Some cool turbine blade manufacture photos:
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: SR-71 Blackbird (starboard profile)
Image by Chris Devers
See far more photos of this, and the Wikipedia report.
Particulars, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in far more hostile airspace or with such comprehensive impunity than the SR-71, the world’s quickest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s overall performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technologies developments during the Cold War.
This Blackbird accrued about 2,800 hours of flight time during 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its last flight, March six, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 3,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane more than to the Smithsonian.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
Designer:
Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson
Date:
1964
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (five.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft five 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (5.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)
Materials:
Titanium
Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-type material) to reduce radar cross-section Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines function huge inlet shock cones.
Lengthy Description:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in much more hostile airspace or with such full impunity than the SR-71 Blackbird. It is the quickest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird’s performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments throughout the Cold War. The airplane was conceived when tensions with communist Eastern Europe reached levels approaching a complete-blown crisis in the mid-1950s. U.S. military commanders desperately required correct assessments of Soviet worldwide military deployments, specifically close to the Iron Curtain. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s subsonic U-two (see NASM collection) reconnaissance aircraft was an capable platform but the U. S. Air Force recognized that this comparatively slow aircraft was currently vulnerable to Soviet interceptors. They also understood that the speedy improvement of surface-to-air missile systems could put U-2 pilots at grave risk. The danger proved reality when a U-two was shot down by a surface to air missile over the Soviet Union in 1960.
Lockheed’s initial proposal for a new high speed, high altitude, reconnaissance aircraft, to be capable of avoiding interceptors and missiles, centered on a design and style propelled by liquid hydrogen. This proved to be impracticable because of considerable fuel consumption. Lockheed then reconfigured the style for traditional fuels. This was feasible and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), already flying the Lockheed U-2, issued a production contract for an aircraft designated the A-12. Lockheed’s clandestine ‘Skunk Works’ division (headed by the gifted design engineer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson) made the A-12 to cruise at Mach 3.two and fly effectively above 18,288 m (60,000 feet). To meet these challenging needs, Lockheed engineers overcame several daunting technical challenges. Flying a lot more than 3 times the speed of sound generates 316° C (600° F) temperatures on external aircraft surfaces, which are enough to melt standard aluminum airframes. The design group chose to make the jet’s external skin of titanium alloy to which shielded the internal aluminum airframe. Two conventional, but extremely strong, afterburning turbine engines propelled this exceptional aircraft. These power plants had to operate across a huge speed envelope in flight, from a takeoff speed of 334 kph (207 mph) to a lot more than 3,540 kph (2,200 mph). To prevent supersonic shock waves from moving inside the engine intake causing flameouts, Johnson’s group had to design and style a complex air intake and bypass program for the engines.
Skunk Operates engineers also optimized the A-12 cross-section design and style to exhibit a low radar profile. Lockheed hoped to attain this by cautiously shaping the airframe to reflect as little transmitted radar power (radio waves) as feasible, and by application of special paint designed to absorb, rather than reflect, these waves. This treatment became 1 of the very first applications of stealth technologies, but it never totally met the design and style targets.
Test pilot Lou Schalk flew the single-seat A-12 on April 24, 1962, after he became airborne accidentally for the duration of high-speed taxi trials. The airplane showed great promise but it needed considerable technical refinement before the CIA could fly the initial operational sortie on May possibly 31, 1967 – a surveillance flight more than North Vietnam. A-12s, flown by CIA pilots, operated as part of the Air Force’s 1129th Unique Activities Squadron beneath the "Oxcart" program. Whilst Lockheed continued to refine the A-12, the U. S. Air Force ordered an interceptor version of the aircraft designated the YF-12A. The Skunk Works, nevertheless, proposed a "specific mission" version configured to conduct post-nuclear strike reconnaissance. This technique evolved into the USAF’s familiar SR-71.
