SR-71 Blackbird - request for help

As Zathros stated, all actual mission deployment of drones was done with B-52. Only first four test launches was made from Blackbird (M-21). Fourth launch ended by accident and the carrier was lost when drone colided with the carrier after its release. Carrier pitched up, front half of the plane separated. One pilot drowned after ejection, because he can not get to his life raft due his injuries. Having opened his helmet visor his suit filled with water. Programe was stoped and drones was modified for B-52.
 
Wow! That's something you don't hear / read often. Thank you for sharing these unique infos.
 
You are welcome, Revell-Fan. Research is a big part of what I like about modeling/ designing models. If you want detailed model, you need to gather lots of new and interesting infos :). As a byproduct I became kind of expert on some Star Wars models I am working on. Maybe I will be expert on Blackbirds too when I finish with this model:).
 
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Very impressive. I feel like changing the title of the thread, to "
"SR-71 Blackbird - Watch this!!"
 
There is a A-12 in Shreveport LA in the Barksdale outdoor museum. There is a 71 at the Warner Robbins air and space museum in GA. and there is one at the air museum in Mobile LA, (I think it is a A-12), saw it driving by, could not stop.

Hope this helps.
 
Thank you for kind words.

I know about locations of blackbirds, but they are out of my reach right now, I am from Europe (Czech Republic). Closest bird to me is in Duxford, UK. I want to visit it someday if there will be opportunity. This whole thread started as my kind request for some photo reference.

I should have choden some MIG or SU, we have this planes in our Air Museums :). But there are beautifull models of them, like this wonderfull build (not mine) of Mig-29A http://www.papirovemodelarstvi.cz/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7632&start=15 , no need to make another version as you can see.

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So unfortunately I like blackbirds:) and I am trying to aquire some collaborator who would suply me with measurements. I do not think I can get much further with just the photoreference. If I do not find him, I will probably put this on hold until I visit blackbird in UK (or USA myabe :)) myself someday.
 
I have archive pictures from vists to Shreveport and Macon. I'll dig them out over the weekend and email them if you can supply a email in a message to me.

Have a great night
 
I know, unless you have someone working there, or there is some other special consideration, you cannot cross the rope around the SR71 on the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York City. I don't know about elsewhere, but I think direct measurements would be not allowed. With the Parametric scaling you have in Rhino, you only really need to know the dimensions of one part, and everything can be scaled to that. ;)

SR-71.gifSR71 data.jpg
 
You are right, SR-71 in NY will not be possible. But there are plces like Air Force Armament Museum - Eglin Air Force Base, FL

tumblr_n3c2g9TpYJ1ttka3go3_1280.jpg

or Beale Air Force Base, CA
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where it may be possible to take some measurements, at least theoreticaly. Perfect solution would be to have someone from museum staff on the task :). I knew one such a person, but unfortunately he is not working there anymore for a few years and mooved out from the city:(.

Thank you for the plan Zathros. I wish it would be as easy as scale some plans. I tried this NASA public plans and they are just schematic drawing, not fitting at all. I also tried lots of different plans from other sources, mainly books about blackbird planes, but none was consistent match. Some pats of the drawing match and other does not, so scaling to known dimensions can not be trusted. But I have some Lockheed plans with quite a few dimensions and other infos as wing chord and tip lengths, incidence ange, wing sweep angle, fuselage diamettr etc. They seems to match, so it helped me tremendously. Unfortunately engine nacelle is not covered by exact dimensions on thees plans and its drawing and angles does not match the real thing and are also distorted by their scaning/copying.

So I am using photos to guess remaining dimensions. It is tricky due to lens distortion and croping of photos unknown to me. Some actual measurements would proove/disproove my guesswork
 
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One thing you have to consider, is that the inlet spikes move in flight almost 2 feet, so one aircraft may have the spikes further back, or further forward from another.
 
I know micahrogers, but I can be sure, that photos of rolling and take off bird I use for the comparison have them fully out.
 
Thank you for the plan Gandolf50. I looked in flight manual (great source of information) and on the youtube video about engine. It is explained there realy comprehensibly. Unfortunately drawings of nacelle there is schematic. This plan is one of the better one, but placement of cockpit area and landing gear is little off.
comp.jpg
 
The only why you will get this is by getting the dimension of one part, the selecting the whole model, and scale that part to that size numerically, which will bring the rest of the model to scale. Pictures have too much distortion. :)
 
Because of picture distortion I use pictures only to check what I got from the plans, and I always check against number of photos from different angles. I did not trace any shapes from pictures. Green objects in above picture are based on numerical dimensions from lockheed plans. Black objects are my estimation where I have no dimensions at hand.
 
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Well, I will put it this way...I have one modeled up using references and it is almost exactly the same as yours...Front windscreen and landing gear are just a bit off from the plan ( didn't have it when modeled)... So I would say you are about as close as you can get without actual Blue-prints or a REAL good set of multi-views...
SR-71.png
 
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You do get to a point when you have to go with what you got because you won't get anymore. When I worked at Sikorsky, every Blackhawk helicopter was with 1mm (.03937" of an inch), which is in reality approx. =/- .019" of an inch in length. For someting that has a couple of million parts, that's not so bad. I don't think the technology existed to keep those SR-71's that exact, each plane was literally hand made. ;)
 
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