Pics of SR-71 61-7964 at the SAC Museum.

[Jay Chladek]

With the release of the new Revell 1/48 SR-71A kit in Europe in December and it being due in the states soon, I went to the SAC Museum in Ashland NE and shot some pictures of the aircraft we have on display, 61-7964. The aircraft has also been referred to as the Bododian (or Bodonian depending on reference) Express as it limped into Norway after an engine out condition in 1983. It is one of two Blackbirds displayed in this unique fashion on stilts in a sun-lit atrium. The engines and landing gear are removed and one engine is on display in another part of the museum with the one of the main gears and the nose gear, plus a chine bay optical camera. This will take a few posts, so be patient and I will try to get all of the images. All images were taken by me.

 

The first section is dedicated to the nose section of the aircraft. It was equipped with a CAPRE nose for display. Of note, there seems to be a little bit of a "tan line" of sorts between the nose and the fuselage. That can be seen on reference photos as the noses can look slightly darker than the rest of the airplane depending on what sensor nose is fitted since the noses tend to be kept indoors while the Blackbirds themselves were kept in partially open air hangars where the areas above the doors were open so only the tails were visible at ground level.

Also of note are the cockpit windows. They use what appears to be two types of sealer. On the inside is the more common "off white" gasket material that we come to expect on cockpits. The outside looks to use a presumably high temperature silicone RTV that is red in color. Despite what decal sheets have, the red sealer is not evenly applied. On some planes it might look invisible, while on others it can look uniform red. Decals could be used, but perhaps after masking the windows, painting a layer of red first before laying down the black might give the best appearance of a peeking out gasket look. Simulating the inner gasket might be as simple as masking the inside windows, then spraying on a layer of off white before painting the insides of the canopy in gull gray might give the proper appearance of the gasket as seen from outside. Also note that the window corners are slightly rounded. In 1/72 they will probably look best sharply angled, but in 1/48 you might be able to see the slight rounding (take note whomever does pre-cut canopy masks).

 

 

[Jay Chladek]

Next let's focus on the engine inlets. on the very tip of the inlets, the cone is natural metal. They mold a little bit of a demarcation line on the Revell cones. None of the other kits do. In scales under 1/48, painting it is likely as simple as dipping the cone tip into a silver paint tin lid. With the new kit and with resin aftermarket for the other Blackbird kits out there, the whole cone and portions of the inlet are being represented. But you can't see much in real life so I wouldn't go too crazy in these areas unless you want to represent a Blackbird at Supersonic flight with the cones extended forward to send the shockwave to the very lip of the intake. On the second photo, you can sort of make out the transition between the black paint on the lip of the intake and the natural metal going further inside.

 

Also of note in the final photo is a pitot port. Each engine has them, one on top at about a 120 degree arc to the outside and a bottom one that is centered to the nacelle. You can see both ports in the first photo as the bottom one is straight down and you can sort of make out the top port. These ports provide input to the aircraft's air data computer and help fine tune control of the inlet spikes to help prevent un-starts (a term meaning that the shockwave pops out of the inlet, so the engine looses thrust as it is starved for air through the "ramjet" properties of the engine. When that happens, the inlet cones automatically move back in an attempt to re-capture the air shockwave once again. The pilot can also manually control the inlet spikes, but the aircraft can't fly quite as fast and is less efficient in its fuel burn as a result.

 

No kit done to date represents these pitots since they are so tiny and likely would get knocked off. But, if you have a bad case of AMS (Advanced Modelers Syndrome) it is something worth considering adding to your model.

Edited January 12, 2022 by Jay Chladek
adding descriptions

[Jay Chladek]

Next, we look at the engine nacelles just underneath the tails. One thing I noticed is the nacelles feature a bit of a "pinch in" just before the air bypass door sections before the cross section flairs out again. I'm not sure if this boat tailing or "coke bottling" was due to area rule or something else. But it is uniform around both engines it looks like. It is very subtle, so I wouldn't bother adding it to a 1/144 or 1/72 model, but it could potentially be added to a model in 1/48 scale if one is careful. The profile change is most visible on the bottom of the nacelles where the shape blends into the wings.

