Worked for Lockheed in the Skunkworks for 12 years, two of those on the SR-71. Great plane but hard to work on. Rest of the time on the U-2 so I have worked on the fastest and the highest aircraft. Also worked for a time on the space shuttle and B1-B and B-2.
Skunkworks was one of our best customers at my last job. We built the landing gear for the U-2. Also built the cooling carts with the quidzillions of parts that hooked up the ground cooling system to all the electronics and cameras.
Also worked on F-117, F-22, F-35, F-16 for Fort Worth, and C-130 for Marietta. Sometimes I miss it. Cool stuff!
There used to a Blackbird in the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS. You could actually touch it.
The PW J58 engine itself is a marvel.
I saw one up close, and one of the old hands I was with worked on them when they were operational.
He said they leaked fuel like a sieve sitting on the ground, but once they got hot and were burning in the thin air, they tightened up and became super efficient.
I saw one up close, and one of the old hands I was with worked on them when they were operational.
He said they leaked fuel like a sieve sitting on the ground, but once they got hot and were burning in the thin air, they tightened up and became super efficient.
Spent my fair share of time staring at one up close and personal. I was a USAF nuclear security guard back in the early 80's at RAF Lakenheath UK, you can only count the rivots while your guarding it so many times...
I took my son and his little aunt (my father remarried) just after Christmas. As someone who was truly amazed by this plane growing up, it was really cool to see the look it put on their faces.
When we (I work for P&W) were still running J58 engines on our test cells in Florida I would sometimes go watch, awesome at night since the entire engine glows. Once stood between test cells running a J58 at full afterburner and a cell running a F100-PW-229 at full afterburner. The noise and sensation throughout my body was unbelievable.
The story about the fuel leaks is true except that it was the airframe holding the fuel, not the engines. At altitude the titanium skin would expand and seal the leaks.
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