By R.C.
mon, may 22, 2023 8:42 p.m.
sr-71 pilot, photographer and storyteller Brian Shul dies at 75
 | The aviation world has lost one of its brightest luminaries. Major Brian Shul was an incredible survivor and a top gun pilot – but also a gifted photographer and storyteller, whose stories about the extraordinary SR-71 Blackbird will live forever. newatlas.com |
The sr-71 is a feat that will never be replicated.
Well, unless the Air Force's jets come to fruition,
 | Development on the bomber, which will travel at Mach 10, just took a huge step forward. www.popularmechanics.com |
 | en.wikipedia.org |
Quite a story.Only a Whitey could pull that off.
ReplyDelete--GRA
"The sr-71 is a feat that will never be replicated."
ReplyDeleteIt could be replicated. But there is no need. Satellite-based intelligence is much more capable now than it was in the 1960s when the SR-71 was developed. The SR-71 was basically a faster, higher-flying U2.
It is probably even possible to develop a relatively cheap stealth balloon that would be very difficult to detect and could xfer its data in real-time via satellite link (in case it was detected and brought down no data would be lost).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird
First flight 22 December 1964
Introduction January 1966
But it was quite a feat. A really beautiful piece of technology for the day. Or any day really. But its day has passed.
Some of its speed records will probably stand for a long time yet. Some of them are astounding:
"West Coast to East Coast - 67 minutes 54 seconds."
"St. Louis to Cincinnati - 8 minutes 32 seconds."
What a great feeling it must have been to be in the cockpit.
But the plane and that country are both things of the past. The latter is a far greater tragedy.
"Satellite-based intelligence"
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/Spriter99880/status/1660980154301120513
"The American Maxar commercial satellite imaged the border areas of the Belgorod region two days before the penetration of Ukrainian saboteurs into the region."
"Colorado satellite imagery company wins billions in work from U.S. government"
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2022/05/26/maxar-nro-commercial-satellite-imagery-contract.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxar_Technologies
"In 2022, Maxar published several satellite images that showed a Russian military convoy during its invasion of Ukraine."
No doubt Ukraine benefits tremendously from the strategic and intelligence systems of the US military and national security apparatus. For decades the US has regularly outspent the rest of the world combined on this sort of technology. So the US has superior capability.
Russia must react to this. Sooner rather than later. The average Russian soldier cannot be happy that the West is providing such massive assistance to Ukraine, helping to kill Russian soldiers, and Russia does not do enough to interdict weapons deliveries, and does nothing to retaliate.
It looks like delivery of F-16 planes is the next red line the West previously self-declared but will now abandon. Because Russia has not reacted to previous escalations. Very foolish of Putin. But it does refute all the nonsense about Putin and Russia both being arch enemies of the West. In fact Putin is doing everything to avoid further escalation with the West. At the cost of many Russian lives. Very foolish. The West is like a bully and will not stop until it gets a bloody nose.
Even persons chosen for a task with regard to physical perfection as best as that can be define do not generally live a whole longer than others. Sometimes even less.
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