SR-71 in RAF Service Query

[Captain Canada]

I think the thread is gone (as it was on the old site ) but this was my take....Bluebird and the Pink Lady. This is the only pic I could find....

[PR19_Kit]

Those two look EXCELLENT Cap'n! 

The pink one looks totally possible for some reason, perhaps it's a Gulf War 1 veteran?

As for a PR Bristol 188, it'd need some considerably more powerful engines as well as less thirsty ones. The Gyron Junior really didn't rate for the intended use, quite why they didn't use an Avon I'll never know. Apparently the Gyron Junior was designed specially for high Mach speeds, but an Olympus 593 would make more sense. Perhaps area ruling the fuselage might lower the drag and increase the fuel capacity as well?

It'd end up looking like a longer, thinner Bucc......... 

[rickshaw]

I think the thread is gone (as it was on the old site ) but this was my take....Bluebird and the Pink Lady. This is the only pic I could find....

Very nice but wasn't black chosen deliberately by Lockheed in order to better shed heat?

[PR19_Kit]

Very nice but wasn't black chosen deliberately by Lockheed in order to better shed heat?

You're confusing this with the Real World Brian........... 

[rickshaw]

Very nice but wasn't black chosen deliberately by Lockheed in order to better shed heat?

You're confusing this with the Real World Brian........... 

I know, I keep forgetting.   

I suppose they could repaint them after each sortie...

Speaking of heat and the SR-71, came across this interesting diagram:

[Steel Penguin]

that diagram does make me think what would one look like if it was painted in the heat colouring paint they use for temp tests and then flown?
oohhhh pretty

[RussC]

  Thanks for the temp diagram, interesting view. Most of it looked like pizza oven temps except leading edges and over the hot parts of the engines.

Recalling now those accounts of the pilots heating up their box lunch cuisine by holding them against the windows.

[McColm]

What airbases would they have flown from? Surely the locals would have had a noise ban

[PR19_Kit]

Macrihhanish for a start.

JayBee probably did their clearances........ 

[Mossie]

Mildenhall was used for real world Blackbird ops.  Otherwise somewhere very rural and near the coast, East Anglia, Lincolnshire, possibly East Yorkshire.  So that gives, Conningsby, Coltishall, Leconfield among others.

Overseas airbases might be very useful, Luqa in Malta and Akrotiri in Cyprus for North Africa, Middle East and the southern USSR.

[McColm]

The U-2 was flown by RAF pilots in 1957. Departing the UK they handed over their RAF indentity passes and lost their rank, effectively leaving as Flt Lt 'X' and joining the CIA as Mr 'X'.