1. Fastest flier
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird – the two-cockpit training model is seen here – is
the fastest air-breathing aircraft ever put into production.
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2. Secret project
The SR-71 was designed to provide intelligence using cameras and electronic
listening devices was able to fly at Mach 3.3 (2,200mph/3,530km/h).
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3. Stealthy design
Designed and built in the 1960s, the SR-71 was revolutionary, pioneering
stealth technology by reducing its radar profile and heat emissions.
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4. All-seeing eyes
The Blackbird used a range of sensors – cameras, radar imaging devices and
electronic listening devices – to glean intelligence from the strosphere.
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5. Edge of space
It flew high as well as fast. Its maximum ceiling – 25km (15 miles)
above sea level – was so high that the pilot could see the curvature of
the Earth.
Built for friction
When the aircraft travelled at its cruise speed of Mach 3, the leading edges of
the Blackbird heated up to around 315C (600F).
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6. Hot seat
When flying at supersonic speed aircraft used a heat exchanger to dump
heat from the cockpit – otherwise it would have heated up to 120C (248F).
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7. Inventive engines
The plane travelled so fast that the engine inlets needed special inlet spikes
to slow down the supersonic air so that it didn't shatter the engines.
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8. Bowing out
The SR-71 was taken out of service in the 1990s. Its reconnaissance
role is now undertaken by satellites, as no other aircraft can match its
abilities.
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9. After a Soviet surface-to-air missile battery showdown with a USAF U-2 spy
plane near the closed city of Sverdlovsk in 1960, the US government realised
they needed a reconnaissance plane that could fly even higher – and outrun
any missile and fighter launched against it.
The answer was the SR-71 Blackbird. It was closer to a spaceship than an
aircraft, made of titanium to withstand the enormous temperatures from
flying at 2,200mph (3,540kph). Its futuristic profile made it difficult to detect
on radar – even the black paint used, full of radar-absorbing iron, helped
hide it.
SR-71 Blackbird: The Cold
War's ultimate spy plane
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10. high-tech
A whole ______ ______industry was created to provide the
Blackbird's sophisticated parts. For example, the fuel, a high-tech
__________
cocktail called JP-7, was made just for the Blackbird.
_______
detachments
Based at Beale Air Force Base in California, ___________ of the
SR-71 flew from Mildenhall in the east of England and from Kadena
on the Japanese island of Okinawa.
handful
Just a ___________ of pilots ever flew the plane. BBC Future
interviewed Colonel Rich Graham at Imperial War Museum
Duxford, in front of the very plane he used to fly. Here are some of
actually
top-secret
his stories about what it is _________ like to fly this __________
spy plane.
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11. Find the words from the text with the same or simillar meanig
1. a strong, low-density, highly corrosion-resistant, lustrous white metallic element that
occurs widely in igneous rocks and is used to alloy aircraft metals for low weight,
strength, and high-temperature stability.
2. a metal-bearing mineral or rock, or a native metal, that can be mined at a profit
3. counterfeit or fake; not genuine
4. a lustrous red, reddish-brown, or black tetragonal mineral that is an ore of titanium
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12. The top speed was limited by the engine temperature: "The speed
limit for the airplane ironically is nothing to do with the airplane,
it's to do with the engines. Right in front of the engines was a
temperature probe. When that temperature was around 427C
(800F) that's as fast as we were allowed to go. The makers of the
engine - Pratt & Whitney - would not warranty or guarantee
anything beyond 427. After that all bets were off, the engine could
come unglued or you could shed turbine blades."
Find the words from the text with the same or simillar meanig
1. loosened or separated; unfastened
2. question or examine thoroughly and closely,examine
3. expression used when something unexpected happens, and it
becomes impossible to guess the final outcome
4. to let something fall off as a part of a natural process
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13. The Blackbird’s fuel could extinguish cigarettes: "When they were building
the airplane, Kelly (Clarence ‘Kelly’ Johnson, the designer) realised the
external temperatures would get over 300C (600F), all the leading edges
300C and the rest of the aircraft around 200C (400F). Consequently, the
fuel, the 80,000 lbs of gas it carries in six main fuel tanks, would heat up
to 190C (375F), just from the skin temperature, and so the chances of an
explosion or a fire would be very high. Kelly had to develop a special fuel
with a very high flashpoint, and this is where he came up with JP-7. It has
very high flashpoint. I've seen a crew chief throw a match, a cigarette butt
into this JP-7 and it just extinguishes.“
1. Which wing component is mentioned in the text above?
2. What is a flashpoint?
3. What is a cigarette butt?
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14. You set off controlled explosions to start the engines: "The high flashpoint brings up
another problem. Most jet engines use igniter plugs, nothing more than a very hot
spark plug, if you will. By using these igniter plugs, they used it with the JP-7 and it
just drowns it out, it won't ignite. Kelly put his engineers to work, and he said, 'OK
gentlemen, how we going to start this?' They came up with a very unique way.
