Dirk's SR-71 - To Keep The Peace They Flew Alone...Unarmed

To Keep The Peace They Flew Alone...Unarmed

"Reconnaissance in a Class of One"

History

When I think of the Cold War, I can't help but think of high flying spy planes.

In 1957, plans were drawn up for a high-flying reconnaissance spy plane; The CIA was the backer behind the project. They wanted something that could reach anywhere in the world in a matter of hours and have the photos lying on someone's desk by lunch.

The results was the SR-71 Blackbird or Habu. It was capable of an altitude of 90,000 ft. and Mach 3.2+ speed, faster than a rifle bullet. In 1968, the first SR-71's went into service at Kadena, AFB in Okinawa, Japan. The SR-71's also operated out of two other bases bases: Beale Air Force Base, California and Mindenthall, UK. Most of the missions were flown out of Kadena Japan.

The plane was tough to land. Of the 32 Blackbirds built, 11 crashed on landing. On the other hand, it was safe to fly. Over 1,000 attempts were made to shoot them down, but not a single plane was lost to enemy action or mechanical problems. In 1968, a presidential order required that all molds and tools used to build the SR-71 be destroyed so that the plane could never be built by anyone again. This also meant that spare parts could not be made, so if there were any major problems, planes in storage would have to be cannibalized. In 1990, the SR-71 fleet was decommissioned at Beale AFB. Five years later, three of the planes were returned to service, but it cost $140 million a year to keep them flying. Later, the Air Force realized the money could be better used, so the plane was taken out of service. This time for good.

The Model



These parts are huge coming in at just over 15 inches



Part count for this kit is low. If you don't count the drone and the dolly, its under 50 parts.



The deacal sheel seems to be pretty nice. Lots of fiddly pieces and the red stripes are really thin and could cause trouble if not careful



SR-71 Fun Fact

Did you know The SR-71 Blackbird is the fastest aircraft in the world to take off under its own power?

Originally I wanted to do aircraft tail number 17972 "Charlie's Problem" which had a picture of a pregnant Lucy on the tail. Alas I can't locate the custom decals anywhere and I haven't progressed to the point where I can make my own.



So I will be going with one of the kit options, 17978, Playboy Bunny. Who doesn't like a playboy bunny?



Here I go again! My latest project is now underway.



Till next time.... B - Strong

Stunning plane, looking forward to seeing this go together.

The Blackbird is an impressive aircraft indeed.

Looking forward to this Dirk.

Thanks, guys

Pilots assigned their seats and strapped in using Tamiya tape







A story from an SR-71 Pilot

We trained for a year, flying out of Beale AFB in California, Kadena Airbase in Okinawa, and RAF Mildenhall in England. On a typical training mission, we would take off near Sacramento, refuel over Nevada, accelerate into Montana, obtain high Mach over Colorado, turn right over New Mexico, speed across the Los Angeles Basin, run up the West Coast, turn right at Seattle, then return to Beale. Total flight time: two hours and 40 minutes.
One day, high above Arizona, we were monitoring the radio traffic of all the mortal airplanes below is. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed.
“Ninety knots,” ATC replied.
A twin Bonanza soon made the same request.
“One-twenty on the ground,” was the reply.
To our surprise, a Navy F-18 came over the radio with a ground speed check. I knew exactly what he was doing. Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the bug-smashers in the valley know what real speed was.
“Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground,” ATC responded.
The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walter’s mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter startled the controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace.
In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, “Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the ground.” We did not hear another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast.

I believe this story came from Brian Shul's book, "Why I Fly"
I made some progress on the SR-71 last night





Here I was able to clean up the raised letters on the fin



Fuselage half's put together



Bottom, with color added to the wheel wells



Up to now this has been an easy build. Very little parts required but this is where the kit takes its toll on mere mortal model builders. We are talking just under 45 inches of seams that need to be filled. :shock: Yes, 45 inches!!!! To fill the seams I am using Mr Surfacer 500.



it took two applications of this to fill the gaps. Now its time to let it dry




Thanks for taking the time to look at my work

Brilliant progress, looks fab.

As I described a few posts ago, I filled the seams with Mr Surface 500 (Two applications).



Then after it dried instead of sanding till my arm and the detail fell off ( More importantly my arm) I decided to go the acetone route. Luckily we had some nail polish remover with acetone laying around the house so... This is what's left after working on the seams of the SR-71. No surface detail was harmed during the removal of the filler. Woo Hoo



At this time I don't have any presentable photos to show but the seams are just as acceptable to me if not better then if I sanded them. The only issue I had is at one point I spilled some of the acetone and it got on my thumb. I then imprinted my finger print into the top of the model. Not that big a deal as I already sanded it out. Removal time of all the filler was close to 2 hours. I wanted to be sure I got all the filler and not melt the plastic. After I was done I went over the seams with some fine (pink paper from the Testors pack) grit sandpaper to soften it all up. Its now smooth as a baby's bottom
Not a lot to show here but this should bring everyone up to speed.

Installing the two 34,00 pound thrust Pratt Whitney JT11D-20 (Military designation J58 ) after-burning turbo-ramjet engines. The real engines measured 20 feet long, 4.5 feet in diameter and 6500 pounds in weight. The early J-58s produced 30,000 pounds of thrust while the later versions were rated at 34,000 pounds. They operated in continuous after-burning during cruse flight.



This is where the engines were housed in the aircraft. Talk about impressive.



