When The U.S. Flexed Its Fastest Classified Weapon in Public — On Purpose | SR-71 Blackbird скачать в хорошем качестве

When The U.S. Flexed Its Fastest Classified Weapon in Public — On Purpose | SR-71 Blackbird

In 1974, at the height of the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force flew their fastest, most classified jet to an international air show — and broke the transatlantic speed record on the way there. Over Mach 3. Faster than a rifle bullet. Skin temperature: 600°F. The whole world was watching, including the Soviet Union. That was the point. The SR-71 Blackbird remains the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft ever flown. No aircraft has matched it in over fifty years. At cruising speed, it outran surface-to-air missiles. Each of its two J58 engines produced thrust equivalent to the horsepower of an ocean liner. The crew wore astronaut-style pressure suits at nearly 80,000 feet — high enough to see the curvature of the Earth. The titanium airframe expanded by several inches from the heat of sustained Mach 3+ flight. When the Air Force decided to display the Blackbird at the 1974 Farnborough International Air Show in England, they didn’t just fly it across the Atlantic. They turned the delivery into a spectacle. New York to London: 1 hour, 55 minutes, and 32 seconds — shattering the previous record by nearly three hours. Kelly Johnson, the Skunk Works founder who designed it, was waiting on the ground when it landed. After a week on static display — parked where every allied and adversary intelligence officer could sneak a look— a second crew flew it home - London to Los Angeles, nonstop: 5,463 miles in 3 hours, 47 minutes, and 39 seconds. The record-breaking aircraft was a bit lighter than it normally would be: all of the top-secret cameras and sensors were carefully stripped from the aircraft before its week-long close-up for the world to see. While we're hard at work editing a handful of new videos from the original first-person interviews and footage in our vault, we wanted to share a favorite from our archives, enhanced to 4K for a new generation of viewers The film was originally produced by Lockheed Advanced Development Projects for the U.S. Air Force. CHAPTERS 0:00 — The SR-71 Blackbird: Faster Than a Bullet 3:02 — Mach 3 Across the Atlantic: New York to London in 1:55 6:05 — Other aircraft on Display at Farnborough 10:04 — The Blackbird Returns: London to Los Angeles at Mach 3 11:43 — Why Nothing Has Matched It Since #ColdWar #SR71 #SkunkWorks #USAF #AviationHistory #ColdWarHistory #MilitaryHistory #MilitaryAviation #RecordBreakers #USAirForce #MilHistory #RealHistory #NoAI