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Right, for example he said he took off his mask so that he could see his altitude and manually deploy his shoot if necessary. The whole story sounds horrific a

by gxs 4y ago

Right, for example he said he took off his mask so that he could see his altitude and manually deploy his shoot if necessary. The whole story sounds horrific and it's very unfortunate the co-pilot died. The other bit I found interesting was how they were able to replicate the accident in a flight simulator. Can you imagine the work that went into that simulator as well? Would be awesome to see the systems involved. Very cool story - makes you wonder what the state of the art is.

geocrasher 4y ago
The sim also struck me as very interesting, especially for 1960's technology! How much do you want to bet that they ran every test flight through the simulator first after this accident?
hermitdev 4y ago
> he took off his mask He didn't take off his mask, he took off his visor (or rather held it out of the way). The flight crew of an SR-71 wear pressure suits very similar to that of astronauts. The helmets they were are also similar in appearance, at least. They've got a "sunglass" visor that slides down over the transparent bubble of the helmet. This is likely what he was "removing". It sounded like the latch that would normally hold it in its stowed position broke, necessitating him holding it out of the way (mentioned several times). You can see a close up of the helmet here [0], full body view [1], side view with the visor up [2]. The crew doesn't wear a mask light you'd see in, say, a fighter jet. The entire suit is pressurized. I'm not even sure a crew member is capable of removing their helmet without assistance. They certainly need help getting the entire suit, gloves and helmet on & sealed. [0] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Shul_in_the_cockpit_of_the_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg#/media/File:Brian_Shul_in_the_cockpit_of_the_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Shul_in_the_co... [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SR71_crew.jpg#/media/File:SR71_crew.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SR71_crew.jpg#/media... [2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Shul_in_the_cockpit_of_the_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg#/media/File:Brian_Shul,_self-portrait,_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Shul_in_the_co...

by gxs 4y ago

geocrasher 4y ago

The sim also struck me as very interesting, especially for 1960's technology! How much do you want to bet that they ran every test flight through the simulator first after this accident?

hermitdev 4y ago

> he took off his mask He didn't take off his mask, he took off his visor (or rather held it out of the way). The flight crew of an SR-71 wear pressure suits very similar to that of astronauts. The helmets they were are also similar in appearance, at least. They've got a "sunglass" visor that slides down over the transparent bubble of the helmet. This is likely what he was "removing". It sounded like the latch that would normally hold it in its stowed position broke, necessitating him holding it out of the way (mentioned several times). You can see a close up of the helmet here [0], full body view [1], side view with the visor up [2]. The crew doesn't wear a mask light you'd see in, say, a fighter jet. The entire suit is pressurized. I'm not even sure a crew member is capable of removing their helmet without assistance. They certainly need help getting the entire suit, gloves and helmet on & sealed. [0] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Shul_in_the_cockpit_of_the_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg#/media/File:Brian_Shul_in_the_cockpit_of_the_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Shul_in_the_co... [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SR71_crew.jpg#/media/File:SR71_crew.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SR71_crew.jpg#/media... [2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Shul_in_the_cockpit_of_the_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg#/media/File:Brian_Shul,_self-portrait,_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Shul_in_the_co...