Here the tail assembly was installed



Next the vertical fins were put in place and set to the correct angle.





Now we wait till they are nice and dry so we don't mess up the angles or worse knock them off

Great progress. It is coming along nicely.

Spanky 19 wrote:Great progress.  It is coming along nicely.  

Thank you

Nice one Dirk.

Al. wrote:Nice one Dirk.

Thank you Al

Next I installed the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) nose. The nose usually housed the OBC (Optical Bar Camera) which was capable of photographing 100.000 square miles of territory per hour.



Once the nose was in place and seems filled I masked off the cockpit in preparation for priming and painting





The painting has commenced

First I started with laying down the base cote. That consisted of mixing Model Master Flat Black and Dark Sea Blue in a 50/50 mix. I did a test shot and wasn't happy so I upped the Dark Sea Blue to 60/40. This mix tested better.



I tested the mixture on the drone. Once I was happy with the color I moved onto the aircraft itself





Next I started with the same base mixture but this time I added a few drops of Model Master Light Gray and some Aluminum. I then lowered the PSI as low as I could and would still allow the paint to flow. It took a few tests to get the desired affect I was looking for but it worked. and I'm pleased.



The only thing that drove me nuts was that the mix worked great on the panel lines but when I painted the nose cone (I wanted a lot of wear on this part) it came out blue. I really had to lighten the mix to get the cone to match.

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That's all for now. Till next time..... B - Strong

Nice work Dirk. It sure looks right from here!!

Al. wrote:Nice work Dirk. It sure looks right from here!!

Thanks, buddy

This is looking seriously good Dirk.

I glossed the model, and applied the decals. This will aid in allowing me to move the decals into the proper placement. Especially the thinner red line decals





Just look at all those tiny decals on the underside of this model. Not difficult but it was tedious.



After the decals were set I applied a semi-gloss to the over all model. This will seal in the decals, tone down the finish and blend the decals, and the color differences in the fuselage.

Now at this point I could attach the canopy and landing gear and call it a day, but... I decided to take a leap of faith and try something different. After looking over tons of photos, both the original and new episodes of Great Planes featuring the SR71 the one thing that stood out on the operational blackbirds was the fuel streaks across the fuselage. I've never seen anyone add these to their model. So after giving it some thought I came up with a plan. I arming myself with a pipit , Future, and a can of compressed air I went to work.



I put a few drops of Future in the pipit (smallest I could find) crimped the end to allow the smallest amount of liquid to pass through. I then held the pipit in one hand over the area I want to apply the Future. Then with the can of air In the other hand I send a controlled stream of air over the model. Once the pressure is where I like it I squeeze out some Future into the "jet stream" and let it spread out across the aircraft. And just like that I have instant fuel spray. I did this to the underside of the aircraft as well because of the way the fuel tanks work. You see they full the tanks on the runway and fuel seeps out. When the aircraft takes off and increases speed the tanks self seal. One of the first objectives of the SR71 once they take off is to meet a re-fueler and top off the tanks. It is after this that they then proceed with their mission.

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That's all for now. Till next time... B - Strong and stay safe

Absolutely brilliant Dirk.

Nice work Dirk. Love the fuel streaks idea.

Thanks, guys

With the landing gear and assembled it was time to put the finishing touches in place and all that is left is the canopies. First the RSO [Steve]



Then the pilot [jack]





Lastly using some Micro Kristal Klear I made the lens behind the RSO position.

I'm calling this one done. It's not perfect by any means but to me its a fitting final tribute to 17978 "The Rapid Rabbit." As for the real Rapid Rabbit she was lost on Thursday, July 20, 1972, while attempting to land at Kadena AFB during extreme crosswinds. The braking parachute failed to slow the aircraft, forcing pilot Denny Bush to turn the landing attempt into a touch-and-go and try for a second go-round. He released the chute, took off, and attempted another landing.

Normally the braking chute is used for all landings to assist in slowing the aircraft, although under good conditions the brakes can do the job themselves without the assist. Having an extremely long runway (or dry lakebed like at Edwards AFB) for such landings doesn't hurt either.

However, the chute becomes extremely important during high-speed landings -- even with empty fuel tanks, the blackbird still weighs more than 2 fully-loaded dump trucks; she has almost no drag due to her low profile; and because of the high temperature imparted during flight, her brakes lose efficiency and have difficulty stopping her completely when landing at high speeds (which are necessary when landing with high crosswinds).

In other words, she was doomed.
On the second attempt, Bush could not slow the aircraft down in time and she ran off the end of the runway, breaking the main landing gear and damaging more than just the paint on her underside. He and his RSO Jimmy Fagg escaped serious injury, but 978 was a total loss. She was buried under a berm at the end of the runway, which is called "Habu Mountain" or "Habu Hill" depending on who you ask.



The story of the Rapid Rabbit doesn't end there. During the restoration of 975, March Field Museum's restoration manager Shayne Meder (MSgt-Ret, USAF) discovered that the left rudder of 975 was once the right rudder of 978, the "Rapid Rabbit." Rudder sharing is not unusual in and of itself. The left and right rudders are interchangeable, and new rudders are not to be had thanks to McNamara ordering all blackbird tooling destroyed in February 1970. Parts were often taken from decommissioned air-frames or salvaged from wrecks when possible.



Well that's it boys. I hope you enjoyed the ride. I can honestly say I enjoyed the company and comments. Finished pics can be found in the "Completed Builds" section. I hope you like it and thank you to those that followed along and commented on this build

Completed build