TheSidewinder Posted January 24, 2008 Posted January 24, 2008 Just as an aside, isn't tetrahydroborate the fuel used in the SR-71? Or do I have my chemicals mixed up again. Maybe it was tetraborohydrate. Getting old, I guess.
asilentbob Posted January 24, 2008 Posted January 24, 2008 I would think that the blackbird just uses some special purity jet fuel. If your looking for inert fillers... perlite, diatomous earth, sand, etc can be used. Though I'm not sure if the perlite and diatomous earth would react with boric acid. Don't know how much calcium carbonate they are and if that would react with boric acid either... Or you could tweak ratios a bit.
Draco_Americanus Posted January 24, 2008 Posted January 24, 2008 useing indian black head in sparklers should be illigal lolpyro grade alluminum may become hard to find if the cpsc gets their way. I treat that suff like it's gold.
TheSidewinder Posted January 24, 2008 Posted January 24, 2008 I would think that the blackbird just uses some special purity jet fuel.No, it uses something pretty exotic. Toxic and somewhat caustic, too. if I remember right. Nasty stuff anyway. Saw it on a Discovery or Military Channel program about them. No kerosene-based jet fuel will work that high. Now it has me bugged what the name of it is, lol.....
Draco_Americanus Posted January 24, 2008 Posted January 24, 2008 I would think that the blackbird just uses some special purity jet fuel.No, it uses something pretty exotic. Toxic and somewhat caustic, too. if I remember right. Nasty stuff anyway. Saw it on a Discovery or Military Channel program about them. No kerosene-based jet fuel will work that high. Now it has me bugged what the name of it is, lol..... I know it leaks a lot of the fuel on the runway, after take off every thing warms up and expands and stops leaking but it also needs inflight refueling at that point too, wow we are way off topic now lol.
FrankRizzo Posted January 24, 2008 Posted January 24, 2008 I would think that the blackbird just uses some special purity jet fuel.No, it uses something pretty exotic. Toxic and somewhat caustic, too. if I remember right. Nasty stuff anyway. Saw it on a Discovery or Military Channel program about them. No kerosene-based jet fuel will work that high. Now it has me bugged what the name of it is, lol..... From a wiki entry on the Blackbird project: "SR-71 development began using a coal slurry powerplant, but Johnson determined that the coal particles damaged engine components. He then began researching a liquid hydrogen powerplant, but the tanks required to store cryogenic hydrogen did not suit the Blackbird's form factor.[20] The focus then became somewhat more conventional, though still specialized in many ways. Originally developed for the A-12 plane in the late 1950s, the JP-7 jet fuel had a relatively high flash point (140 °F, 60 °C) to cope with the heat. In fact, the fuel was used as a coolant and hydraulic fluid in the aircraft before being burned. The fuel also contained fluorocarbons to increase its lubricity, an oxidizing agent to enable it to burn in the engines, and even a cesium compound, A-50, which disguised the exhaust's radar signature. JP-7 is very slippery and extremely difficult to light in any conventional way. The slipperiness was a disadvantage on the ground, since the aircraft leaked fuel when not flying, but at least JP-7 was not a fire hazard. When the engines of the aircraft were started, puffs of tetraethylborane (TEB), which ignites on contact with air, were injected into the engines to produce temperatures high enough to initially ignite the JP-7. The TEB produced a characteristic puff of greenish flame that could often be seen as the engines were ignited.[21] TEB was also used to ignite the afterburners. The aircraft had only 20 fluid ounce (600 ml) of TEB on board for each engine, enough for at least 16 injections (a counter advised the pilot of the number of TEB injections remaining), but this was more than enough for the requirements of any missions it was likely to carry out."
TheSidewinder Posted January 24, 2008 Posted January 24, 2008 Aha!! That's it: Tetraethylborane, aka TEB. Unless that's a typo in the Wiki article Frank, I see I was twice wrong. I thought it was borATE, not borANE. I was close, but close doesn't usually count in Chemistry. And it's only injected as a booster, eh? Either the program didn't cover that, or I was in the kitchen when they did. I thought the fuel was predominantly TEB. I see not. Got to file that away in the mental rolodex. Anyway, yeah, we're getting badly offtopic, lol. Back to the Boric Acid debate.
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