Triethylborane – TEB for short. Each engine has a one-and-a-quarter pint. If I had it
in a squirt gun and I squirted it into the atmosphere, it goes Kaboom! – it explodes
with contact with the atmosphere. And that's how we started the engines. As the
engines rotate, at the right time it sprays this amount of TEB into the turbine
section which goes kaboom and that in turn lights the engine. When you take the
throttles up into the afterburner it puts this metered amount of TEB in, that lights
up the JP-7. You get 16 shots for each engine."
squirt gun - a toy gun designed to squirt a stream of water.
afterburner - a system of fuel injection
and combustion located behind the
turbine of an aircraft jet engine to
produce additional thrust
igniter plug for jet engines
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15. INSERT THE OPPOSITES
The plane was purposely designed to leak fuel: "The fuel tanks are
the skin of the airplane. If you rap on this airplane, the fuel tank
is on the other side. There's no internal fuel tanks. Because of the
heating and cooling
________________
expansiona and contraction cycles [due to _________________ of the
aircraft at different speeds] it sometimes leaked and dropped
from underneath the airplane. It was measured in Drops Per
Minute – DPMs we called them – and maintenance used a
stopwatch and counted them, and in certain locations on the
acceptable and unacceptable
aircraft there are _____________________
Drips Per
Minute."
acceptable and unacceptable, heating and cooling, expansion and contraction
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16. Rainstorms could be deadly: "In Okinawa, unfortunately, we had a lot of
rainstorms which just come out of nowhere. And when you mix JP-7 with a
little bit of rain it gets very, very slippery on the ground. An SR-71 was coming
back from a mission. He was coming back into the hangar. Don *Graham’s
navigator] and I were on back-up duty so we were in the hangar. As he came
in to the hangar, he slows down, he's right on the centreline… and we notice
his brakes are locked up, the wheels aren't rotating anymore, and he's still
going through the hangar, sliding. And you would not believe how many
maintenance people realised immediately something was wrong with this
airplane. We had maintenance guys throwing chocks under the wheel but it
kept on moving. Don and I were grabbing on to the wingtip to try and stop it,
people were grabbing every part of the airplane as they realised it was an
emergency. It was like a dream in slow motion as this airplane just went
through the hangar. And it stopped, when the main wheels just caught the
other side of the hangar onto the concrete. And its pitot tube, the tube at the
front, came about a foot from ramming a curved blast deflector we have for
jet engines.“
questions
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17. 1. slippery
measuring instrument consisting of a right-angled tube
with an open end that is directed in opposition to the
flow of a fluid and used to measure the velocity of fluid
3
flow
2. chocks
strike or drive against with a heavy impact, to dash
4
violently against
3. pitot tube
an aircrew member
4. ram
a device intended to turn aside the flow of something
(water or air or smoke etc)
5
Difficult to hold or stand or move on because it is
1
smooth, wet or polished
5. deflector
6. navigator
6
a metal or wooden block designed to stop a wheel
moving
2
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18. BBC FUTURE
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19. Blackbirds ended the Yom Kippur War: "An average mission was
probably three-and-a-half to four hours. A long mission would be eight
or more. Through the whole history of the programme, through 22
years, we had 13 sorties that were over 11 hours; very, very long
missions. But they were very rare."Twelve of those missions were flown
out of the East Coast of the United States during the Yom Kippur War in
1973, and we flew to the Middle East and all the way back to the East
Coast, and the product was given straight to the President. The
President wanted to find out whether the Arabs and the Israelis had
really moved back from the front line like they said they did. We went
over there, took the imagery, came back and showed photographic
proof they were both lying about where their forces were. He called
both countries and said, 'Get them back, I've got proof you're not where
you're supposed to be.' That’s what ended the Yom Kippur War.
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20. LET’S SEE HOW WELL YOU’VE REMEMBERED THE THEXT YOU’VE JUST READ
1. An average mission lasted
a) eight hours
b) 20 min
c) 3 to 4 hours
d) a fortnignt
2. Long missions lasted
a) Eight hours
b) eight or more hours
c) a fortnignt
d) 20 hours
3. Blackbird operational history is
a) 22 years
b) 20 years
c) almost half a century
d) 25 years
4. Through the whole history of the programme, we had 13 ______ that were over 11
hours; very, very long missions.
a) scoutings
b) sorties
c) missions
d) attacks
5. Twelve of those missions were flown out of the East Coast of the United States during
the Yom Kippur War in
a) 1937
b) 1977
c) 1983
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d) 1973
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21. LET’S SEE HOW WELL YOU’VE REMEMBERED THE THEXT YOU’VE JUST READ
6. The President wanted to find out whether _______________ had really moved back from
the front line like they said they did.
a) the Arabs and the Russians
b) the Israelis and Palestinians
c) the Arabs and the Israelis
2. We went over there, took the imagery, came back and showed photographic proof they
were both lying about where their forces were.
a) evidence
b) documents
c) pictures
d) proof
3. ___________ called both countries and said, 'Get them back, I've got proof you're not
where you're supposed to be.' That’s what ended the Yom Kippur War.
a) UN Secretary
b) the US President
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c) NATO official
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d) Ministry of Defemce

22. BBC FUTURE
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23. 1. contrail
(condensational
trail)
a bunker which is designed to protect
submarines from air attack; the term is
generally applied to submarine bases
constructed during World War II
2. peninsula
a formation in which all aircraft are in single
4.
file, each directly behind the other
3. sub pen
(submarine pen)
a long narrow strip of land projecting into a
sea or lake
2.
a white trail of vapour given off by an
aircraft in flight (normally at high altitudes)
4. trail formation
1.
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3.

24. false
true
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25. true
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false
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