Lockheed constructed fifteen A-12s, such as a specific two-seat trainer version. Two A-12s were modified to carry a particular reconnaissance drone, designated D-21. The modified A-12s were redesignated M-21s. These were made to take off with the D-21 drone, powered by a Marquart ramjet engine mounted on a pylon in between the rudders. The M-21 then hauled the drone aloft and launched it at speeds higher sufficient to ignite the drone’s ramjet motor. Lockheed also constructed three YF-12As but this variety never went into production. Two of the YF-12As crashed during testing. Only a single survives and is on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The aft section of 1 of the "written off" YF-12As which was later employed along with an SR-71A static test airframe to manufacture the sole SR-71C trainer. One SR-71 was lent to NASA and designated YF-12C. Like the SR-71C and two SR-71B pilot trainers, Lockheed constructed thirty-two Blackbirds. The initial SR-71 flew on December 22, 1964. Due to the fact of intense operational charges, military strategists decided that the much more capable USAF SR-71s should replace the CIA’s A-12s. These were retired in 1968 following only one particular year of operational missions, mostly more than southeast Asia. The Air Force’s 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (element of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing) took more than the missions, flying the SR-71 beginning in the spring of 1968.
Soon after the Air Force began to operate the SR-71, it acquired the official name Blackbird– for the particular black paint that covered the airplane. This paint was formulated to absorb radar signals, to radiate some of the tremendous airframe heat generated by air friction, and to camouflage the aircraft against the dark sky at higher altitudes.
Expertise gained from the A-12 system convinced the Air Force that flying the SR-71 safely necessary two crew members, a pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO). The RSO operated with the wide array of monitoring and defensive systems installed on the airplane. This equipment incorporated a sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) program that could jam most acquisition and targeting radar. In addition to an array of sophisticated, high-resolution cameras, the aircraft could also carry equipment made to record the strength, frequency, and wavelength of signals emitted by communications and sensor devices such as radar. The SR-71 was designed to fly deep into hostile territory, avoiding interception with its tremendous speed and higher altitude. It could operate safely at a maximum speed of Mach three.three at an altitude much more than sixteen miles, or 25,908 m (85,000 ft), above the earth. The crew had to wear pressure suits equivalent to these worn by astronauts. These suits were necessary to protect the crew in the event of sudden cabin pressure loss even though at operating altitudes.
To climb and cruise at supersonic speeds, the Blackbird’s Pratt & Whitney J-58 engines have been developed to operate continuously in afterburner. Although this would appear to dictate high fuel flows, the Blackbird truly achieved its ideal "gas mileage," in terms of air nautical miles per pound of fuel burned, during the Mach three+ cruise. A common Blackbird reconnaissance flight might require a number of aerial refueling operations from an airborne tanker. Each and every time the SR-71 refueled, the crew had to descend to the tanker’s altitude, generally about six,000 m to 9,000 m (20,000 to 30,000 ft), and slow the airplane to subsonic speeds. As velocity decreased, so did frictional heat. This cooling impact triggered the aircraft’s skin panels to shrink considerably, and these covering the fuel tanks contracted so significantly that fuel leaked, forming a distinctive vapor trail as the tanker topped off the Blackbird. As quickly as the tanks had been filled, the jet’s crew disconnected from the tanker, relit the afterburners, and again climbed to high altitude.
Air Force pilots flew the SR-71 from Kadena AB, Japan, throughout its operational career but other bases hosted Blackbird operations, too. The 9th SRW sometimes deployed from Beale AFB, California, to other areas to carryout operational missions. Cuban missions had been flown directly from Beale. The SR-71 did not begin to operate in Europe till 1974, and then only temporarily. In 1982, when the U.S. Air Force based two aircraft at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall to fly monitoring mission in Eastern Europe.
When the SR-71 became operational, orbiting reconnaissance satellites had currently replaced manned aircraft to collect intelligence from sites deep within Soviet territory. Satellites could not cover each and every geopolitical hotspot so the Blackbird remained a vital tool for international intelligence gathering. On many occasions, pilots and RSOs flying the SR-71 offered details that proved important in formulating profitable U. S. foreign policy. Blackbird crews supplied critical intelligence about the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, and pre- and post-strike imagery of the 1986 raid conducted by American air forces on Libya. In 1987, Kadena-primarily based SR-71 crews flew a number of missions over the Persian Gulf, revealing Iranian Silkworm missile batteries that threatened industrial shipping and American escort vessels.
As the performance of space-based surveillance systems grew, along with the effectiveness of ground-primarily based air defense networks, the Air Force started to lose enthusiasm for the high-priced system and the 9th SRW ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990. Despite protests by military leaders, Congress revived the program in 1995. Continued wrangling over operating budgets, however, soon led to final termination. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration retained two SR-71As and the 1 SR-71B for high-speed investigation projects and flew these airplanes until 1999.
