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SVTPerformance's Chain of Restaurants
Road Side Pub
Science question of the day: Why was the SR-71 Blackbird painted black?
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<blockquote data-quote="James Snover" data-source="post: 16289999" data-attributes="member: 67454"><p>I forgot to say why they needed an efficient way to get rid of the heat. Here’s why:</p><p></p><p>The temperatures at the hottest part of the airframe were getting within 100F degrees of the temp at which Titanium begins to lose strength. Most metals will lose strength way before they begin to melt, and the Blackbird needed the strength of the Titanium and it’s light weight. One without the other was no good.</p><p></p><p>In aerospace engineering, a margin of a hundred degrees is not acceptable. So Ben Rich, the guy who designed the inlets and all of the Blackbird’s critical thermodynamic issues, suggested painting it black because he remembered his high school physics.</p><p></p><p>The story goes that Johnson blew a gasket. Here he is trying to save every pound he could, and here is his right hand man suggesting adding 1,100 pounds for a gimmick he didn’t even think would work.</p><p></p><p>But he thought about it overnight, and in the group meeting the next morning, Johnson told everyone he was wrong, Rich was right, and then he gave Rich a one-dollar bill.</p><p></p><p>BenRixh said he, and the two or three other guys who proved Johnson wrong, never spent those dollars. They framed them. Because Johnson was almost never wrong.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Snover, post: 16289999, member: 67454"] I forgot to say why they needed an efficient way to get rid of the heat. Here’s why: The temperatures at the hottest part of the airframe were getting within 100F degrees of the temp at which Titanium begins to lose strength. Most metals will lose strength way before they begin to melt, and the Blackbird needed the strength of the Titanium and it’s light weight. One without the other was no good. In aerospace engineering, a margin of a hundred degrees is not acceptable. So Ben Rich, the guy who designed the inlets and all of the Blackbird’s critical thermodynamic issues, suggested painting it black because he remembered his high school physics. The story goes that Johnson blew a gasket. Here he is trying to save every pound he could, and here is his right hand man suggesting adding 1,100 pounds for a gimmick he didn’t even think would work. But he thought about it overnight, and in the group meeting the next morning, Johnson told everyone he was wrong, Rich was right, and then he gave Rich a one-dollar bill. BenRixh said he, and the two or three other guys who proved Johnson wrong, never spent those dollars. They framed them. Because Johnson was almost never wrong. Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com [/QUOTE]
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Science question of the day: Why was the SR-71 Blackbird painted black?
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