The USSR possessed a vital mineral for the construction of future American spy aircraft. And America betrayed him to get it

In the Cold War, anything was justified to gain a slight edge over the enemy. And we mean “everything”

It may not seem so due to its appearance, so futuristic that it wouldn’t clash among the props of a movie from the Marvel universe, but the SR-71 “Blackbird” spy plane is a relic of the Cold War. When it first flew, in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson was in charge, it was only a few years after the Bay of Pigs invasion and relations between Washington and the Kremlin were tighter than a drum skin. Of course, at times, they seemed like an impending war.

If it has any special feature for which it stands out SR-71, beyond its appearance, the performance of its technology and even its devilish speed, which allowed it to exceed 3,500 kilometers per hour (km/h), it is the breakthrough it represented for the United States. And not just in the field of weapons or aeronautical engineering. Even before leaving the Skunk Works hangar and taking to the skies, the plane was already something of a concern to American intelligence.

Reason: To make it he had to score a spectacular goal against the USSR. a resounding, Capital and strong goals, so epic that even today, six decades later, it is commented on in historical chronicles. We explain ourselves.

“Everything had to be invented.”

In the early 1960s, US officials were clear that they needed a new weapon that would allow them to keep up with the Cold War. In May 1960, the USAF watched with knot in its stomach as one of its U-2 “Dragon Lady”, a model released in the previous decade, was shot down by the Soviet Union with a SA-2 air-to-volley. Was shot down in the area. The ground missiles and the pilot who operated them, veteran Francis Gary Powers, were arrested.

The Cold War was heating up. And America needed it a new surveillance plane, Fast, able to fly at high altitudes and carry sophisticated Soviet radar on ropes. In short, Washington needed to re-invent the concept of the spy plane. And as before, they used the U-2 manufacturer Lockheed and the Skunk Works development program.

The challenge brought him. “Everything had to be invented. Everything,” designer and part of the Skunk Works team Kelly Johnson, who “took on the task of creating the impossible, a plane that couldn’t be shot down,” confessed years later. There may be too much epic in that statement, but undoubtedly this task was not easy.

The USAF wanted an aircraft capable of exceeding 2,000 mph (3,200 km/h) during sustained and long flights, not just short flight, as some other aircraft had already offered. The design also had to be made “Secret”, capable of dodging the ever-evolving Soviet radar and avoiding any other incidents like the U-2 and Francis Gary. “The CIA wanted an aircraft that could fly above 90,000 feet, at high speed, and as close to radar as possible,” Peter Merlin, author of ‘Design and Development of the Blackbird’, tells CNN.

The latter was achieved with a redesign of the aircraft to reflect the signals. “The engine was moved to a more subtle position in the middle of the wing and a radar-absorbing element was added to the paint,” Lockheed says.

With the first scale model, Skunk Works conducted testing in a secret facility in the Nevada desert, protected from monitoring Russian satellites, with “impressive” results. The so-called Blackbird, about 30 meters long, appeared on enemy radar as a tiny blip, bigger than a bird but smaller than a man. “The team managed to reduce the radar cross section 90%“, the company highlights. Much to the interests of the United States.

The motion was more complex.

Flying at speeds over 3,000 km/h for long periods of time meant subjecting the aircraft to hellish friction, with temperatures exceeding 300ºC at the leading edges. A technical challenge of capacity that required attention to both design and materials and which inspired Skunk Works’ Ben Rich to choose, among other solutions, a black color capable of absorbing heat. His decision would ultimately contribute to the popular nickname earned by the ship.

“The speed limit of the plane has nothing to do with the plane, ironically, it has nothing to do with the engine. There was a temperature probe right in front. When it was about 427ºC, the fastest we could go Were,” he said later. Colonel Rich Graham, former SR-71 pilot, to the BBC. Once 427ºC was exceeded, engine manufacturers were not responsible for what happened. “It could break or the turbine blades could come off.”

This was not the only challenge.

Ask for help…without being noticed

With the leading edges subject to temperatures of up to 300ºC and the rest of the aircraft at around 200ºC, experts calculated that the fuel in its main tanks, approximately 80,000 pounds of gas, would be heated to extreme temperatures, increasing the chances of it breaking down. explosion or fire. To solve this, Johnson had to develop JP-7A special fuel whose flash point is so high that – Graham goes so far as to joke – it allows a match or cigarette butt to be inserted into it without catching fire.

The new design of the aircraft, the use of black, the layout of the engines, the development of new fuels… were important steps so that the Blackbird could fly, but an even bigger and more important challenge was: what would it be made of? Which materials can withstand the high temperatures of flights? The experts’ conclusion was that the best candidate for the structure was titanium alloy, which was strong, lightweight, and able to tolerate heat.

The problem with titanium, no matter how complex it was to work with or the fragility of the alloy if mishandled, was that it was very difficult to obtain. And not because of availability. Or that wasn’t really the reason. it’s a big challenge from where the supply started, If the Skunk Works technicians wanted to get hold of that material they had no choice but to turn to the USSR… the same power, of course, with which it maintained tense relations and which monitored SR-71. Was being made!

“The plane is 92% Titanium inside and out. When they were building planes, America did not have the essential mineral called rutile. It is found in very few parts of the world. Graham explains, “The main supplier was the USSR. This may seem like a small hurdle compared to the hours and complex calculations required to design the SR-71, but there was a supply problem against the backdrop of the Cold War. After all, the original Blackbird It made its first flight in April 1962, a few months before the Cuban Missile Crisis.

What did America do to get out of this situation? mark it a goal for ussr,

Without the Soviets knowing they were contributing to the creation of the SR-71, a state-of-the-art aircraft designed to evade their radars and missiles and monitor them without risk, Did the trick to get the stuff you need. How Washington actually achieved this is something that is part of the thick fog that still characterizes some of the darkest chapters of the Cold War today, decades later; But some heroes are leaving out small things.

“Our supplier, Titanium Metals Corporation, had only limited reserves of the precious alloy, so the CIA searched the world and, using third parties and fake companies, managed to buy the base metal from one of the world’s main exporters: the USSR. It was successful. The Russians had never imagined this. were contributing To build the plane that was being hastily built to spy on their homeland,” explains engineer Ben R. Rich, pseudonym ‘Father of stealth’In the book ‘Skunk Works’.

Since the USSR probably wouldn’t be too happy exporting material so the US could arm itself with new weapons, the key – Graham explains – was a sophisticated bobbin lace that would allow it to cover its tracks. “Working through third world countries and with counterfeit operations, they were able to ship waste ore to the US for the manufacture of SR-71,” he asserted.

There are also those who, like The Aviation Geek Club, go further and claim that it was a ploy by US intelligence to trick the Kremlin into believing that all that precious mineral was being used for construction. pizza oven,

Whether real or not, the truth is that the CIA knew how to manage: Skunk Works technicians obtained the necessary materials and in April 1962 the first aircraft, the A-12, was already making its initial flight, the first Verse was writing what later became the SR-71, a larger model, with a second seat for a reconnaissance officer and greater fuel capacity.

At the end of 1964 the new aircraft, the same one that had been considered “impossible”, was already moving through the sky at breakneck speed. All thanks to the major cooperation of the USSR. The key, not conscious.

Images | USAF/Judson Broehmer, D. Miller (Flickr) and sky&c876 (Flickr)

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*An earlier version of this article was published in June 2023