Who Likes Aircraft ?

[Geff McCarthy]

SR-71, chased by a "clean" F-104 (no external tanks or weapons) at Edwards AFB, or Palmdale - I can't recall the buildings and runway. The starfighter could probably keep up as the SR has a lower T/W Thrust to Weight, but would very quickly run out of gas.
All test flights have a chase aircraft, whose duty is simple: keep the TP from hitting the ground. Test flying is intensely demanding on attentional resources, the guy/gal is always referring to the test "card" with the necessary parameters, speed altitude, G, switch settings, etc and continually talking to Test Ops, who are monitoring the data. Stick, Search, Shut Up is the brief for the chase aircraft. I flew test chase in the T-38 for a year at Edwards. Fascinating.

 

[Richard Cranium]

If I were President, I'd order one to be recommissioned just to go for a ride in it.

 

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He 162 in French colors

 

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Ho-229

 

[Photon440]

SR-71, chased by a "clean" F-104 (no external tanks or weapons) at Edwards AFB, or Palmdale - I can't recall the buildings and runway. The starfighter could probably keep up as the SR has a lower T/W Thrust to Weight, but would very quickly run out of gas.
All test flights have a chase aircraft, whose duty is simple: keep the TP from hitting the ground. Test flying is intensely demanding on attentional resources, the guy/gal is always referring to the test "card" with the necessary parameters, speed altitude, G, switch settings, etc and continually talking to Test Ops, who are monitoring the data. Stick, Search, Shut Up is the brief for the chase aircraft. I flew test chase in the T-38 for a year at Edwards. Fascinating.

The F-104 would only keep up if the SR71 was cruising at less than its mach 3.2 top speed. While most planes have a top speed that is limited by drag, the Starfighter was one of the few exceptions; the later models could easily reach mach 2.3 but at that speed the pilot had to throttle back to avoid overheating the compressor section of the engine. Otherwise, it could have gone even faster. The canopy was rated to mach 2.6 before it would overheat.