Posted on Jan 28, 2021
YF-12: One of the Fastest Combat Aircraft to Ever Fly - 19FortyFive
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Kelly Johnson was a genius.
YF-12: One of the Fastest Combat Aircraft to Ever Fly - 19FortyFive
Posted from 19fortyfive.com
Engineer
Technology
American History
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 4
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They did it with slide rules, and calculations. Such an achievement. The intentional fuel leaks on the ground were just one of many breakthroughs. Not sure they even had vibration analysis then. Things can happen really fast at those speeds. Even the OPSEC was phenomenal i.e. F-117. Skunk Works.
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Col Joseph Lenertz
Yes. There was no finite element analysis...only the supersonic wind tunnel to give hints at potential oblique shock formation and the vibrations they might cause.
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CWO3 (Join to see)
Chalkboard, calcs, and slide rule followed with testing. Now it's supercomputers, algos and AI. An EE friend with background and I discussed it awhile ago. He was Boeing then out west and worked on Inertial Upper Stage avionics for S Shuttle. He explained how the programming apps/suites develop go/no go, vice draw , make, and test. He's still in Houston but I rarely hear from him anymore.
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I agree ith the assessment of Kelly Johnson. Kelly Johnson also knew how to keep the government from screwing up great ideas. I believe every project was brought in under time and under budget.
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