337mm APO for US$4500!

[gregbradley]

How's about this?

http://photorumors.com/2012/01/23/now-this-is-a-lens/

Its 200lbs but.

Also not sure you can buy it outside of US but maybe.

Could be a winner for astrophotography if you have a beefy mount.

I saw it listed on ebay for US$4500 as well. There may be more than one.

Greg.

[ballaratdragons]

:eyepop: a 12 1/2" Apo
VERY cheap!

[pgc hunter]

They accidentally reduced the number of zeros in that price tag by a factor of 10 :P

[Paul Haese]

You might need a huge sensor to go with it. Most likely this was attached to a large format film back.

[multiweb]

Here's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A12-flying.jpg)where it was last mounted on. :lol:

[Paul Haese]

It was the most beautiful aircraft ever designed. Elegant and with high speed. :thumbsup:

[Hans Tucker]

Ditto.

[ballaratdragons]

It will work with any sized sensor as long as it is smaller than the sensor it was designed for (and that shouldn't be hard, we ALL have smaller sensors than it was designed for :lol: )

With the sensor sizes we use, Vignetting is a thing of the past! :P :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

I've been lucky enough to have stood on the deck of the Intrepid (docked as the New York Air and Space Museum ) and ran my hands over the (quite sharp) leading edges of an SR-71....would loved to have flown one...

For those interested there is a book called "Sled Driver" by Brian Shul that covers the history of this magnificent aircraft.

Cool lens BTW:thumbsup:

[mswhin63]

Loved that aircraft when I was a kid, found out recently it was taken away because the expansion and contraction caused it to leak fuel ever trip.

[Peter Ward]

Yes, full of fuel on the ground, it did leak like a sieve, but that was not the reason for its retirement.

I'd put that down to nerds wanting to play with UAV's ;)

[clive milne]

Errm... I am reluctant to point this out, but a 36" (910mm) focal length lens with a focal ratio of f/4 must by definition have an effective aperture of 9 inches (228mm)
I am guessing that 337mm mentioned in the advert is the diameter of the mechanical housing, not the clear aperture. The caveat to this is if there is an internal field stop for
the purpose of controlling vignetting, in which case the front element may in fact be 337mm, but in any event... it is effectively a 9" lens... period.

But you guys knew that, right?

[traveller]

Yep, the plane is usually fuled quarter full. Then it takes off, do a couple of rapid climbs and dives to warm up the plane and close the gaps before heading to a refueling tanker to take on more fuel. I think it was also the first of not the only plane made predominately of titanium.
But back to that lump of glass, what a thing of beauty. Typically cold war vintage, built like a tank.
Bo

[Karls48]

Regardless - I wish I have one like that. The beauty of the retractor (among of all other things) is that you can leave it covered by rubbish bag and trampoline on the pier in your backyard and unless you live in tropics or sandblast the lens, it will be just as good in twenty years time as it was when you first got it.

[netwolf]

That plane is just so cool, I dont recall how much time i spent as a young kid gathering pictures of it from every book i could get my hand on.
And then there was that movie with a kid flying on of these, DARYL. Data Analyising Robotic Youth Lifeform. I wish they would give the ability for the public to pay for rides on that plane. I would sure like to just get close to one and take a look at her.

What was that about a big telescope... give me the SR-71 any day. I think if it were not for that plane i would have never gone to uni or done engineering. Well that plane, Startrek, Dr Who, Beyond 2000.....

[ballaratdragons]

Interesting how there is 2 seperate conversations going on in this one thread :P

One about the original topic, the camera lens,
the other about the Blackbird!

[multiweb]

Seems I've got a knack for going off topic. Sorry. :P

[gregbradley]

I like the SR71's basic defence - accelerate and outrun the missiles!

The engines sound unique as well as part turbofan, part ram jet and the limiting factor
for the speed of the jet is the temperature the air intake of the engines can take!

Greg.

[koputai]

Many years ago 'Australian Aviation' published a transcript of an SR-71 pilot talking to air traffic control.

The pilot had asked permission to fly at level 1100 (110,000 ft), whereupon the ATC officer, not realising the ability of the aircraft she was talking to, had retorted "Sure, go ahead if you think you can do it".

