The most famous example, the SR-71 Blackbird, used a turbojet-ramjet hybrid called, appropriately, a turboramjet. Such engines work like an afterburning turbojet until well past Mach 1, after which ducts bypass the turbojet and redirect the ram-compressed airflow into the afterburner, making...
000 kilometers per second or just over 1 billion kilometers per hour). As a comparison, sound waves travel at a paltry 343.14 meters per second (about 1,235 kilometers per hour), almost a million times slower thanlightwaves, and the fastest military airplane, the SR-71 Blackbird, can ...
No discussion of fast fighter jets would be complete without mentioning the legendary SR-71 Blackbird. Developed during the Cold War era, this reconnaissance aircraft boasted a top speed of Mach 3.30 at more than 16 miles (85,000 feet or 25,908 meters) above the earth. Because of the dange...
Lockheed’s Skunk Works is another organization with a reputation for breaking with tradition. In addition to the U-2 and the Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird, the Skunk Works was responsible for the first stealth attack fighter: The F-117, without a single curve in its exterior surface, had to b...
One of the important reasons these flights cruise beyond 500,000 feet is impossible is the air is too thin. Hence continuous burning of jet fuel is almost impossible at higher altitudes. Though there are some exceptions in such circumstances, such as the SR71Blackbird has set the record by ...
Pratt & Whitney recently confirmed it is developing a hypersonic engine called the Metacomet based on the J58 engine that powered the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane to a record speed of around Mach 3.4 in the 1970s. Meanwhile Reaction Engines is testing key parts of its SABRE (synergetic...
Color your jet. Many fighter jets such as this one are silver or grey in color, but they also come in a multitude of shades. Stealth jets such as the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird may be solid black; the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy's flight demonstration squadron, pilot blue and yellow ...