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Old 19th Sep 2011, 21:37
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Jane-DoH
 
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Molemot

Most things seem to be available on the web, these days....
The article seems to suggest that the fuel in the forward tank drains and that shifts the CG aft; not fuel being moved into tanks (that are empty when subsonic) like on the B-58 and Concorde.

I suppose if it works, it works though.


jamesdevice

I've seen stated several times (though I don't know how accurately) that at one point it was intended that the A-11/YF-12/SR-71 would burn boron hydride fuel (like the XB-70 was planned to do...)
I do know that the Lockheed A-2 (Angel-2), which was one of the early concepts for what would eventually become the A-12 (Archangel 12). It had J-58's mounted mid-span and large afterburners mounted on the wingtips. The ramjets burned Pentaborane. This was eventually done away (I don't know the exact reason, but Pentaborane is 2,000 times more deadly than cyanide, I think it's pyrophoric, and probably corrosive; it also leaves white smoke behind it as the byproducts cool off, which would make the plane easy to spot) with and other designs were pursued.

Interestingly, I don't know if the Angel, Arrow, Archangel series (A-1 and A-2 were Angel, and A-11 and A-12 were Archangel) were connected together (like Angel 1,2, Arrow 3,4, Archangel 5-12) or separate designation lists (Angel 1-6, Arrow 1,3, Archangel 1-12)
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