SR-71 Blackbird

What can be said about the SR-71 Blackbird.  Well, it’s one of the most famous aircraft ever made.  I was infatuated with this jet the moment I saw it.  It could fly to over 96,000 ft, at speeds of Mach 3.56 (over 2000 MPH)!  There were only 89 pilots who ever took the plane on an actual mission.  That mission was surveillance.  Yes that’s right.  It was never a combat aircraft, although there were versions made up to test as a bomber and other roles, but it was thought that these prototypes would stifle other projects the government wanted such as the xb-70.  So they scrapped them.  Originally, it was called the A-11.  The CIA used it for their purposes till the USAF version was ready.  They were retired in 1999 officially.

Recently, I visited the Space Center in Huntsville, AL and there is one on site.  It is an original A-11.  I also had the privilege of talking with one of the pilots of the aircraft.  He didn’t disclose his name, nor will he ever be able to talk about any of his missions, because they have been permanently classified, but he did talk about flying the SR-71.  He said the official top speed has never been declassified and said that it took so much to keep the plane going, it probably will never be flyable again.  There were so many special industries that was created just for the plane to keep it running.  Truly, an amazing feat of engineering.  If you would like to plan a visit to the Space Center, go to rocketcenter.com.

Head Tracking

One of the first obstacles I faced in building a simulator was moving around the cockpit. Now if you want to just map the view controls to joystick buttons you can, or you can pay hundreds of dollars for a head tracker such as Track IR. I found a better alternative. For about $30 you can build your own head tracking device using a program called Freetrack. There are instructions on the website and if you take your time, you will have a quality product that will last a long time. I was very impressed with Freetrack. It worked flawlessly with all my games and was easy to setup. Now I would say there is a intermediate skill set in electronics you will need, like knowing how to solder and some knowledge in wiring so don’t try this if you are not confident in your skills, but to find out more go to www.free-track.net and start learning.

Welcome

Welcome to Sonic Boom Simulations!  

My goal is to create a unique home flight simulator that will bring an almost true to life experience for the user.  I have spent 2 years researching this project and with my 30+ years of computer experience; I hope to soon have an affordable, functional, and well made flight simulator.  Until the simulator has been finalized, I will use this website to talk about aviation and computer related topics.  Be sure to subscribe to my page, because you won’t want to miss a single post!