Checked off a huuuge bucket list item a few weeks ago...

And that is what they are TELLING you. :D
 
I've seen the SR-71s at both the Seattle Museum and Udar-Hazy. I was at the Cosmo sphere but missed the SR-71_there. Awesome birds. Wouldn't be the same, obviously, but a SR-71 flight simulation model would be way cool.
 
The security cameras would 100% show me looking around all casually while whistling and then leaning over and caressing it.
 
Crashnburn said:
I've seen the SR-71s at both the Seattle Museum and Udar-Hazy. I was at the Cosmo sphere but missed the SR-71_there. Awesome birds. Wouldn't be the same, obviously, but a SR-71 flight simulation model would be way cool.
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Milviz is creating one for MSFS.
 
I saw the SR-71 fly out of Kadena in the 1970's, and we had an A-12 on display at work - I walked past it each morning and it always took my eye. I think the X-15 is the only rival for my appreciation. And in many ways the A-12 and SR-71 were more advanced.
 
The Google Earth images are typically in the .8 - 1m range. The government barred the providers from doing much better than that in an unclass bird.

The classified satellites back in the 80s/90s were essentially the same technology as the Hubble turned toward the earth. The problem with those satellites is that they are hard to hide and you can't change their orbits (much). The bad guys can easily predict when they're coming over. The various airborne platforms: SR-71, U-2, the various UAVs, and even F16 aircraft with cameras, could be dispatched on demand with less predictability.

I got to hang out with a bunch of SR-71 pilots at Sun n Fun a few years back when Margy got to escort the Smithsonian's SR-71 flight suit down for a few sessions on flying the Blackbird. The two amusing things about that was it turned out the flight suit was in fact a U-2 one (they're near identical, but people recognized the pilots name that appeared on the patch and knew what he flew). Sitting in one of the sessions, the pilot was telling how there was no communication between him and the guy in back collecting the imagery. He was told where to fly but not what they were doing. There's a light in the back seat that says "The captain has left the aircraft, you might consider doing so as well." He said all the missions had something to do with NIIRS but he had no idea what that stood for. This I could answer (what I did for the latter part of my career): National Imagery Interpretability Rating Score.
 
skier said:
I had to do some Googling after that statement. Some of the statements I found online about the SR-71's camera capability:
  • The TEOC camera could shoot pictures with a 6'' resolution from the operational altitude of the SR-71.
  • The resolution of the TEOC camera was good enough to identify a human face at 15 miles
The U-2's camera had a resolution of 2.5 feet from 60,000 ft.

Those are all insane capabilities. Makes you wonder what the current state technology is.
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Civilian aerial mapping guy here. 3" resolution can be done from 9000' with our stuff, 6" from 18,000'.

From 60,000 (if we could get that high) we'd get approximately 16" to compare to the U2.

However we're at below jet speeds on that 3-6" stuff.

Something doesn't add up about 6" res and identifying human faces from 15 miles on that TEOC though. You need MUCH better than 6" res to do that.
 
Hill AFB museum has a similar setup with the platform to get up close to look in the cockpit. Have pics somewhere. Fantastic visit if you are in the area. Lot of static displays outside as well.

Virtual tours of some aircraft. Including inside the cockpit of the SR71
 
Todd82 said:
Civilian aerial mapping guy here.

Something doesn't add up about 6" res and identifying human faces from 15 miles on that TEOC though. You need MUCH better than 6" res to do that.
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Where do you do your work? I have a good friend that did it for MANY years, mainly in FL.

When you see conflicting info like that, it is probably due to them not actually telling you the REAL specs. :D
 
NMUSAF (Wright Pat) not only has an SR-71, but also a very interesting drone, the D-21 which sort of looks like someone took the engine off an SR71 and stuck some wings on it.

Pima has both as well.
 
Pinecone said:
Where do you do your work? I have a good friend that did it for MANY years, mainly in FL.

When you see conflicting info like that, it is probably due to them not actually telling you the REAL specs. :D
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We're all over the lower 48 and sometimes beyond. Lidar and imagery.
 
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