SR-71 in flight breakup...

[Merritt]

following on from the SR-71 blog at the end of last year, I have just read the following. Pretty interesting..

Apologies if it has already been posted.

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/sr-71_break-up.htm


Steve

[anonymous-user]

That's a good read, thanks for posting it.

[stuthemong]

beautiful, beautiful bird.

amazing story!

[MK4 Slowride]

I've never heard of this incident until now. Sad that Jim died but also good at least one survived.

[patmahe]

Amazing story, amazing survival. Guess it just wasn't his time.

[Lefty Guns]

bill weaver said:

As we roared down the runway and lifted off, I heard an anxious voice over the intercom.

"Bill! Bill! Are you there?"

"Yeah, George. What's the matter?"

"Thank God! I thought you might have left."

Great link, thanks!

[sneijder]

Fantastic read !

[dan1981]

What a job.

a 100 mile turning circle though!!!!

[SVX]

Absolutely amazing... Thanks for posting.

[stew-S160]

great read that.

[tossbag]

Thanks for that
So, is that this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy0QUwxY5mQ

[Marf]

Amazing story, but I'm confused about one part

Bill said:

It not only supplied breathing oxygen, but also
pressurized the suit, preventing my blood from boiling at extremely
high altitudes.

Why would his blood have boiled if the suit hadnt pressurised?

[Lefty Guns]

Something to do with air density at that altitude?

[dirty boy]

Awesome story

Shame most of the old P&P attendees will never read it.

[rsv gone!]

dan1981 said:

a 100 mile turning circle though!!!!

I can relate to that

[JonRB]

Amazing story indeed

Marf said:

Why would his blood have boiled if the suit hadnt pressurised?

Because the SR-71 cruised on the edge of space and the pilots basically wore space suits.

[Invisible man]

Marf said:

Amazing story, but I'm confused about one part

Bill said:

It not only supplied breathing oxygen, but also
pressurized the suit, preventing my blood from boiling at extremely
high altitudes.

Why would his blood have boiled if the suit hadnt pressurised?

The boiling point of a liquid drops with pressure, so the higher you go the sooner it boils. Even at 7000ft boiled water is cooler than at sea level so your tea is ste

[cs02rm0]

Extraordinary story. Great read.

[Marf]

Invisible man said:

Marf said:

Amazing story, but I'm confused about one part

Bill said:

It not only supplied breathing oxygen, but also
pressurized the suit, preventing my blood from boiling at extremely
high altitudes.

Why would his blood have boiled if the suit hadnt pressurised?

The boiling point of a liquid drops with pressure, so the higher you go the sooner it boils. Even at 7000ft boiled water is cooler than at sea level so your tea is ste

Gotcha, never knew that.

[Ravell]

To illustarte the point, at 7000 ft, water will boil at about 93°C but at 78800 ft where the SR-71 broke up, air is so thin and pressure so low that water will boil at a mere 15°C. Not sure of the boiling point of blood at standard atmospheric pressure, but as it is mostly water, it's likely not much different.

Now imagine that blood, ready to boil at around 15°C being in your body at 37.5°C as the pressure outside drops violently. It's like an extreme high pressure cooker suddenly bursting and all the water evaporating into steam in an instant. You can imagine the consequences aren't pretty or pleasant.