Thread

1. 0xbadcafebee · 1790728000 · focus · HN ↗

   To give you an idea how ridiculous this is: to start each engine, they made a cart out of two Buick V8 engines tied together - so four V8 engines to start the plane. Those V8 engines were long since out of production, so at one point they went around the country, to every junkyard, buying up every one of those V8s they could find, so they would have spares to start planes up in different places. If an SR71 had an issue and landed at an unusual airport, they had to fly the start cart and other equipment to that airport to start the plane again. Everything about this plane is expensive and one-of-a-kind. It's a hot rod that goes to space.

   1. AnimalMuppet · 1790729766 · focus · HN ↗

      Rather than re-engineer the cart to use a different block? I mean, I guess when a part reaches end-of-life, your first move is to buy as many as you can, before you try to re-engineer things so it isn't needed, but... horsepower is horsepower. Torque is torque. It shouldn't be that hard to replace...

      1. mrheosuper · 1790742254 · focus · HN ↗

         Can the plane just carry....the starter ?, it's another 200-300kg of payload, may affect the max range, etc, but much more convenient.

         1. ssl-3 · 1790761731 · focus · HN ↗

            It could have, sure. That would have been easy. But it would have added weight and complexity. That would have reduced speeds and/or altitude and/or range between in-flight refuelings.

            We fixed it the other easy way: In the event that an SR-71 makes an unscheduled stop somewhere that wasn't prepared for it, then we send out a bunch of dudes with a cargo plane and some starter carts. That just takes money, which even easier.

            It also takes time, but time was not a big deal: The plane was going to be there for awhile anyway. It could go over 15,000 miles between takeoff and landing; it wouldn't have landed where it did if it weren't broken somehow to begin with.

            It'd need repaired by the crews who actually knew how to work on it -- who would also need flown in.

            It would also need fuel before it could leave. That's problematic since the JP-7 it required was shared by ~nothing else in the sky, so: More deliveries.

            Waiting for some Buick V8 starter carts to be delivered from the other side of the world wasn't really a roadblock at all.

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