Blackbird Questions, Anyone?

Thanks Jay!

This has been a VERY interesting thread. I would have never thought to let
us common folk ask questions for through you. Thanks for thinking of us!

jf


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:Qo6vd.561259$D%.17160@attbi_s51...
Bill Fox, project coordinator for the Lockheed Skunkworks (and the guy who
donated all the unbelievably cool stuff in our "Blackbird Suite") is going
to be visiting us again soon.

Bill actually ran Area 51 for a few years, and was instrumental in the
development and deployment of the SR-71 (and a whole slew of other stuff
that hasn't been declassified yet.) from Kelly Johnson's Lockheed
Skunkworks.

I've made a list of questions to ask him when he gets here, but if you
have
any questions about the Blackbird, the U-2, or any other Lockheed
Skunkworks
stuff, post 'em here and I'll ask him for ya!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay,

Please consider publishing a long, long interview with Bill Fox in AOPA
Pilot. The very interesting tidbits you've given us make me want MUCH MORE!

Thanks!

Jon

Or better yet, on your web site!

"Jon Woellhaf" wrote in message
news:wKuvd.232586$HA.167020@attbi_s01...
Jay,

Please consider publishing a long, long interview with Bill Fox in AOPA
Pilot. The very interesting tidbits you've given us make me want MUCH
MORE!

Thanks!

Jon

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:ektvd.189728$V41.138784@attbi_s52...
Hehehe...cool.

Thanks!

Other cool tidbits from Bill:


Security. At Lockheed's Burbank, CA facility, they were testing the
SR-71's fuel tank and the explosive nature of the special fuel the
Blackbird used. They drained a tank, leaving fumes in it, and heated it
to hundreds of degrees, to simulate in-flight conditions. It, of course,
exploded, blowing the building to bits and starting a raging fire.


Hey Jay,

Double check something else with Bill if you still have him available...

JP-12:

So, they fill the SR-71 on the ground and it would leak like a sieve until
it got up to altitude and expansion of the airframe "sealed" the leaks
(necessitating an immediate tanker join once airborne...)

So here's the kicker, I recall reading that you could make a torch out of a
T-Shirt on a stick, light it, dunk it in a bucket of JP-12 and the JP-12
would do nothing but extinguish your torch...JP-12 was anything BUT
explosive and it required immense pressures to get it to ignite (fumes, of
course, are a different kettle of fish.)

Jay B

"Jay Beckman" wrote in message
news:K3vvd.4793$2r.2971@fed1read02...
[...]
So here's the kicker, I recall reading that you could make a torch out of
a T-Shirt on a stick, light it, dunk it in a bucket of JP-12 and the JP-12
would do nothing but extinguish your torch...JP-12 was anything BUT
explosive and it required immense pressures to get it to ignite

Regular gasoline is basically the same. The main difference would be vapor
pressure; there's a decent amount of gasoline vapor anywhere there's liquid
gasoline. But the liquid gasoline itself is very resistant to ignition
(ditto other fuels).

With decent ventilation, you could put out a match by throwing it into a
bucket of gasoline.

In other words, your recollection is correct, but it's not really the
mind-blowing news flash one might think it is.

Pete

Double check something else with Bill if you still have him available...

Sorry -- Bill departed yesterday, after spending two nights in "his" suite.
I've already thought of ten new questions for his next visit!

So here's the kicker, I recall reading that you could make a torch out of
a T-Shirt on a stick, light it, dunk it in a bucket of JP-12 and the JP-12
would do nothing but extinguish your torch...JP-12 was anything BUT
explosive and it required immense pressures to get it to ignite (fumes, of
course, are a different kettle of fish.)

True. As Bill put it, JP-12 was the "worst diesel fuel around" -- it just
wouldn't burn.

This turned out to be a good thing on many occasions.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Bill actually ran Area 51 for a few years, and was instrumental in the
development and deployment of the SR-71

Which was developed in the late 1950s I think, which makes ol' Bill
rather old indeed.

Ol' Bill is in his 80s, does 3 flights of stairs just fine, drives around
the country in a brand new Cadillac, and travels everywhere with his girl
friend.

He may be physically old, but he ain't "old"...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Please consider publishing a long, long interview with Bill Fox in AOPA
Pilot. The very interesting tidbits you've given us make me want MUCH
MORE!

It's funny -- Bill will talk to anyone, anytime, about his experiences --
yet few have heard of him. After he left Iowa City he was driving back to
Charles City to give a talk to a church group about his days at Lockheed.

Here's a guy who has seen and achieved amazing things, and won world-renown
in the "black program" community -- yet he's out talking to churches, for
free. It boggles the mind.

He recently received a prestigious award from the Blackbird community,
normally reserved for pilots. You can read more about it he
http://www.aleinn.com/black_projects/a12_40years.html
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article 4jBvd.568589$D%.328171@attbi_s51,
Jay Honeck wrote:

True. As Bill put it, JP-12 was the "worst diesel fuel around" -- it just
wouldn't burn.

This turned out to be a good thing on many occasions.

The exploding fuel mentioned up thread might be the TEB (Triethylborane).

From an old Mary Shafer post (http://yarchive.net/air/sr71.html):

MS TEB is the "igniter" for JP-7. You can't get JP-7 to burn without it
MS in the SR-71, as the ignition of JP-7 takes a higher temperature than
MS is conveniently produced otherwise. You drop in a shot of TEB, which
MS bursts into very hot flames the minute it has any oxygen, and this
MS ignites the JP-7. Once ignited, the JP-7 keeps burning. The plane
MS has twelve shots of TEB (either total or per engine, I forget), using
MS one shot for each engine start and one for each burner light.

There are lots more interesting details about TEB at the url above.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.panix.com/~jac

On 13 Dec 2004 08:39:41 -0800, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Bill says that in all of his years there, he never got to see any
aliens.

He says the whole UFO legend began because the Air Force didn't want to
admit that they were sending mylar balloons (then new technology) over
the Soviet Union. When people found the remains of a balloon -- which
looked like sci-fi space suit material -- they denied knowing about
them, which, of course, simply inflamed the curiosity of everyone.

Regretfully, there was more to it than mylar balloons. The Air Force
was using animals in tests, including monkeys, chimps and bears. Some
of the flights involved chimps in pressure suits. They'd subjected
these animals to all kinds of (I'm going to use the adjective
"hideous") experiments including ejection from high altitude, rides in
rocket sleds and much more. These creatures didn't just die, they
died ugly, burned and deformed. Some were found by civilians before
the Air Force personnel could get to them. Guess what a burned and
deformed chimp wearing a space suit in a strange looking capsule looks
like, or looks like to a civilian who did not know what was going on?

This information came from one of those "Discovery" types of programs,
but they showed copies of recently disclosed previously classified
documents that supported the assertions of animal use.

Corky Scott