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.

How many MPH are we talking?

mach 3. 2000 +

Mach 3...at LEAST!

I have a titanium dog tag made from a piece of 61-7972; the one that set the official world speed record.

This aircraft holds many records that were set on 6 March 1990, when it was flown from Palmdale to Dulles in what was intended to be the last USAF flight of the SR-71. It also holds the New York to London record of 1 hour, 54 minutes, 56.4 seconds set in 1974.

That is quick! Has that been surpassed by now, I'm guessing?

My Dad flew a Taylorcraft, Swift, and a Cessna 180. Correction....Cherokee 140 180 and Cherokee 6

Actually the X15 was a lot faster than the SR71 and years earlier. X15 was flying mach 6.7+ in 1967. But it was rocket powered, not an air breathing turbine engine

Can you imagine what they thought in Desert Storm when that thing zipped past. They had no clue.

at 80,000 feet, I wonder if they saw it....

X15 was twice as fast and the space shuttle was way faster than both of them in a glide. ( during reentry ) but they were not planes in the true sense like the Blackbird was. The only one that did go faster was the A12 in the oxcart program but it was pretty much a twin of the Blackbird. The A12 was a single seater version and somewhat lighter than the SR71 and faster but not by much

if you asked me at 9-10 years old what I wanted to be when I grew up

I wanted to be an SR-71 blackbird pilot , I even had some right seat stick time on a Piper an Cessna , plan was Ground school at 16 and air force when high school was over or something like that.

then they moth balled it , dreams gone and then I got glasses

oh well

Yes took my boys to see it in Nebraska. I can’t remember what town

Gary just found it. Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum. S.A.C. Ashland NE

There is an A12 sitting on the deck of the aircraft carrier museum Intrepid docked in NYC.

The A12 was just a wee bit faster and flew just slightly higher in altitude. Yes , a bit lighter too as the overall length was a bit shorter.

Wow. Same for me. I had the models. Knew all the stats... long since forgotten. Seems there was something about a Buick 350 that played a part in starting the engines.

And when I realized my glasses would DQ me from ever having my chance... I threw it all aside. Of course there's LASIK now, but time has marched on for me and the plane. A burgeoning interest in the female of our species helped hasten the loss of interest too.

And again, if I remember correctly, 83,089 feet was the record for the altitude at 3000ish mph.

I remember a USAF commercial with the Blackbird in it. Listed the record stats and then said, "That isn't good enough anymore." I remember thinking if the world record isn't good enough anymore, what have they developed to replace it that they aren't telling us about?


Mike

Here's a link to an interesting article about Swedish air defense fighters assisting a crippled SR71:

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...stricken-sr-71-to-safety-during-cold-war

Cool trivia: Titanium used to construct the SR71s mostly came from Soviet mines, sourced with help from CIA-run shell companies.

p.s. I don't have the bandwidth right now to watch W17's video, so apologies if I just posted something redundant. I'll view the video tomorrow when I go to town. Looking forward to it!

In the 70's I fished and hunted around Beale AFB and saw them coming and going all the time. Somebody once told me how far out the had to start their descent.

Pete

Very cool! I had no idea.

I saw the one in Dayton beyond cool.

There is also one at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport...

The U 2 also has an unreal take off and landing angle too. They just disappear in the sky over head.....jk

I showed that video to my son last night he thought it was cool

he gets to the end and he is like


dude that Cessna totally got Trolled


yes yes he did , way before the internet an trolling was even a thing pilots were the original Trollers I suppose


over thanksgiving I was talking with my dad about one of the flights I didn't get to go with for. it was the highest he ever went with out oxygen kind of cool he would have preferred to have oxygen they just hadn't been expecting to go that high , but clouds and icing forced it

I saw them at McCoy AFB when I was stationed there 70-72. It was great watching those Chevy El Caminos chase the planes on landing. They were 396 SS El Caminos.

Thank you for the post White17... that was fun ...


Garry-

The first edition of the U2 was cool. Some engineer after a good night out must have decided to take those stubby little wings of a 104 Straighter and replace them with the longest and floppiest wings one could possibly stick on that air frame and then fly it to altitudes where the air was so thing that the plane could stall out at it max speed.

x2

Enjoyed the video!

Quite an American.

Thank you, Ken for posting.