Also of note for the detail freaks, if a Blackbird is being represented parked with no power going to it, while the upper nacelle air bypass doors sit open, the ones on the bottom of aircraft sit at rest in the closed position.

[Jay Chladek]

Now here's a focus on the landing gear struts and tires. The gear struts are a dark color, perhaps pretty close to a light (metallic) gunmetal shade with some bright silver bits for brake lines, attachment brackets, and the oleo areas. A modeler could really go to town with dry brushing here. The main tires have are impregnated with aluminum powder in the rubber to give them a silvery look. The main tires are simple rubber black. This particular aircraft was flown into Offutt AFB when it was retired in 1990. So the tire wear should be accurate, albeit maybe a little worn for a takeoff since the plane wasn't going to fly again when it arrived.

 

[757flyer]

Great pics and info Jay.  Many thanks for sharing!

 

Mike

[Jay Chladek]

Time for pictures of the J58 engine. These are important if you plan to build and display the ones in the Revell of Germany kit (the Revell USA kit will not have the exposed engines). The large tubes on the outside of the engine are air bypass tubes that operate primarily when the aircraft is at supersonic speeds as I understand it. The big feature most modelers will be curious about though is the flame bucket area (my term, I have no idea what the official term is). The inside is starts out sort of flat white, but it gets a little bit discolored over time. The coating material I think is ceramic based and as you can see there are a bunch of little holes inside the walls, perhaps for a form of laminar flow effect.

 

Until the Revell kit came out, no styrene kit of an SR-71 got these areas looking right as they usually put the front of the flame bucket right inside and just behind the air bypass doors on the engine nacelles (typically molding them as one part). Revell in the 60s, Monogram, Hasegawa, Testors, even Dragon in 1/144, they all did this. Granted on these smaller sized kits, you can't see much inside the engine exhausts anyway and you can fake the appearance a little with paint. In reality, the flame bucket goes further up into the nacelle. A couple of the resin firms have done resin bits for the Testors kit. The 1/48 Revell kit uses a cone shaped piece that produces a forced perspective appearance inside the exhausts and it seems to do the job nicely.

 

I would start out with probably a warm off white shade, such as Tamiya US Navy Insignia White (AS-20 in the spray can or LP-35 in the bottled lacquer paint line) or something close to old Testors camouflage gray. Then a pin wash and perhaps a smoke tint wash can pop out the side details on these areas. The petals at the edge are a combination of off white and a metallic shade, likely the same as the exterior casing.

The engine face on this specific engine is darker than some references I have seen. As I understand it, this engine did come out of 964. Apparently what they did at Offutt before towing the plane over to the SAC Museum grounds (when it was just outside Offutt's property line in Bellevue, NE) was they ran the engines without oil until the central shaft seized, or got hot enough to render it unusable as an operational engine at least.

[X-Plane Fan]

You are correct about the red RTV. This is what happens if you don't let it fully cure before going Mach 3+

[Spruemeister]

It’s art!  High art. 
 

 

Rick L. 
 

[habu2]

I have a ton of pics, on another computer, of different J58 engines, mission noses (off the jet) and an inlet spike on a stand. If I can get to them and upload them I’ll add links here. 

[Jay Chladek]

On 1/14/2022 at 10:46 PM, habu2 said:

I have a ton of pics, on another computer, of different J58 engines, mission noses (off the jet) and an inlet spike on a stand. If I can get to them and upload them I’ll add links here. 

Please do, especially the noses!

[Jay Chladek]

On 1/13/2022 at 11:13 AM, X-Plane Fan said:

You are correct about the red RTV. This is what happens if you don't let it fully cure before going Mach 3+

Dayum! Which plane had that happen?

[habu2]

9 hours ago, Jay Chladek said:

Please do, especially the noses!

I just culled my SR/YF/A-12 pics and there’s over a gig of data. Need to triage and resize them. Currently 25 deg F here so probably a good day to get started. 

[fasteagle12]

Great photos...thanks!  They have the SR-71B at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, which is local for me.  The only thing is that they keep the lights so low it's difficult to get any good photos. 

