SR-71 Blackbird -- The Greatest Plane Ever Made
#1
02-11-2015, 07:52 PM
SR-71 Blackbird -- The Greatest Plane Ever Made
FROM AN SR-71 PILOT.......Very interesting read....SR-71 Blackbird
In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's terrorist camps in Libya .
My duty was to fly over Libya and take photographs recording the damage our F-111's had inflicted.
Qaddafi had established a 'line of death', A territorial marking across the Gulf of Sidra, swearing to shoot down any intruder that crossed the boundary.
On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph.
I was piloting the SR-71 spy plane, the world's fastest jet, accompanied by a Marine Major (Walt), The aircraft's reconnaissance systems officer (RSO).
We had crossed into Libya, and were approaching our final turn over the bleak desert landscape, when Walt informed me, that he was receiving missile launch signals.
I quickly increased our speed, calculating the time it would take for the weapons, most likely SA-2 and SA-4 surface-to-air missiles, capable of Mach 5 - to reach our altitude.. I estimated, that we could beat the rocket-powered missiles to the turn, and stayed our course, betting our lives on the plane's performance.
After several agonizingly long seconds, we made the turn and blasted toward the Mediterranean ....
'You might want to pull it back,' Walt suggested. It was then that I noticed I still had the throttles full forward.
The plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit.
It was the fastest we would ever fly.
I pulled the throttles to idle, just south of Sicily, but we still overran the refueling tanker, awaiting us over Gibraltar ...
Scores of significant aircraft have been produced, in the 100 years of flight, following the achievements Of the Wright brothers, which we celebrate in December.
Aircraft such as the Boeing 707, the F-86 Sabre Jet, and the P-51 Mustang, are among the important machines, that have flown our skies..
But the SR-71, also known as the Blackbird, stands alone as a significant contributor to Cold War victory, and as the fastest plane ever, and only 93 Air Force pilots, ever steered the 'sled' as we called our aircraft.
The SR-71, was the brainchild of Kelly Johnson, the famed Lockheed designer who created the P-38, the F-104 Starfighter, and the U-2.
After the Soviets shot down Gary Powers U-2 in 1960, Johnson began to develop an aircraft, that would fly three miles higher, and five times faster, than the spy plane, and still be capable of photographing your license plate.
However, flying at 2,000 mph would create intense heat on the aircraft's skin. Lockheed engineers used a titanium alloy, to construct more than 90 percent of the SR-71, creating special tools, and manufacturing procedures to hand-build each of the 40 planes.. (Wow ! ! ! 40 planes???? I thought only 7.) special heat-resistant fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluids, that would function at 85,000 feet, and higher, also had to be developed.
In 1962, the first Blackbird successfully flew, and in 1966, the same year I graduated from high school, the Air Force began flying operational SR-71 missions.
I came to the program in 1983, with a sterling record and a recommendation from my commander, completing the weeklong interview, and meeting Walt, my partner for the next four years.
He would ride four feet behind me, working all the cameras, radios, and electronic jamming equipment.
I joked, that if we were ever captured, he was the spy, and I was just the driver.
He told me to keep the pointy end forward.
We trained for a year, flying out of Beale AFB in California, Kadena Airbase in Okinawa, and RAF Mildenhall in England ..
On a typical training mission, we would take off near Sacramento, refuel over Nevada, accelerate into Montana, obtain a high Mach speed over Colorado, turn right over New Mexico, speed across the Los Angeles Basin, run up the West Coast, turn right at Seattle, then return to Beale.
Total flight time:- Two Hours and Forty Minutes.
One day, high above Arizona, we were monitoring the radio traffic, of all the mortal airplanes below us. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed. 'Ninety knots,' ATC replied. A Bonanza soon made the same request. 'One-twenty on the ground,' was the reply.
To our surprise, a navy F-18 came over the radio, with a ground speed check.
I knew exactly what he was doing.
Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the bug-smashers in the valley, know what real speed was, 'Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground,' ATC responded.
The situation was too ripe.
I heard the click of Walt's mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walt startled the controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace. In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, 'Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the ground.' We did not hear another transmission on that frequency, all the way to the coast.
The Blackbird always showed us something new, each aircraft possessing its own unique personality.
In time, we realized we were flying a national treasure.
When we taxied out of our revetments for take-off, people took notice.
Traffic congregated near the airfield fences, because everyone wanted to see, and hear the mighty SR-71.
You could not be a part of this program, and not come to love the airplane.
