Bill wrote; >Or, "Buying the Farm" I thought that was a pilot death, not just a crash. Then again, I'm just a Civvy puke. This really is going OT now isn't it? :-) Cheers, Simon
-----Original Message----- From: Bill Owens [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 3 October 2003 10:43 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: OT:No camera=first Concord siting ----- Original Message ----- From: "Simon King" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 10:28 PM Subject: RE: OT:No camera=first Concord siting > Hi John > >(You mean "high flashpoint" > Thanks, I did mean that; my fingers thought differently. > > Interesting stuff about the primer, and I far prefer the euphemism "giving > the aircraft back to the taxpayer" to "Auger in" Or, "Buying the Farm" > >(This information comes from a retired flight engineer who looked after the > SR-71s that NASA used at Edwards AFB, California). > Really? You? > Simon > > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Francis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, 3 October 2003 10:12 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: OT:No camera=first Concord siting > > > > > > I once heard that SR-71s actually leak gas on the tarmac before takeoff > due > > to the seals being designed for flight temperature (over 550c degrees I > > think) and they had to develop new low flashpoint fuel for it. > > > > Anyone know if that's true or an urban legend? > > > (You mean "high flashpoint" - "low flashpoint" would burn more easily) > > > Perfectly true. You can throw lighted matches into buckets of the SR-71 > fuel and it won't ignite. (In fact you can throw lighted matches into > buckets of regular Jet-A, too, but that's a whole different can of worms). > > But you don't want to do that with the SR-71; there's all sorts of very > nasty additives in the fuel that do bad things if you breathe them. The > planes are fuelled by ground erks in full-cover hazmat-suits, with cleanup > crews standing by. > > One of the many problems with the SR-71 is getting it started again if > it flames out. It carries a small amount of special primer designed to > ignite the fuel; enough for about ten start sequences. Use all that up > and the only choice is euphemistically referred to by the pilots as > "giving the aircraft back to the taxpayer". > > (This information comes from a retired flight engineer who looked after > the SR-71s that NASA used at Edwards AFB, California). > >