[habu2]

OK here are a bunch of pics as promised. I've only seen the SR-71 in flight twice - once at Farnborough in 1986 and again at Dulles airport at the end of the record setting trans-continental retirement flight in 1990.  That airframe (17972) is now at the Udvar-Hazy Museum near Dulles.  Both those events preceded digital photography so all the pics here are from various museums.  I also have a bunch of YF-12, A-12, M-21 & D-21 pics that I will probably post is separate threads.

 

First a few overview images. Here's 17976 at the USAF Museum in Dayton:

 

 

 

The underside of 17961 at the Cosmosphere Museum in Kansas:

 

 

Earlier Jay mentioned a "pinch" near the front of the bypass doors (proper name: tertiary inlet doors) that is missing on the kit.  Here are some pics showing that area, this is 17976 at Dayton:

 

 

 

and on 17975 at March AFB Museum:

 

 

the same pinch was present on the A-12 & YF-12, here's A-12 06930 at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville (color balance is off, the jet isn't blue):

 

 

The retractable blade antenna and sensor window/fairing on 17972 at Udvar Hazy Museum:

 

 

Close-up detail of sensor on stbd side of 17976:

 

 

Technical Objective Camera (TEOC) payload for stbd chine mission bay on 17976:

 

 

More to follow...

 

.

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by habu2
clarifications

[habu2]

The nose on the SR-71 was modular and the nose type and internals were customized for the specific mission requirements. There were (at least) three types of noses - a SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) nose, an OBC (Optical Bar Camera) nose and a non-missionized ballast nose. Externally the differences were minor, the lower side of the SAR nose had opaque panels and the OBC nose had a pair of optically clear windows. At some point indentations along the chine were added to accommodate a pair of forward facing RWR sensors (DEF A2).  Also there is almost always a color or shading difference between the nose and the rest of the jet since they were swapped around and prepared separately.

 

Here is the "smooth" nose on 17961, note the slightly different color (and missing pitot probe)r:

 

 

Here is the "indented" nose, the shape is exaggerated by a wide angle lens:

 

 

a better view:

 

 

Details on the DEF A2 RWR antenna fairings, stbd side from above:

 

 

port side from below, also note this is a SAR nose with the downward facing antenna behind the larger panels on the right:

 

 

Lower side showing the SAR panels on each side and the vent(s) at the aft lower edge of the nose:

 

 

Closeup of the vent showing the unique discoloration due to aerodynamic heating during flight:

 

 

Pitot tube details, an interesting factiod is that the pitot tube was also used as the HF antenna:

 

 

 

The rear side of the nose showing different configurations for interconnecting harness access:

 

 

 

This nose is on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, it was modified by NASA in '93 to carry an upward facing UV camera and telescope:

 

 

detail of the upward facing window for the UV camera:

 

 

.

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by habu2
clarifications

[habu2]

Lots of J58 engine shots here, all are from Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas unless otherwise noted.

 

Overall shot of J58 at Dayton:

 

 

J58 at Dallas:

 

 

 

 

The large tubes vent bypass air from the middle compressor stages directly to the afterburner at higher Mach numbers.

 

 

 

 

 

Different pics of the afterburner can, notice the effect flash photography has on the appearance.  The first two are of 17976  at Dayton:

 

 

 

FoF at Dallas:

 

 

The afterburner can and flameholder rings are ceramic coated:

 

 

This pic shows the flameholder rings are arranged in a cone, the smaller rings are farther forward, larger rings farther aft. (it's not just a flat disc of concentric rings)

 

 

for the detail freaks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and finally, a Start Cart. I think this one was at March AFB:

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by habu2
clarifications

[habu2]

Only a few pics of the landing gear, this part of the jet is pretty well documented elsewhere:

 

 

 

 

[habu2]