On March six, 1990, the service career of one Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird ended with a record-setting flight. This special airplane bore Air Force serial quantity 64-17972. Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding and his RSO, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Vida, flew this aircraft from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging a speed of three,418 kph (2,124 mph). At the conclusion of the flight, ‘972 landed at Dulles International Airport and taxied into the custody of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. At that time, Lt. Col. Vida had logged 1,392.7 hours of flight time in Blackbirds, a lot more than that of any other crewman.
This specific SR-71 was also flown by Tom Alison, a former National Air and Space Museum’s Chief of Collections Management. Flying with Detachment 1 at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Alison logged much more than a dozen ‘972 operational sorties. The aircraft spent twenty-4 years in active Air Force service and accrued a total of two,801.1 hours of flight time.
Wingspan: 55’7"
Length: 107’5"
Height: 18’6"
Weight: 170,000 Lbs
Reference and Further Reading:
Crickmore, Paul F. Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996.
Francillon, Rene J. Lockheed Aircraft Considering that 1913. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1987.
Johnson, Clarence L. Kelly: A lot more Than My Share of It All. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.
Miller, Jay. Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Operates. Leicester, U.K.: Midland Counties Publishing Ltd., 1995.
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird curatorial file, Aeronautics Division, National Air and Space Museum.
DAD, 11-11-01
Image from web page 32 of “Journal of electrical energy” (1917)
Image by Internet Archive Book Pictures
Identifier: journalofele381151917sanf
Title: Journal of electricity
Year: 1917 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Electrical engineering Electrical energy Gas manufacture and operates
Publisher: San Francisco : Technical Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: San Francisco Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: California State Library Califa/LSTA Grant
View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Photos: All Photos From Book
Click right here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable on the web version of this book.
Text Appearing Ahead of Image:
to sev-eral classes, the specifics of which will not be outlinedin this general discussion. Suffice it to say, nevertheless,that the primary principle upon which reciprocating en-gines act is that steam enters a cylinder below pressure,therefore forcing ahead a piston which is connected to acrank arm, thereby causing rotation and the conse-quent generation of energy. Steam turbines are divided into two generalclasses identified as impulse turbines and pressure tur-bines. In the impulse turbine steam is permitted toexpand in passing via a nozzle, as a result causing thesteam to travel at an massive velocity. The steam,having acquired this velocity by impinging againstmovable blades, causes rotation and the consequentgeneration of power. In the stress turbine, how-ever, the steam is allowed to enter the buckets or ro-tating vanes at a comparatively low velocity. Thesevanes are so made that the steam might expand inthis movable portion and by indicates of its expanding January 1, 1917.] JOURNAL OF Electrical energy 19
Text Appearing After Image:
A r= Provide water supply. B = Provide pump. C = Hot properly. D = Feed-water pump. E =r Feed-water heater. F =r Economizer. G = Boiler. II = Superheater.I = Separator.J = Turbine.L:^ Condenser.M = Wet vacuum pump.N:= Circulating water pump.=Huge water supply P = Dry vaculum pump.Q = Railroad oil tank.R = Storage tank.S = Oil feed pump.T = Oil heater.U = Oil burner or atonK = Furnace.W = Smoke-stack. A Diagramatic Sketch displaying the Steam, Circulating Water and Fuel Oil Cycles in the Modern Energy Plant. stress result in rotation and therefore the generation ofpower. Turbines as a basic rule have two other classi-fications, known as vertical and horizontal. The ver-tical turbine revolves upon a vertical shaft, which issupported at the bottom by a thin film of oil underthe higher pressure of about 900 to 1000 lb. per in. Thehorizontal turbine, nonetheless, as the name indicates,rotates on a horizontal axis, and is supported in theusual manner by means of appropriate bearings. Condenser. From the steam t
Note About Pictures
Please note that these photos are extracted from scanned web page pictures that may have been digitally enhanced for readability – coloration and look of these illustrations may not completely resemble the original perform.
Wind Wand, London from Gurit
Image by Gurit Composites
Most of the structures Gurit are asked to engineer involve the usual needs for stiffer, stronger, lighter and reduced price structures, so it was interesting to be challenged by Ron Arad to make as an alternative a really flexible structure. His idea was to create a really slender column 50m high that would move “interestingly” in even the lightest of airs. The structure was to have an array of higher intensity lights at the best, forming either words or intriguing flashing sequences at the best and was to be positioned on the Riverside improvement at Canary Wharf, London.