Very well, you are right, I am wrong, you know more than I do, I know nothing, ect, ect ect..............
Truthfully, I have no idea whether you "know nothing" or not, but at least in this instance I would have to agree with the rest of your statement. I'm sorry if my reply was rude, although, not that sorry.
Not directed at anyone in particular, but I'm not sure I have ever seen a forum of people so willing to blindly believe - or not believe - almost anything, based upon almost nothing.
The SR-71 can fly at MACH 6. The F-22 has these incredible flaws. The Su-whatever series of aircraft are military superplanes, etc, etc... Everyone has opinions, and there's nothing wrong with that, but when people hold their beliefs so strongly that when someone who "does" military aviation for a living states fact and is then told that they 'must be smoking something' that is where there is a problem.
I don't know where a lot of the opinions here on the site come from, but this is where I come from: I'm an ex-USAF certified Tactical Aircraft Maintainer, specializing in the F-16A, B, C, & D both with the P&W and GE engines (engine run qualified on the F110). I have maintenance experience on the T-38, F-15, F-4, CF-18, HU-25, P-3, C-130, KC-10, and C-9 with more limited experience on the AV-8B, F-14, F-104, F-86, MiG-15 and 17, and Mirage F.1C and E, and Alpha Jets (and quite a few others that aren't jumping up at me now...) Was based stateside and overseas. Crash recovery and chemical decontamination qualified. Deployed during the Gulf War where my unit lost two aircraft to the Iraqis. Licenced by the US Federal Aviation Administration to maintain everything from a hot air balloon gondola to the Space Shuttle. Flown in C-130's, C-141's, C-5's, KC-135's, KC-10's, AF and Army Hueys and Blackhawks, RAF Nimrods and with the US Army's Golden Knights. Been a published avaiation photographer and author for over twenty years. Know, or have interviewed everyone from Bob Morgan (the pilot of the Memphis Belle) to Chuck Sweeney (dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki) to Steve Ritchie and Chuck DeBellevue (11 kills between them in SEA) to Snort Snodgrass (highest time Tomcat pilot) to the many current Hornet, Viper, Eagle and Tomcat pilots I know well.
But I guess that doesn't mean anything when you know somebody who knows an ex-Soviet radar tech who told him about MACH 6 SR-71's.
Mike