Nasa YF 12 -Blackbird pics

[powderburner]

During flight testing it was found that this fin was not really needed. To save weight, drag, cost, complexity, risk, etc, it was removed from that point on. If you look very closely under the extreme rear fuselage of this aircraft you can see the fixed (non-moving) stub where the moveable ventral used to be.

The pointy pods under the engine nacelles are not sensors, as some people have postulated on the 'net. These pods are camera pods to film weapon separation tests. They may look cool, but would not have been included on a production version of the aircraft.

 

[powderburner]

This drone was originally designed to operate from the SR-71s but after some inflight accidents this was discontinued. (Kinda hairy to fly 'close formation' with another aircraft at Mach 3 while it bounces around inside your shock waves.)

 

[powderburner]

close up

 

[powderburner]

The D-21 used a nose cover for streamlining when it was carried above the SR-71.

 

[powderburner]

This is not a real good picture, but it's all I could find on a quick google. You can see that the D-21 nozzle is covered with another fairing during carriage on the mothership.

 

[powderburner]

Another view----too bad the vertical tails of the SR block the view of the aft end of the D-21

 

[powderburner]

After they quit trying to launch these drones from the SRs, other carrier aircraft were used. It was adapted for launch from B-52s and other aircraft by using a big strap-on rocket motor to accel from mother-acft-speeds to D-21-ramjet-starting-speeds.

 

[powderburner]

This ought to get some of you guys salivating.

 

[powderburner]

The leading edges of the D-21 wings were made of 'special' materials, highlighted in this photo

 

[powderburner]

The A-12 design had a one-place cockpit, and the fuselage was a bit shorter than the eventual SR configuration. It served as the development basis for the other versions.

The YF-12 design had a prominent round radome that was left when the side strakes were cut back to the crew station (see attachment). Because of the stability problems introduce by cutting back the strakes, the YF had short ventral fins underneath the engine nacelles. It had a two-man crew with a cockpit that was raised in height from the A-12 position. The YF also had four missile bays in the strakes, two per side, near the middle of the aircraft. These bays each were to hold one AIM-47 missile.

The SR-71 (RS-71 designation was 'converted' by L.B.J.) had the prominent 'spoon' nose where the strakes blend forward to the very tip of the nose. The basic SR had no strakes under the aft fuselage or engine nacelles, but the training variant (second 'front' cockpit, raised above/behind first front cockpit) used the nacelle strakes from the YF design. Slightly different aft fuselage shape at the wing trailing edge.

 

[texasck1]

I found two websites that had some really great pictures of the SR-71 and the D-21.

Checkout these
https://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/schematic.html
https://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/d21~1.htm

 

[Stymye]

heres some large 3 views,

and hundreds of pics, enjoy

https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/diagrams/

 

[Justin]

I asked if anyone had pics, and I get a million pics, a diagram, and a pile of data e mailed to me. I love this forum..

Powderburner- I see the spike thingys under the naceles that are the cameras you mentioned, but what is the central silver tube hanging forward of them? It shows up in one of my pics and one of yours. I thought it may be one of the ultraviolate doo dads NASA played with on a few of them. That is one of the things that I thought could be used to hide the forward launch lug on the kit.

Incredible photos by the way. The third fin shots are great. Thanks.

 

[Justin]

I forgot-
Powderburner- That pic I posted earlier, that you said was a SR airframe, that I found labeled as a YF12C, What does the C mean? What is it really? A wierd YF, a special SR, A misprint on the photo from NASA?
-Justin

 

[powderburner]

Originally posted by Justin
. . . what is the central silver tube . . .

The hardware you see in those photos was a NASA test called "Coldwall" to investigate heat transfer phenomenon at high Mach numbers. It was mounted on the YF-12 that was loaned to NASA.

 

[powderburner]

Originally posted by Justin
I forgot-
Powderburner- That pic I posted earlier, that you said was a SR airframe, that I found labeled as a YF12C, What does the C mean? What is it really? A wierd YF, a special SR, A misprint on the photo from NASA?

This airframe was built as an SR-71A, used by the USAF as an SR-71A, and then transferred/loaned to NASA for research. I do not know the explanation for what happened, but at the time of the transfer the USAF re-designated this single aircraft as a YF-12C. Go figure.

 

[powderburner]

Originally posted by me:
The M-21 and D-21 were designations for the drones that were launched off the back/top of some of the SRs.

I guess before this note fades away forever into the dusty vaults of TRF, I should straighten out my comment.

Back in the day when the drone was being developed the only operational variant of the 'Blackbird' was the A-12. To differentiate the specially-equipped drone launcher version from the basic A-12 aircraft, the designation was changed by reversing the numbers to "-21." The launcher aircraft was referred to as the "mother" and the drone was referred to as the "daughter" resulting in the designations M-21 and D-21, respectively, for these new vehicles.

 

[Justin]

Hey folks-
There's a new development in this project. Since there is one only ever produced yf-12 (the yf 12 C) with an sr 71 airframe, I decided to do this to make the model cooler, and closer to a real yf 12. The Estes kit already has the extra ventral fins, so with this and the decals, I'll be happier with the model now....Well, when it's done..

Thanks for the info Powderburner. Lemme know what you think.