is a great alternative HN tagline
Some Google around NYTimes would probably turn up the details.
>Infrared guidance systems in heat-seeking missiles are designed to track strong sources of infrared radiation
>Directional IRCM, or DIRCM, allows for a countermeasures laser to be targeted directly at an incoming IR threat.
JP-7 has a very high ignition temperature (it was actually used as a coolant/heat sink for the rest of the aircraft), so TEB combusting once it hit the air is used to light the engines.
SR-71s only had a limited amount of TEB to use each flight. I believe it was 13 shots per engine. TEB was used each time the engines were lit and also when afterburners were lit. While the SR-71's routes were built around refueling, the number of TEB shots remaining were the true limiting factor of the SR-71's flight time.
I always assumed afterburners just meant opening the throttle up but there must be more to it
No, as the name implies it's literally pouring in fuel after the turbine, in the exhaust. The exhaust is hot, yes, but cooler than the combustion chambers (which reside in between the turbine and compressor). So if you have some special fuel that's very hard to ignite then maybe you need some help to get the afterburning started.
People who think like this make want to cry. Those who can see the consequences and choose to overlook them.