@Bumbles Yes, definitely in service. They had a presentation about the wing operating out of Beale, that the pilots were considered to be astronauts due to the operating altitude...
But seeing it was something.
They had thicker blackout covers over the canopy windows; some of the grad students asked if they could be removed...and they were, which really surprised me. Then a set of stairs was rolled over so that we could go up, a few at a time, and stare into the cockpit.
Walking around it was amazing, and I noticed a detail usually missing from models.
@Bumbles At the leading edge of the wing on the plane I saw, right next to the fuselage, there was a sort of scoop (downward, of course), as though someone had molded the front edge around a ball around, oh, maybe 14-ish inches in diameter.
It smoothly transitioned to the main top surface, somewhat like the graphics of balls on rubber sheets as analogies for general relativistic wells.
They had a presentation about the wing operating out of Beale, that the pilots were considered to be astronauts due to the operating altitude...
If they told you that, they were either lying to you.. or they didn't know what they were talking about. It's one or the other but that assertion is categorically false.
The maximum operating altitude of the SR71 was 85,000 feet which means the aircraft could only operate from ground level to about half-way into the stratosphere while still being controlled 'aerodynamically', unlike a spacecraft which is not controlled aerodynamically at all from liftoff to it's space orbit.
What this fundamentally means is, the SR71 was totally dependent on lower atmospheric airflow over the wings and control surfaces to remain in control at all times by the pilot who would be sitting there flying it ..and not otherwise having the SR71 controlled by a computer located on the ground which does not actually 'fly' a spacecraft at any time beyond it's point of liftoff on the ground. This is because 'spacecraft' are not 'aircraft' by definition, the difference being that one flies aerodynamically and the other does not fly at all.
The line in the sky that separates the earth's atmosphere from space is located at a point 50 miles up, which is an altitude of approximately 264,000 feet.
A pilot officially becomes an astronaut when they reach an altitude of 50 miles up which is 264,000 feet and known as the "Karman Line".
The SR71 pilots were absolutely nowhere near even the base of the earth's uppermost atmosphere containing rarified air while at their maximum operating altitude of 85,000 feet, let alone operating their totally aerodynamically-dependent aircraft in an atmospheric devoid of rarified air, known as 'space'.
85,000 feet is only 16 miles up and space starts at 50 miles up!
SR71 pilots were only ever called 'pilots' for a reason and not astronauts for the same reason.
@SandWitch They wore pressurized suits, etc., and there is no sharp edge.
But here:
The story, at https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/12/29/air-forces-lifesaving-u-2-space-suit-evolving-meet-modern-challenges.html, talks about flying at 70k feet, and talk about the edge of space (which isn't a hard edge, after all)...
@SomeMichGuy The fact that they wore pressurized suits is irrelevant. At 85,000 feet, if the aircraft depressurized it would cause blood to boil within 10 seconds because the atmospheric pressure/air density is so extremely low. Additionally, time of useful consciousness would be as low as 3 seconds if the aircraft depressurized and the pilots weren't breathing 100% oxygen, so wearing pressurized suits was mandatory only because that altitude within our atmosphere (which is not in space) is otherwise completely uninhabitable.
Even the Concord passenger jet flew as high as 60,000 feet but no higher, simply because it was not practical for passengers to be wearing pressurized suits should the aircraft have depressurized, therefore their altitude was restricted to a max of 60,000 feet.
Additionally, the Concord didn't have the power to climb to 85,000 feet like the SR71 did, but then again, there was no reason for a passenger jet to be flying at 85,000 feet either.
To even suggest that the SR71 was on the edge of space is like saying the USA is near the shoreline of Australia. That's the most accurate earth-based analogy that I can offer you as a comparison to the reality of what the SR71 was really all about.
@SomeMichGuy Pressure suits as they're called, are irrelevant to this discussion. I've already told you that once and now I'm reminding you of that again. If you understood anything about high altitude flight, you'd understand what the upper atmosphere does to the human body long before the issue of 'space' even needs to be addressed.
Commercial aircraft themselves are pressurized for exactly the same reason that the SR71 pilots wore pressure suits. The SR71 may have been partially pressurized itself, but if that pressurization failed at high altitude, the pilots would have to remain within a pressure suit to ensure their own survival beyond 5 seconds of aircraft decompression, even at only 35,000 feet!
SR71 pilots never once achieved 'astronaut' status at any time in it's history, not even during test flights. The aircraft simply wasn't capable of flying that high!
