SR71 Blackbird: A real-life example of Kerbal engineering?

[Fearless Son]

So I was browsing some of the xkcd "What If?" achieves recently and came across a link embedded in a footnote, this link in fact, detailing a first hand account by Bill Weaver, one of the test pilots on the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.

The story was one in which the atmospheric forces on one particular engine got out of control during a hypersonic banking turn, resulting in Rapid Unplanned Disassembly at high altitude which Bill managed to walk away from after going "ragdoll", against all odds. Reading it made me think, "That sounds like exactly the kind of thing that happens all the time when I play KSP." The pushing the performance envelope, the loss of a craft due to some factor unforeseen by the engineers, the improbable survival of a crew in spite of himself, etc.

Give it a read.

[Red Iron Crown]

Not really about the game itself, moving to the Space Lounge.

[Endersmens]

That was an intense read. I was really sad to hear about his co-pilot.

But did you read the ending? He got back in a blackbird 2 weeks after the accident! That took some courage. Also, the ending was kinda humorous, made me feel better after the middile of the story.

[Fearless Son]

But did you read the ending? He got back in a blackbird 2 weeks after the accident! That took some courage.

Again, just like in Kerbal Space Program. Who here has not recovered Jeb from something that should have killed him, only to stick him in the next craft to go up?