Elan V Godzilla

[msd1107]

Eric,

The missles were mainly ground to air, but a few were launched from fighter aircraft. The ground to air missles typically could not get to the altitude the SR-71 was flying. The Russian aircraft typically could not get above 60,000 ft even with a running start (the SR-71 was usually 20,000+ feet higher). The electronics in the SR-71 would detect the radar locking on the aircraft, and the missle launch. The usual defense was to push the throttle forward to climb and out accelerate the missle. Hard to believe.

Lockheed built a prototype YF-12A based on the SR-71 but with attack missles. It could patrol the skies at Mach 3+ at 80,000 ft and lock onto any target from ground level to high altitudes, launch the missle and kill the target at up to 50 miles away. Talk about an air superiority fighter!

Incidentally, the U-2 also was impregnable, but was brought down when it had a flameout and had to descend to a lower altitude where the Russian missle got it. The SR-71 also had a couple of "adventures" while on a mission and lost altitude until both engines got restarted, but was lucky to be away from a missle launch.

This link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR-71_Blackbird has a suitable introduction with a useful bibliography. There are also DVDs with period film. I am amazed at the amount of film that exists literally from the birth of Lotus, and the existance of film of the super spooky SR-71 is also amazing.

David
1968 36/7988