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by dredmorbius 2357 days ago
Whilst the SR-71 didn't run on hypergolic fuel (because reasons -- including leaky tanks and supersonic skin-heating, so JP-7, which specifically has a high flash point was used for fuel), the ignition system for the aircraft, including its afterburner ignition system, used hypergolic fuel (triethylborane) to initiate combustion, with a limited number of ignition cycles aboard each mission.

Afterburner light-ups were limited by the availability of TEB aboard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triethylborane

1 comments

I remember thinking from one of the books on the sr71 equating restarts to setting off a stick of Dynamite in the tailpipe... But I was younger then and didn't know about these fuels. Thanks for the details