Originally Posted by GH85Carrera (Post 11092101)

Every aviation nut really hopes the US military has something so advance the SR-71 is slow by comparison. One of our customers was a SR-71 pilot and had to get special permission from the Air Force for his son to take a photo of him taking off on his last mission.

He said it they were cooking along fast he could not touch the dash area close to the skin of the SR-71 as it was so hot it would burn him through the gloves. The overall length of the SR-71 would grow several inches when hot.

I just find it hard to believe anything can move through the air so fast that in can go cross country in 30 minutes. The laws of physics are laws that can't be broken.

I honestly hope we have aircraft of that performance. Maybe they have tiles like the space shuttle did to withstand the heat of moving through the air. I really hope we have those aircraft.

Originally Posted by Embraer (Post 11091620)

Within the last 10 years I was a controller at LA Center. I have since moved on to another facility. I worked U2s daily...as they descended BACK into controlled airspace, which was always fun. It was neat talking to the pilot on discrete tac frequency, especially since with his positive pressure suit, he sounded like an astronaut on the radio. When I keyed up, my transmissions would broadcast on several frequencies, tac/uhf/vhf, so every other pilot in my airspace would hear what I was saying to him....but they couldn't hear what he was saying to me. When I'd say "Upon descending back into Class A airspace, would you like to enter the complex at altitude or would you like an enroute descent?" ....about every pilot on frequency would key up and ask what kind of aircraft I was talking to. Of course, mum was the word. It was always great fun. Sometimes it was U2s. Sometimes it wasn't. They would always report their altitude to us as something in coded language ....depending on the week (it was constantly changing...we had a TS panel we had to access beside our scope which gave the key to what which altitude corresponded to what code they told us they were at. These codes were changed all of the time, so we would have to reference that to verify his altitude.

We also had a supersonic corridor that traversed my airspace, as an extension of the Edwards complex. It was routine to see experimental aircraft coming in and out of Groom Lake that were most definitely exceeding (by a large margin) Mach 3 in block altitudes of FL550-590. This was circa 2013-2014. In strange bit of black project humor....they would file their flight plan with bogus AC types listed. IE: XXX as the type. Or sometimes something goofy like an F-4 or F-5. Or a T-38. F-16's would be supersonically flying chase, and the "F5" would walk away at well more than twice the speed they were at.

If you've spent any time in Palmdale, you'd be used to hearing sonic booms in the morning. Still happens over the Mojave desert.

Originally Posted by masraum (Post 11092136)

X43 UAV - reported as having already gone Mach7, and the next test is going to be Mach 10.

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera (Post 11092143)

OK, so a UAV is more like a missile if no human is on board. With no life support to worry about the rules are a lot easier to attain the speed. No easy at all, nut easier. If the interior gets to 200 degrees, no big deal. And a lot of mass is eliminated with no life support or controls or windshield.

Originally Posted by masraum (Post 11092179)

Probably 7-8 years ago, there was another company doing a thing southeast of Houston where for $5k, you and a buddy would go up in a couple of planes with pilots. You were able to dog fight each other with you flying (being directed by the pilots). I wasn't able to find the same thing, but this looks similar and offers more options. They are all prop propelled planes. The other thing used planes that were actually contemporary military aircraft in some countries. I wanted to do it, but never got around to it. Maybe some day.

https://www.skycombatace.com/

Originally Posted by masraum (Post 11092136)

X43 UAV - reported as having already gone Mach7, and the next test is going to be Mach 10.

Originally Posted by Embraer (Post 11091714)

Before the Rosebowl in 2012, a B2 did the flyover. There were actually two B2's that day over SoCal. DOOM11 and DOOM12. I worked them in holding before I gave the descent on one of them to SoCal Tracon. One stayed at altitude and loitered.

I worked White Knight once, the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne carrier. That was pretty cool.

We worked SOFIA all of the time, callsign "NASA747"....which is the NASA 747 telescope aircraft. I knew one of the pilots and he offered to let me ride along. I didn't want to hang out on a 747 for 10+ hours. In hindsight, it would have been a cool "this one time...." experience to tell people about.

The Blue Angels train in El Centro during the winter...we'd work them all the time. Of course, we'd work the Thunderbirds all of the time too.

Also...lots of fast things would come from the Pacific Ocean and make their way towards China Lake.

....and well before my time....potentially one of the most catastrophic aviation accidents occurred when an F16 nose dived from FL280 and crashed JUST outside LA Center. If the center would have been hit, besides the controller deaths, there would have been cascading repercussions.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-23-me-542-story.html

sorry for the hijack...love talking about my time at ZLA.

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera (Post 11092101)

Every aviation nut really hopes the US military has something so advance the SR-71 is slow by comparison. One of our customers was a SR-71 pilot and had to get special permission from the Air Force for his son to take a photo of him taking off on his last mission.

He said it they were cooking along fast he could not touch the dash area close to the skin of the SR-71 as it was so hot it would burn him through the gloves. The overall length of the SR-71 would grow several inches when hot.

I just find it hard to believe anything can move through the air so fast that in can go cross country in 30 minutes. The laws of physics are laws that can't be broken.

I honestly hope we have aircraft of that performance. Maybe they have tiles like the space shuttle did to withstand the heat of moving through the air. I really hope we have those aircraft.