Definetly not a Bluebird

[flyboy 28]

..I couldn't think of a better title.

Ahhhh the Blackbird. One of the sexiest aircraft ever concieved.

Blast off out of Beale AFB, California.


Where's me sunglasses?!


Time to head back to Beale.


Complete with dripping oil!


James

[gottoflynow]

Nice shots...love the oil effect

-gottoflynow

[lilley91]

I always think, that with an aircraft that needs to be so strucurally sound in order to operate at the kind of limits that it foes, i would be very concerned with an oil leak when you got down, not something you want when at 60'000ft going at 2'000mph!!

lovely shots, im not too find of flying the aircraft, mainly why i havent bought it, but god do i love to look at it, it sure is one of the best looking aircraft ever made!!

cheers
james

[Mees]

quiet a lot of oil dripping there

[flymo]

yeh those bums at.....who ever made it..... need to look into that, could casuse major problem if their is a hole.

[Joe_D]

Actually, it's probably fuel leaking.
The SR-71's high speeds cause the airframe to expand because of the heat generated due to air friction.  

"The component parts of the Blackbird fit very loosely together to allow for expansion at high temperatures. At rest on the ground, fuel leaks out constantly, since the tanks in the fuselage and wings only seal at operating temperatures. There is little danger of fire since the JP-7 fuel is very stable with an extremely high flash point."

No model of the SR-71 would be complete without representing this.

[specter177]

In other words, it's supposed to do that.

[gooneybird]

Joe_D is correct. It is supposed to leak fuel while on the ground. SOP for this plane was that just minutes after takeoff a refueling plane would hitch up and refuel the tanks prior to it 'blasting off' to it's mission. - Gooneybird

[kipman725]

The sr-71 leaked so much fuel before it had heated up that it had to be rushed into the air and mid-air refuled for every mission.

Great shots, rearly captured the shape well

[ozzy72]

Have you tried the new improved (accurate) cockpit for the Pilots model over at no-nodes? Makes a nice difference... much more authentic