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SR-71 was built for one mission only: Fly-over the Soviet Union and take pictures. At the speeds that it operates, you can't really do much else. And recon sate
by thearn4 13y ago
SR-71 was built for one mission only: Fly-over the Soviet Union and take pictures. At the speeds that it operates, you can't really do much else. And recon satellites do this much more effectively now, and are extremely hard to take down.
Proponents of hypersonic aircraft research have been fighting an uphill battle for this very reason.
- robotresearcher 13y agoThe other thing you can do at that speed is intercept enemy planes. The SR-71 was developed from an interceptor project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YF-12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_YF-12
- avar 13y agoThat's not an accurate description at all. Both the SR-71 and the YF-12 were developed from the A-12, which was purely a reconnaissance aircraft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_A-12 The whole concept of using the "Blackbird" family of planes as interceptors was an experimental offshoot that was quickly cancelled, the SR-71 certainly wasn't developed as some byproduct of an interceptor, it it was the other way around, the interceptor was a failed offshoot of the reconnaissance aircraft.
- robotresearcher 13y agoYou are right. I read the first paragraph of that page too quickly, and got the order wrong. The main point was that interceptor is the other role for very fast plane, including the active service MiG-31 (around Mach 2.8).