Slowly, she revealed her secrets to us, as we earned her trust..
One moonless night, while flying a routine training mission over the Pacific, I wondered what the sky would look like from 84,000 feet, if the cockpit lighting were dark.
While heading home on a straight course, I slowly turned down all of the lighting, reducing the glare and revealing the night sky.
Within seconds, I turned the lights back up, fearful that the jet would know, and somehow punish me.
But my desire to see the sky, overruled my caution, I dimmed the lighting again.
To my amazement, I saw a bright light outside my window.
As my eyes adjusted to the view, I realized that the brilliance was the broad expanse of the Milky Way, now a gleaming stripe across the sky.
Where dark spaces in the sky, had usually existed, there were now dense clusters, of sparkling stars.
Shooting Stars, flashed across the canvas every few seconds.
It was like a fireworks display with no sound.
I knew I had to get my eyes back on the instruments, and reluctantly, I brought my attention back inside.
To my surprise, with the cockpit lighting still off, I could see every gauge, lit by starlight.
In the plane's mirrors, I could see the eerie shine of my gold spacesuit, incandescently illuminated, in a celestial glow.
I stole one last glance out the window. Despite our speed, we seemed still before the heavens, humbled in the radiance of a much greater power.
For those few moments, I felt a part of something far more significant, than anything we were doing in the plane.
The sharp sound of Walt's voice on the radio, brought me back to the tasks at hand, as I prepared for our descent.
San Diego Aerospace Museum
The SR-71 was an expensive aircraft to operate.
The most significant cost was tanker support, and in 1990, confronted with budget cutbacks, the Air Force retired the SR-71.
The SR-71 served six presidents, protecting America for a quarter of a century.
Unbeknown to most of the country, the plane flew over North Vietnam, Red China, North Korea, the Middle East, South Africa, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Libya, and the Falkland Islands. On a weekly basis, the SR-71, kept watch over every Soviet Nuclear Submarine, Mobile Missile Site, and all of their troop movements. It was a key factor in winning the Cold War.
I am proud to say, I flew about 500 hours in this aircraft. I knew her well. She gave way to no plane, proudly dragging her Sonic Boom through enemy backyards, with great impunity. She defeated every missile, outran every MIG, and always brought us home.
In the first 100 years of manned flight, no aircraft was more remarkable. The Blackbird had outrun nearly 4,000 missiles, not once taking a scratch from enemy fire.
On her final flight, the Blackbird, destined for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, sped from Los Angeles to Washington in 64 Minutes, averaging 2,145 mph, and setting four speed records.
In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's terrorist camps in Libya .
My duty was to fly over Libya and take photographs recording the damage our F-111's had inflicted.
Qaddafi had established a 'line of death', A territorial marking across the Gulf of Sidra, swearing to shoot down any intruder that crossed the boundary.
On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph.
I was piloting the SR-71 spy plane, the world's fastest jet, accompanied by a Marine Major (Walt), The aircraft's reconnaissance systems officer (RSO).
We had crossed into Libya, and were approaching our final turn over the bleak desert landscape, when Walt informed me, that he was receiving missile launch signals.
I quickly increased our speed, calculating the time it would take for the weapons, most likely SA-2 and SA-4 surface-to-air missiles, capable of Mach 5 - to reach our altitude.. I estimated, that we could beat the rocket-powered missiles to the turn, and stayed our course, betting our lives on the plane's performance.
After several agonizingly long seconds, we made the turn and blasted toward the Mediterranean ....
'You might want to pull it back,' Walt suggested. It was then that I noticed I still had the throttles full forward.
The plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit.
It was the fastest we would ever fly.
I pulled the throttles to idle, just south of Sicily, but we still overran the refueling tanker, awaiting us over Gibraltar ...
Scores of significant aircraft have been produced, in the 100 years of flight, following the achievements Of the Wright brothers, which we celebrate in December.
Aircraft such as the Boeing 707, the F-86 Sabre Jet, and the P-51 Mustang, are among the important machines, that have flown our skies..
But the SR-71, also known as the Blackbird, stands alone as a significant contributor to Cold War victory, and as the fastest plane ever, and only 93 Air Force pilots, ever steered the 'sled' as we called our aircraft.
The SR-71, was the brainchild of Kelly Johnson, the famed Lockheed designer who created the P-38, the F-104 Starfighter, and the U-2.
