Ground Speed please

[WildBill]

Great video. Thanks for the post.

[RPBrown]

Glad I wasn't drinking coffee while listening.

[TVGuy]

The fact that this beast was built over 50 years ago and retired almost two decades ago, without something faster and better to replace it is a sad fact.

[Maxwell]

A buddy of mine few Tomcats in the Navy, he's getting this link!

Max

[Beiruty]

I like a lot... Today, we should ask.... A Korean ICBM is flying over the pole... Ground speed please, we are the good guys. We need to knock it off its destination.

[oohrah]

My understanding is the SR71 could overfly the soviet union, that because of it's speed and altitude by the time the russian picked it up on radar, got a missile lock, launched the missile the SR71 was out of range!

The MiG-25 Foxbat was designed solely to be able to chase and shoot the SR-71. Never heard whether that worked for them or not. But Victor Belenko stole one and we took it apart in Japan.

[crazy2medic]

Yes, and we found out the soviets were using vacuum tubes when we were using integrated circuits.

[RSX11]

Yep, the godless communists were using vacuum tubes in the Foxbat - but, our engineers speculated that much of the reason for that was the ability of vacuum tubes to shrug of the effects of an EMP from a nuclear blast, unlike the semiconductors of the time. As well, vacuum tube gear can handle extreme temperatures better, and, at the time, could handle vastly more power - that allowed the Foxbat to have a 600 kilowatt search radar. 600 KW is a lottta power....

[flechero]

I've replayed it 3-4 times in the past 2 days... giggle every time.

[G26ster]

From the world of the really sloooooow...

Having spent most of my adult life as a helicopter pilot, there are hundreds of funny radio calls heard over that time. One that sticks out in my memory is when we were flying for Exxon on the Exxon Valdez oil spill and cleanup. Valdez airport was a major pickup and drop off point, and there was a VFR reporting point in Prince William Sound, short of the airfield, called "Naked Island." One of our crews was on approach and when they called Valdez tower to report their position, they were told, as usual, to "Report Naked." The new-ish female co-pilot replied, "Uh, I don't think so!" Lot's of radio comments ensued, all of which I cannot repeat here.

[Shadow41]

That was great. Good way to end a long week, thanks.

[treadlightly]

Yep, the godless communists were using vacuum tubes in the Foxbat - but, our engineers speculated that much of the reason for that was the ability of vacuum tubes to shrug of the effects of an EMP from a nuclear blast, unlike the semiconductors of the time. As well, vacuum tube gear can handle extreme temperatures better, and, at the time, could handle vastly more power - that allowed the Foxbat to have a 600 kilowatt search radar. 600 KW is a lottta power....

Vacuum tubes in power applications are still viable, and some of the vacuum tubes in Russian avionics were very miniature, about the size of a transistor (counting the encapsulating plastic) which does roughly the same thing as a vacuum tube.

It wasn't that long ago that virtually all computers had vacuum tubes. That thing you stared at, your CRT display? Yep, you were staring at a vacuum tube, right into the electron stream's muzzle.