thing is that after all the stuff I've been reading, I suspect I know what 3/4 of that stuff does.