The inlet cone, or spike, moves fore/aft inside the nacelle to position the shock wave inside the inlet.  As Jay mentioned the very tip of each cone is natural metal.  You can't see much other than the front of the cone unless you get up close and personal.  Shown here is 17961 at the Cosmosphere in Kansas. Note the vents just below the "961" on the engine nacelle, these are the spike bleed exhaust vents (described below).  There are four sets of the vents around each nacelle.  Also note the two small air data probes, the top probe is visible in the first pic, the lower probe in the second pic:

 

 

 

Close-up of the lower probe:

 

 

Just behind the front of the cone is a serrated section called the spike bleed. Air flows through these slots into the center section of the spike and is vented overboard through four radial ducts (shown later).  Also the cone is surrounded by a ring of raised bumps, I think these have more to do with controlling the airflow rate as the cone moves, they don't look like vortex generators and I'm not sure you'd want to introduce vortices there anyway. The first few pics are of 17976 at Dayton, note the small red L & R letters on each cone:

 

 

 

a better view of the ring of 'bumps':

 

 

Here is an inlet cone removed from the jet. You can clearly see the perforated spike bleed section and the different colorations:

 

 

Note the slots in the aft fairing, these fit around four large ducts that pass spike bleed air from inside the spike to vents on the engine nacelle:

 

 

The inside of the cone viewed from the rear, the spike bleed air passes thru the center ring to another cylinder which includes the four radial ducts:

 

 

These last two pics are of the A-12 at Huntsville, 06930. You can clearly see the four radial spike bleed air ducts mentioned above and the same ring of bumps surrounding the inlet cone.  A hydraulic ram attaches to the aft end of the spike to position the spike fore/aft during flight.  It was very dark inside the nacelles and image contrast suffered as a result...

 

 

 

.

Edited January 21, 2022 by habu2
clarifications

[habu2]

Now for some cockpit details.  As you can imagine cockpit pics are hard to come by, so I've included a couple of links to "virtual" 360 views of the front and aft cockpits of 17976 at the USAF Museum. Click and drag the mouse cursor to change the view. and use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in/out:

 

http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/cockpits/CW_tour/CW-30.html

 

http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/cockpits/CW_tour/CW-31.html

 

edit: you can drag/pinch/zoom on a mobile device as well. 

 

Now for my more mundane pics.  First a couple of pics of the front canopy, 17961 at Cosmosphere:

 

 

A removed front canopy at FoF Dallas:

 

 

Open canopies of 17975 at March:

 

The rear canopy of 17975:

 

 

and the area behind the rear seat:

 

 

Front cockpit IP of 17975, note the liberal use of red RTV, hopefully cured by now:

 

 

Rear cockpit IP of 17975, before the avionics upgrade: (compare to the virtual rear pit in the link above)

 

 

The Cosmosphere has on display the removed pilot IP and one of the seats from 17961:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by habu2

[habu2]

Finally, here are pics of the one and only SR-71 flight simulator, now at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas.

 

 

The pilot sim and the back seat (RSO) sim are separate. The pilot sim is on a motion base, the RSO sim is fixed base. This is an instruments only sim, there are no out-the-window CGI visuals.

 

The pilot sim and pilot instructor station behind it, both on a 2DOF (pitch and roll only) motion base:

 

 

A view of the pilot cockpit in the sim, note the positionable sun/glare shades:

 

 

A view from the instructor station, directly behind the pilot.  The instructor has his own set of repeater instruments since he can't see around the pilot:

 

 

The RSO back seat fixed-base sim.  The seat slides in/out on the tracks for access, neither "canopy" opens on the sim. The interior was not available for viewing when I visited:

 

 

Finally a pic of the off-board RSO instructor station/console:

 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by habu2
clarifications

[Jay Chladek]

Beautiful views Habu. All of them are golden. Now if only I could find shots of the SR-71B/C rear cockpits. That is one build I would like to do in the not too distant future.

 

I'll be starting a WIP topic on my model very soon. Work had been rather slow, but I am advancing more quickly since yesterday.

[uncarina]

Thanks for posting these! Great reference photos.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[habu2]

After reading a bunch of references to educate myself I have edited some of my captions to more accurately describe the pictures.

 

1/22 : more edits to the captions in the "nose" section

Edited January 23, 2022 by habu2