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To look at this logically, even if the CIA used cesium-enhanced fuel to lower OXCART's RCS, it makes no sense whatsoever to bother with it on the SR-71A. The A-12 was conceived as the next manned reconnaissance platform to overfly the USSR. Eisenhower's ban changed that, helping the D-21 program along (there's another one for you, thorium in the D-21's engines), and pretty much guaranteeing that the OXCART and R-12/SR-71A would never be used to overfly a legitimately threatening environment. The SR-71A rarely flew over hostile terrain (Libya in '86 was an example), so using cesium-enhanced JP-7 just for the hell of it makes no sense. Maybe you store some of it somewhere (the additive) for use if required if WWIII had started and they were doing BDA flights over the USSR, but the SIOP mission alone dictates that using it in peacetime is ridiculous. Why give the enemy your true RCS when flying during peacetime in international airspace? Nobody else has the capability to touch you, be it Libya, the DPRK, or Vietnam, for example (nor even China at that point), so why even bother? Nobody can prove that USAF Blackbirds used cesium-enhanced fuel operationally, only that the CIA thought about it and did test it for the A-12. Maybe the reason you don't hear about it has nothing to do with yet another government conspiracy theory, and more to do with operational realities. And Scott, I know what Silverplate was, do I get bonus points? I've even got a signed photo of Paul leaning out of the cockpit window of #31 after landing following "The Event" ;D
To look at this logically, even if the CIA used cesium-enhanced fuel to lower OXCART's RCS, it makes no sense whatsoever to bother with it on the SR-71A. The A-12 was conceived as the next manned reconnaissance platform to overfly the USSR. Eisenhower's ban changed that, helping the D-21 program along (there's another one for you, thorium in the D-21's engines), and pretty much guaranteeing that the OXCART and R-12/SR-71A would never be used to overfly a legitimately threatening environment. The SR-71A rarely flew over hostile terrain (Libya in '86 was an example), so using cesium-enhanced JP-7 just for the hell of it makes no sense. Maybe you store some of it somewhere (the additive) for use if required if WWIII had started and they were doing BDA flights over the USSR, but the SIOP mission alone dictates that using it in peacetime is ridiculous. Why give the enemy your true RCS when flying during peacetime in international airspace? Nobody else has the capability to touch you, be it Libya, the DPRK, or Vietnam, for example (nor even China at that point), so why even bother? Nobody can prove that USAF Blackbirds used cesium-enhanced fuel operationally, only that the CIA thought about it and did test it for the A-12. Maybe the reason you don't hear about it has nothing to do with yet another government conspiracy theory, and more to do with operational realities.
And Scott, I know what Silverplate was, do I get bonus points? I've even got a signed photo of Paul leaning out of the cockpit window of #31 after landing following "The Event" ;D
