> What a great plane in so many ways.
Operational costs were unbelievable. The one-off systems, as well as
the extensive coordination with airborne refueling points all over the
world for a single flight made it a costly option with limited
application when other options became available.
We tend to forget that the SR71 was getting quite long in the tooth.
While most flying U2s are of equivalent vintage, they've been
rebuilt/remanufactured/updated multiple times through the years. The
cost-per-hour of a U2, which is able to stay "on station" for a much
longer duration is a better deal. We, the public, don't know how long
we've been flying stealth drones over "enemy" areas, and Space Command
has a slew of satellites able to cover most hot spots on a nearly
continuous basis. Airborne platforms have less value from a
photography perspective, than from an electronics monitoring basis,
and we've got numerous platforms for that.
While an exceptional airplane in so many regards, the SR71 just isn't
practical anymore and was "obsolete" many years before it was actually
retired. One issue was the planning logistics for a single flight that
took longer to put together than it took to just launch a single-use
micro-spysat over the target area. The SR71 was only on station for a
matter of seconds over an entire 18+ hour mission.
The Concord is another story. It was constantly being
updated/repaired, like an expensive sports car. The fuel consumption
made it less than practical. But the modifications made to the
aircraft after the Paris crash addressed issues that kept cropping up
through the years. But an argument can be made that the reason why the
Concord had to stop flying was because of American anti-French
sentiment (Freedom Fries, anyone?) that caused a huge drop in
profitability in Air France. They stopped flying the Concord and the
manufacturer pulled the certification on the plane as half the fleet
was no longer in use and the number of cycles on the airframes meant
that they only had another decade to go before forced retirement.
The Valkyrie was always more of a symbol than anything else. That's
why it never got beyond the "XB" classification. Before the collision,
it was already determined to be a non-starter. After the collision, it
was the right thing to do. As it turns out, history says that we got
along just fine without it. The aero design of it is incredible,
though.
AG Schnozz
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