(Photo in the public domain)
Hello Otterites!
I’m sure you have been riveted to the story of the Chinese reconnaissance balloon that made its way across the country before an F-22 Raptor shoot down off Myrtle Beach. The story was pretty fascinating for several reasons, from the thought of a foreign country spying on us (they all do by the way) and the idea of using a balloon to it. Not really the first choice I would think.
Of course, this tale got my crazy word association brain to think about the venerable SR-71 Blackbird, our main big gun for aerial reconnaissance from the mid-60s to the late 80s. The Blackbird could fly at 85,000 feet (pilots qualified as astronauts basically) and at Mach 3.2. That’s really moving. The Blackbird moved so fast that the skin heated up during flight and the fuselage would stretch several inches. On the ground they had to leave the tolerances pretty loose, and the thing leaked fuel before take-off. The tanks would seal up during flight. Overall, the SR-71 was pretty amazing, and still holds several speed records. The Blackbird was used to augment our satellite capability, and today that role is often given to unmanned drone vehicles. Other real time reconnaissance assets supplement satellites as well. Plus, well, the things the 71 used to take pictures of are now just on Google maps, so there’s that.
Anyway, I wouldn’t worry too much about stray Chinese balloons, there’s no telling what we have flying over them if something as awesome as the Blackbird is retired and thought to be obsolete.
