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Gates seem to buy in to Obama's "Less Guns, More Butter" BS. THAT...that is how they went at the F22 program and used absolute lies to justify the 35 (their 35 numbers were an absolute LIE).
Sad, when you think about it.
But, again, since then...and due to the rapid progress and development of avionics, comms, AN/APG/AAQ and other systems form the 35 program that are/can be applied to the 22...? Well, that's turning out to be a good thing.
Food for thought about the age of a lot of this tech or it's origins: the 22's computer language was based in Ada and the 35's is C++...that's kinda hilarious! Bringing ALL of our modern fighting systems into a common language for the sake of fast and effective or, if you will, "Real Time Information Exchange" between all fighting platforms...that's a huge part of the 'spend' in a lot of this. Sounds crazy, right? But, SOOOOO important. Read up on Link 16. Good stuff.
The materials that they all "thought" they were going to use or were going to be the next-best-thing...weren't! (AFR700)
But, they caused us to have to go in and IMPROVE existing materials AND make things like shelf-life and recertification more viable. Before all this, we threw away A LOT of good material due to BS shelf-life specs and REALLY POOR logistics/prod-control of material at the customer/user level.
So, believe it or not...
Money Saving Technologies came out of the YF22 program.
And that's one of the many benefits that the 35 program inherited.
Interesting FAIL-Fact: the HUGEST material specification problems in BOTH programs almost ALWAYS involved...
Metals...like Ti forging/tensile specs...bad alloys in turbine blades...bad alloys in the fan-shaft of the 35B...etc.
Oh yea it still goes on at the Procurement Level. The Buyers we have are straight out of college and don't have a clue or any common sense at all.
Ex: Some of the parts they purchase and I inspect don't have the REQUIRED CERTIFICATION sent with the part. Then I have to waste time trying to get it from said buyer and it can be an on-line ping pong match. 🙄
If they can't come up with the proper documentation then I have to spend more time and reject the part take photos blah blah blah blah more time and $$ wasted.
Then the part(s) are sent back to the supplier and we don't have the required parts to put on the aircraft. More time and $$ wasted.
Ex 2: Instead of procuring the part directly from the manufacturer sometimes it goes through 2 or 3 other suppliers and each time the price goes up!
There was a recent part that cost $100 right from the manufacturer.
Now it went thru two other suppliers by the time we received it had gone up to $900!
And people wonder why military and aircraft parts cost so much money.....
Bunch of so-called-educated nimrods if you ask me.
The Shop
But, the people I worked for…there…at Lockheed…some of whom were VERY instrumental in me leaving and truly focusing on my “own projects”…they kept me within “hearing range” of what was goin on and managed to keep me interested: I worked with AMAZING people.
Nowadays it’s a symposium for material sciences or participation in a white-paper or a study for a “program improvement” that keeps me, somehow, continuously getting back into it.
No worries. I love this stuff and the people that utilize these systems.
Stay tuned for more B-21 updates, things are moving fast.
This coming Monday, April 25, is the 60 year anniversary of the ‘unofficial first flight’ of the A-12. Lockheed’s Kelley Johnson always had an unofficial first flight without all the dignitaries present and the A-12’s was on April 25th 1962 with Lockheed test pilot Louis Schalk at the controls.
It did not go well. From what I have read it was really only supposed to be a high speed taxi and the bird was not supposed to get airborne. But it did get airborne and when it did all hell broke loose. Schalk held it low, about 20 feet off the ground, and it gyrated wildly until he was able to get it back on the ground. Kelley Johnson said “It was horrible to watch.” Once back on the ground it disappeared in a cloud of dust on the dry lake bed at Area 51.
Lockheed technicians discovered the cause and corrected it. The next day, April 26th, Schalk tried again and this time there were no control issues, but instead hundreds of the titanium plates covering the wings came off.Everyone of them had to be retrieved and glued back on the wings. This took a few days but on April 30th 1962 the A-12 made its official first flight in front of CIA and Air Force dignitaries. On its second flight in early May it went supersonic.
For most of 1962 the A-12 flew with P&W J75 jet engines instead of J58’s because P&W couldn’t get the new J58’s to perform to spec. Even with J58’s it still took over a year to work out all of bugs in the engine inlets.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/sr-71-blackbirds-predecessor-look…
It's gonna be a helluva program. It utilizes 2 P&W F135 engines. It's gonna shred.
