What do you think would happen if an SR-71 reconnaissance plane flew past a crop duster?

I mean in really close proximity to a small plane the size and build of a simple cropduster or small bi-plane. Would the SR-71's wake turbulence be enough to rattle the small plane to pieces or send it crashing to the ground?|||A colleague of mine was spraying in a cessna ag truck back in the mid 80s, and as he dropped in on a spray pass he saw an F-4 phantom from the ND ANG do the same thing at the opposite end of his field. The Phantom pulled out and over the ag truck, but the wake turbulence nearly put the ag truck in the ground. When he landed he called the commander of the air guard unit and reamed him a new one.|||Wake turbulence isn't really all that bad in cruise flight. The wingtip vortices are strongest at high angles of attach, which typically occur at low airspeeds.





I assume you're talking about a plane flying at high mach speeds past a slow moving airplane. The wake turbulence wouldn't be all the strong, although the shock wave would be extremely strong. If the structural limits of the smaller plane are exceeded then damage can occur. The survivability would depend on whether or not there was any damage done, and at what altitude it occurred at. If there was no structural damage, and sufficient altitude the small plane would be recoverable. The pilot may not be able to recover, either from lack of upset training, or excessive G forces that may have caused him to loose consciousness.|||When the Boeing 747-LCF was undergoing a test-flight, a Cessna that was photographing it got caught up in the wave turbulence and lost 1,000 feet of altitude. As an SR-71 (at full speed) would produce significantly more wake turbulence we can assume that the situation would be far more serious. Unless the crop duster was at an unusually high altitude it wouldn't stand a chance. Even so, the crop duster would be unlikely to come away unscathed.|||that depends on how close the fly by was, and how fast each plane was going. if the SR71 was in close proximity, and going subsonic, and passed on one side of the crop duster, the crop plane pilot might have to make a few minor corrections to maintain straight and level flight. same with going over the crop duster. if on the other hand the SR71 was going supersonic, say close to mach 2.5, the crop duster could be in real trouble, depending on how close to the ground they were.|||It would depend on how close the SR-71 got, and whether it was above or below the other airplane. Wake turbulence propagates downward and outward, so the SR-71 could be well above the other aircraft, maybe even several thousand feet, and create a situation that Sky King couldn't recover from. On the other hand, if below, it could get very close, and might not even cause a ripple.|||Actually, this happened once.





The Ag-cat was cruising along at 65,000 feet when an SR-71 flew past just missing the spray plane. The spray plane pilot firewalled the throttle and caught the SR-71 and followed him to landing where he where he promptly handed the SR-71 driver his a** for scaring him.|||I won't be rude and will simply answer. IF this were to happen, the small plane indeed would most likely go out of control and crash unless the pilot was skilled and fortunate enough to recover. It would be the same as any fast moving jet encountering a small plane.|||Somewhere in that scenario, a phebeolistic interchange of perception during the embryo stage would help solidify any ramifications of the certaintudeness.|||Nothing.





All the SR-71's are retired.





Never mind that the pilot would have zero reason to fly that close.





Sure, I get that it's rhetorical, but it's also pointless.





Might as well ask what happens if the space shuttle flies close to a chicken.





Or a large cruise ship sails close to a canoe.





Who cares?