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the sr-71 is definitely not a scramble-able plane:

  • it leaks fuel when on the ground (it shrinks when cold) so it’s stored empty,
  • it’s as aerodynamic as a brick when subsonic so it needs an insanely long runway, and
  • it has an always-on afterburner so it burns an alarming amount of fuel.

when they were doing surveys of iraq during desert storm they had to field a fleet of eight tanker planes over the indian ocean just so the damn thing would make it from japan to the gulf.

Edit: oh and those are specially designed tanker planes because of course it uses JP-7 so they needed separate tanks for that and their own fuel. they also needed to be able to refuel at like 850km/h or the blackbird would just drop out of the sky.

love that plane.

Edited

the sr-71 is definitely not a scramble-able plane:

  • it leaks fuel when on the ground (it shrinks when cold) so it’s stored empty,
  • it’s as aerodynamic as a brick when subsonic so it needs an insanely long runway, and
  • it has an always-on afterburner so it burns an alarming amount of fuel.

when they were doing surveys of iraq during desert storm they had to field a fleet of eight tanker planes over the indian ocean just so the damn thing would make it from japan to the gulf.

Edited

the sr-71 is definitely not a scramble-able plane:

  • it leaks fuel when on the ground (it shrinks when cold) so it’s stored empty,
  • it’s as aerodynamic as a brick when subsonic so it needs an insanely long runway, and
  • it has an always-on afterburner so it burns an alarmingamount of fuel.

when they were doing surveys of iraq during desert storm they had to field a fleet of eight tanker planes over the indian ocean just so the damn thing would make it from japan to the gulf.

Original

the sr-71 is definitely not a scramble-able plane:

  • it leaks fuel when on the ground (it shrinks when cold) so it’s stored empty,
  • it’s as aerodynamic as a brick when subsonic so it needs an insanely long runway, and
  • it has an always-on afterburner so when they were doing surveys of iraq during desert storm they had to field a fleet of eight tanker planes over the indian ocean just so the damn thing would make it from japan to the gulf.