Looks like a reveal may be getting closer. Interesting article on "The Drive"
It never gets old looking at different angles of the Blackbird.
During its 24 years of service, the SR-71 Blackbird gathered intelligence in some of the world’s most hostile environments. The Blackbird evaded all 4,000 missiles fired at it and, to this day, remains the only US Air Force (USAF) aircraft to never lose a crewmember associated with it; whether in the air or on the ground.
Holy Blackbird Batman!!!!
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/did-you-know-that-the-sr-71-blackbird-w…
Pit Row
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1352685235243415?fs=e&s=cl
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/33289/behold-these-awesome-shots-…
On 25 January 1966 SR-71A (61-7952 / 2003) disintegrated in flight during a high-speed, high-altitude test flight. The failure of the airplane was the result of a violent engine Unstart. Lockheed test pilot Bill Weaver was thrown clear of the wreckage and survived. It is worth noting that he did not eject and his ejection seat never left the airplane. His Reconnaissance System Officer (RSO), Jim Zwayer, died in a high-G bailout. It is believed he died instantly from a broken neck before he ever became separated from the aircraft. His parachute opened normally and his body landed close to where Bill Weaver did.
Well it turns out they had a lot to do with the input of the aircraft and it's like a futuristic SR71.
I'm sure the legend, genius Kelly Johnson would be proud.
https://youtu.be/6nSTLYBCW0E
That's pretty remarkable.
I really appreciated the Skunk on the tail!
A rancher with a helicopter saw the disintegration and was on site almost as he landed, and helped collapse the chute. . . Really a fascinating story, lots more to it..
Skunk Works R-12 course By Richard “Butch “ Sheffield
The course was taught on the top floor of the SW. The first four SR-71 Crews were present. They were Pilots Al Hichew, Robert “Grey” Sowers, Charles ”Pete” Collins, and John Storrie. RSO’s Coz Mallozzi, Tom Schmittou, Dave Dempster, and myself. Colonel’s Nelson and Haupt attended most of the time and sat in the back row. I was in awe of just being in the world-famous Skunk Works. So many wonderful aircraft had come out of these doors and here I was and I was scared that I would goof this up somehow. Little did I know that twenty years later I would represent this organization in the Nation’s Capital!
The SR-71 course (SW called it the R-12) was taught by a former Navy enlisted man. He did not know very much about our airplane. I believe he was on a loan from the Lockheed California Company to teach this course because the SW didn’t have anyone to teach and the management didn’t have the time. He told us if we had any questions that he could not answer, someone from the SW would come in during the break and answer them. Little did we know that the “someone” could be the world-famous founder of the SW, “Kelly” Johnson, or the next head of the SW, Ben Rich! Written by my Dad. Linda Sheffield Miller
Early on in the course, Kelly came in to answer a question. He went straight to the blackboard and covered it with mathematical formulas to explain why the question we asked worked on the SR. When he finished, he turned to us and asked, “Did you get it?” We all froze, and no one could speak or even think to question the aeronautical genius. He said nothing, did not greet us or shake our hands, just walked out. We soon learned that it was Kelly’s way to be direct, to be quick, and to the point without any frills or nice talk.
Ben Rich was totally different. He would come in, put us at ease, shake our hands, pat us on the back, and tell us jokes, then answer the question. One question we asked him was; why are the engines located where they are on the SR-71? He said the engine designers wanted the engines on the wing tips so they could get undisturbed air directly into the engine, the airframe designers wanted the engines located along the center of the aircraft for structural reasons. With a straight face, he said; if you notice, the engines are located exactly halfway between the wing tip and the fuselage. We didn’t know if it was a joke or not.
Most every day we would be given a tour of the SW and the production line of the SR-71 Program. I saw the aircraft I would be making my first flight in, 955, being put together. I had seen aircraft lines before, such as the B-58 & B-47. They were mostly assembly lines, putting the parts together, but the SR line was different, and they were building the aircraft from the ground up, making the key parts right there, in the SW. The forging of titanium alloys was the most impressive thing I saw.
After a few days at the SW, I began to reflect thinking upon what was going on in my life. Just two months earlier, I had been on alert in a “mole hole” at Little Rock as a B-58 Radar Navigator (RN), and now I was in Los Angles in the world-famous SW with the great weather and no alert in my plans. What a change in my life.
Never saw this one:
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