The SR 71 Blackbird:A Few Details

 
One of the Pratt and Whitney J58 engines

   The SR 71 Blackbird in lowflight with J58 engines operating as ordinary jets

 SR The SR 71 configuration:3 View

General characteristics
Crew: 2
Payload: 3,500 lb (1,600 kg) of sensors

DIMENSIONS
Length: 107 ft 5 in (32.74 m)
Wingspan: 55 ft 7 in (16.94 m)
Height: 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)
Wing area: 1,800 ft2 (170 m2)
The SR-71 is a large aircraft that can be compared respectfully to the size of a Boeing 727. The SR-71 is approximately 103.876 feet excluding the nose probe, which is four feet, eleven inches. The wingspan of the airplane is 55.62 feet and the height is 18.5 feet. The vertical stabilizers, which are the two large fins at the rear of the aircraft, have a total area of 150.76 square feet and the fuselage is approximately five and a third feet in diameter.

Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney J58-1 continuous-bleed afterburning turbojets, 32,500 lbf (145 kN) each.To climb and cruise at supersonic speeds, the Blackbird's Pratt & Whitney J-58 engines were designed to operate continuously in afterburner. While this would appear to dictate high fuel flows, the Blackbird actually achieved its best "gas mileage," in terms of air nautical miles per pound of fuel burned, during the Mach 3+ cruise.Each J58 engine has 32,500 lbs. of thrust, enough to drive the largest ocean liners. They are the largest of their kind and used to be the most powerful in the world. The engine is one part of a propulsion system, which includes an inlet, and an ejector, each producing thrust. In order for the system to work properly over a long period of time, the inlet must capture the onrushing air properly. To do this, a large spike is placed in the inlet and moves forward and back as conditions change. When the air is not captured properly, an event called an unstart occurs. An unstart is best described as a violent yaw where the aircraft pulls to the side where the engine has unstarted. To correct the problem, the pilot must push the spike totally forward and adjust it to capture the air properly, this is called a manual intake. The J58 engines operate as ordinary jets at low speeds, switching to become ramjets at high speeds above 2,000 mph.

Empty weight: 67,500 lb (30 600 kg)
Loaded weight: 170,000 lb (77 000 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 172,000 lb (78 000 kg)
Wheel track: 16 ft 8 in (5.08 m)
Wheel base: 37 ft 10 in (11.53 m)
Aspect ratio: 1.7
[In aerodynamics, the aspect ratio is an airplane's wing's span divided by its standard mean chord (SMC:Standard Mean Chordis defined as wing area divided by wing span). It can be calculated more easily as span squared divided by wing area]
PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: Mach 3.3+ (2,200+ mph, 3530+ km/h) at 80,000 ft (24,000m)
Range:
             i)Combat: 2,900 nm (5400 km)
             ii)Ferry: 3,200 nm (5,925 km)
Service ceiling: 85,000 ft (25,900m, 16 miles)
Rate of climb: 11,810 ft/min (60 m/s)
Wing loading: 94 lb/ft2 (460 kg/m2)
Thrust/weight: 0.382
The estimated maximum speed of the aircraft is Mach 3.2 and some sources say that it can accelerate to Mach 3.5. The estimated maximum altitude is 85,000 feet but some sources say that the SR-71 can fly up to 100,000 feet and can probably go even higher.
The SR-71 is the fastest and highest flying production aircraft in the world. The only aircraft that is faster is the X-15 that can reach a speed of over 4,000 mph. The only aircraft ever to come close to the SR-71's speed besides the X-15 is the Russian MiG-25 Foxbat. The MiG-25 could only reach speeds of over Mach 3 for a few minutes. The Anglo-French Concorde is the only aircraft besides the SR-71 that can fly at supersonic speeds for hours at a time.