Now here is a story I can get behind! My dad was a navigator on the SR-71 from 67-73 at Beale AFB. Fond memories of growing up there. Lt Col James W Fagg. The Pilot and dad had to crash land one at Kadena AFB. What a plane! I have read the story you posted Ken and heard many others. Awesome!

King of speed...the fastest guys on the block...

My father would have loved this ! And understood completely the friendly speed competition.

" It's a pilot thing"....indeed " across the ground..."

Tis fun when you ARE the fastest and hold back to be last to ask your speed , with that Mona Lisa smile all the while ...

Thank you for this, Sir Ken.

Here's your story Jwill ! What an airplane !

https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/17_on2015-above-beyond-180956605/

Indeed! Dad passed away A couple years ago. Thanx for posting. Good to reminisce!

Ken that story is so cool I had to listen to it twice.

Thanks for sharing. Our son is settled in at Whiteman AFB this week. I will share that video with him

I was doing a short job on Elmendorf AFB in the late 70’s. There was a SR71 setting next to the O Club. A few days later I heard a roar and saw it pointing up and disappear to a speck in the sky and turned level hit the throttle and disappeared. Most awesome thing I ever witnessed.

I didn’t know what type of aircraft it was at the time. It was really different with being flat black and blacked out windows. It set there for several days and there was a large puddle of hydraulic fluid under it. Just remembering my thoughts of my impression of it!

Yeah but if you can't get in and out of a 300 foot sand bar..........what good is it ?


Pretty amazing engineering. Even the fuel had to be specially created. The fuel was used to cool the skin of the A/C at supersonic speeds as well as lubricate moving parts in the pumps and engines.

At low elevations and subsonic speeds, fuel would leak onto the skin of the fuselage. It would also allow the fuel to cool before going back to high altitude SS flight where it could again absorb heat from the friction of flight.

I sure hope there is still development of projects like the SR71 going on despite who is in the Oval!!!

I wonder after your comment Ken about fuel if that wasn’t what was puddled under it?

Coolest, bad-[butt] airplane EVER!!!!

I read up on that , when it was invented, and the specialized fuel needed . The skin and how it acted on the ground and in flight fascinated me . It reminded me of a living breathing entity. The article stated that they do leak fuel when on the ground. That's part of the "breathing " .

They leak fuel on the ground because they are cold and the rivets start to leak. When the fuselage heats up, the metal expands and seals around the rivets. i have seen one at Mildenhall UK and one in a UK museum a few years ago.

Is there one in a museum in the U S of A?

made a special, 4 hour trip to The Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio JUST to see an example of this airplane! INCREDIBLE engineering and design!

There is one at Boeing Field south of SeaTac. And usually one of the pilots there to give a talk about it. Well worth the effort if you're in the area

there are a number of them in museums around the country

what amazes me is that the thing was designed in the late 1950's/early 60's without modern computers...mostly slide rules.

Same with the moon shots. Those engineers were all using sly drools.

I was working as a draftsman right out of high school at Space General. It was Aerojet General at the time. There wasn't a computer in the whole place. It was all slide rules. No CAD programs either. All tee square & triangle .

I was lucky enough to work for 7 engineers designing a nuclear engined re-entry vehicle. Learned a lot from those guys.