The SR-71 pilot then replied "(SR-71 name) descending to flight level 1100"

Silence from ATC.

Cheers,
Jason.

[gregbradley]

Looks like the official record is about 90,000 feet and around 2190mph speed;

http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/srrcd~1.htm

Greg.

[clive milne]

I have been trying to dig up some info on this lens, I haven't come up with much other than the design was by James Gilbert Baker.

The field is supposed to be highly corrected over a large angle with minimal vignetting, but I can find no reference to it being apochromatic. Some aerial lens designs had their seidel aberrations optimised at the expense of achromatism, and so required the use of a coloured filter to keep them sharp.
It is not suggested that this lens is of that variety though.

An interesting and highly desirable piece of optical history.

fwiw) Here are a few more pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50231105@N03/

[avandonk]

Did not Perkin Elmer make the stuff up with the Hubble?

Bert

[clive milne]

I'm not quite sure I understand the question?

[gregbradley]

Perkin Elmer made the Hubble Space Telescope and ground the mirrors to the wrong focal length requiring a NASA mission to insert some corrective optics. This is the same company that made this 36 inch lens.

Greg.

[FlashDrive]

They were designed to leak fuel at ' Ground Level ' . The leading edge of the fuselage ... made of ' thin titanium ' ... would gradually ' close ' at high altitude ... and ' military high speed runs ' .... this would make the leading edge ' glow red hot ' ... even in the upper atmosphere's thin air.... enormous amount of friction.

The Fuel had a ' high flash point ' ... much higher than Jet A1 ( fuel for the F111C ). ( fact ) You could light a match while standing near the SR71 and not pose a fire risk ..... The SR71 has a ceiling of well over 20 miles up.... could out accelerate the Russian FOXBAT ( MIG 25 ) which had a Top Speed 3 x Speed of Sound ... and if the SR71 could fire off a Sidewinder Air to Air Missile ... it could " outrun " the missile in a straight out ' speed dash '

Some Pilot's who flew enough hours in this Aircraft were awarded their ' Astronaut Wings " .... why wouldn't they ...their on the edge of Space most of the time.
Not uncommon for them to see the " curvature " of the earth on normal missions.

They may not want to admit it ... but the CIA " borrowed " this plane at times ... to further their " intelligence " on Soviet Propaganda.

Impressive Aircraft for it's time.

Flash :)

[koputai]

And it was initially designed as an interceptor, not a recon aircraft, according to the Aerofax Minigraph I bought about it in 1987.

It's a great little book, tons of photo's taken during the R&D and build process. They also developed the D-21 drone that could be carried up by the A-12 (SR-71) and launched into hostile areas. The D-21 was powered by a ramjet.

Cheers,
Jason.

[marki]

Certainly was and the tewchnical achievements made to get it flying were staggering. Still the most advanced airframe ever built and will remain so for some time.

Mark

[Shano592]

Yeah, look at this plane, and the era it was launched in, and then tell me a human designed it.

A definite product of Area 51.






What? You were all thinking it! :screwy:

[ausastronomer]

Hi Guys,

Please note the plane in the photograph is a Lockheed A-12 which was originally built for the CIA in about 1962. It is not an SR-71 Blackbird, although they look very very similar. This design by Lockheed's Kelly Johnson was the precursor to the YF-12 and subsequently the SR-71 Blackbird. The Lockheed A-12 was taken out of service in 1968. The SR-71 Blackbird was taken out of service in 1998.

Cheers,
John B

[traveller]

Actually its made by the Skunk Works (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_Works)



Yep its an A-12, the interceptor verison, single seater, SR71 is a twin seater.

[cventer]

There is an excellent book called "Skunk Works" which goes into the history of the buid of this aircraft and the first forays into stealth technology. Fantastic read if this kind of thing floats your boat.

[multiweb]

Geez... when you see what was flying up there in 62 you're just wondering what's flying up there now. :eyepop:

[DavidTrap]

UAVs. Far less political fallout if one goes down compared to the Garry Powers' saga.

It's really quite amazing what was done with the technology available at the time.

DT

[Scopie]

"It's really quite amazing what was done with the technology available at the time."

I'd have to counter this with the comment that, in my opinion, these days there is far more "can't do" than there was 50 years ago.