And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Had a friend who was on the SR-71 ground crew. When at altitude the had an occurrence they called "unstarts". I gathered it was a pop or backfire kind of event. He said you could tell how many by the helmet paint marks on the canopy window.
@Feraldog - A unstart is when one of the two engines loses the shock wave that occurs just inside the front engine cowling (the shock wave is deliberately created, to cause the air to go from supersonic to subsonic speed). The SR-71 has to have its' shock wave just inside the engine cowling, and the spike position + air speed maintains that. Because of the unstart, the engine loses all thrust, causing the plane to violently yaw in the direction of the unstarted engine. You then have to restart the shock wave by putting the spike all the way out, and backing it back in until the shock wave restarts. I've read that Lockheed created a system that sensed which engine unstarted, and then created a "sympathetic" unstart in the other engine, to allow the plane to continue on course. Further, I've read that in the '70's, digital computers were improved to the point that they were able to significantly reduce the amount of unstarts.
Got to watch a takeoff and later landing at Beale AFB in the early '70's. The noise literally knocked us on our butts. The only louder noise I've ever heard was Bachman Turner Overdrive. Much of its performance data is still classified.
Had a friend who was on the SR-71 ground crew. When at altitude the had an occurrence they called "unstarts". I gathered it was a pop or backfire kind of event. He said you could tell how many by the helmet paint marks on the canopy window.
ReplyDelete@Feraldog - A unstart is when one of the two engines loses the shock wave that occurs just inside the front engine cowling (the shock wave is deliberately created, to cause the air to go from supersonic to subsonic speed). The SR-71 has to have its' shock wave just inside the engine cowling, and the spike position + air speed maintains that. Because of the unstart, the engine loses all thrust, causing the plane to violently yaw in the direction of the unstarted engine. You then have to restart the shock wave by putting the spike all the way out, and backing it back in until the shock wave restarts. I've read that Lockheed created a system that sensed which engine unstarted, and then created a "sympathetic" unstart in the other engine, to allow the plane to continue on course. Further, I've read that in the '70's, digital computers were improved to the point that they were able to significantly reduce the amount of unstarts.
ReplyDeleteGot to watch a takeoff and later landing at Beale AFB in the early '70's. The noise literally knocked us on our butts. The only louder noise I've ever heard was Bachman Turner Overdrive. Much of its performance data is still classified.
ReplyDelete