Why the breakup of the soviet union was so important..

[FUNKED1]

Originally posted by gofaster
For awhile, the Soviet Union was the only source of titanium, too.  The CIA managed to procur a source clandestinely, and Soviet titanium ended up in the early F-14A's.

Just some useless trivia to throw around at dinner parties.

Before that it ended up in the A-12 (plane the SR-71 was derived from).

[Roscoroo]

Titanium,
 Atomic Number: 22  Atomic Radius: 144.8 pm
 Atomic Symbol:  Ti  Melting Point: 1668 ºC
 Atomic Weight:  47.90  Boiling Point: 3287 ºC
 Electron Configuration:  [Ar]4s23d2  Oxidation States: 4,3,2

History
(Latin. titans, the first sons of the Earth, mythology)

Discovered by Gregor in 1791; named by Klaproth in 1795. Impure titanium was prepared by Nilson and Pettersson in 1887; however, the pure metal (99.9%) was not made until 1910 when Hunter heated TiCl4 with sodium in a steel bomb.

The metal was a laboratory curiosity until Kroll, in 1946, showed that titanium could be produced commercially by reducing titanium tetrachloride with magnesium. This method is still largely used for producing the metal. The metal can be purified by decomposing the iodide.