After the Soviets shot down Gary Powers U-2 in 1960, Johnson began to develop an aircraft, that would fly three miles higher, and five times faster, than the spy plane, and still be capable of photographing your license plate.
However, flying at 2,000 mph would create intense heat on the aircraft's skin. Lockheed engineers used a titanium alloy, to construct more than 90 percent of the SR-71, creating special tools, and manufacturing procedures to hand-build each of the 40 planes.. (Wow ! ! ! 40 planes???? I thought only 7.) special heat-resistant fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluids, that would function at 85,000 feet, and higher, also had to be developed.
In 1962, the first Blackbird successfully flew, and in 1966, the same year I graduated from high school, the Air Force began flying operational SR-71 missions.
I came to the program in 1983, with a sterling record and a recommendation from my commander, completing the weeklong interview, and meeting Walt, my partner for the next four years.
He would ride four feet behind me, working all the cameras, radios, and electronic jamming equipment.
I joked, that if we were ever captured, he was the spy, and I was just the driver.
He told me to keep the pointy end forward.
We trained for a year, flying out of Beale AFB in California, Kadena Airbase in Okinawa, and RAF Mildenhall in England ..
On a typical training mission, we would take off near Sacramento, refuel over Nevada, accelerate into Montana, obtain a high Mach speed over Colorado, turn right over New Mexico, speed across the Los Angeles Basin, run up the West Coast, turn right at Seattle, then return to Beale.
Total flight time:- Two Hours and Forty Minutes.
One day, high above Arizona, we were monitoring the radio traffic, of all the mortal airplanes below us. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed. 'Ninety knots,' ATC replied. A Bonanza soon made the same request. 'One-twenty on the ground,' was the reply.
To our surprise, a navy F-18 came over the radio, with a ground speed check.
I knew exactly what he was doing.
Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the bug-smashers in the valley, know what real speed was, 'Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground,' ATC responded.
The situation was too ripe.
I heard the click of Walt's mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walt startled the controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace. In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, 'Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the ground.' We did not hear another transmission on that frequency, all the way to the coast.
The Blackbird always showed us something new, each aircraft possessing its own unique personality.
In time, we realized we were flying a national treasure.
When we taxied out of our revetments for take-off, people took notice.
Traffic congregated near the airfield fences, because everyone wanted to see, and hear the mighty SR-71.
You could not be a part of this program, and not come to love the airplane.
Slowly, she revealed her secrets to us, as we earned her trust..
One moonless night, while flying a routine training mission over the Pacific, I wondered what the sky would look like from 84,000 feet, if the cockpit lighting were dark.
While heading home on a straight course, I slowly turned down all of the lighting, reducing the glare and revealing the night sky.
Within seconds, I turned the lights back up, fearful that the jet would know, and somehow punish me.
But my desire to see the sky, overruled my caution, I dimmed the lighting again.
To my amazement, I saw a bright light outside my window.
As my eyes adjusted to the view, I realized that the brilliance was the broad expanse of the Milky Way, now a gleaming stripe across the sky.
Where dark spaces in the sky, had usually existed, there were now dense clusters, of sparkling stars.
Shooting Stars, flashed across the canvas every few seconds.
It was like a fireworks display with no sound.
I knew I had to get my eyes back on the instruments, and reluctantly, I brought my attention back inside.
To my surprise, with the cockpit lighting still off, I could see every gauge, lit by starlight.
In the plane's mirrors, I could see the eerie shine of my gold spacesuit, incandescently illuminated, in a celestial glow.
I stole one last glance out the window. Despite our speed, we seemed still before the heavens, humbled in the radiance of a much greater power.
For those few moments, I felt a part of something far more significant, than anything we were doing in the plane.
The sharp sound of Walt's voice on the radio, brought me back to the tasks at hand, as I prepared for our descent.
San Diego Aerospace Museum
The SR-71 was an expensive aircraft to operate.
The most significant cost was tanker support, and in 1990, confronted with budget cutbacks, the Air Force retired the SR-71.
The SR-71 served six presidents, protecting America for a quarter of a century.
Unbeknown to most of the country, the plane flew over North Vietnam, Red China, North Korea, the Middle East, South Africa, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Libya, and the Falkland Islands. On a weekly basis, the SR-71, kept watch over every Soviet Nuclear Submarine, Mobile Missile Site, and all of their troop movements. It was a key factor in winning the Cold War.
I am proud to say, I flew about 500 hours in this aircraft. I knew her well. She gave way to no plane, proudly dragging her Sonic Boom through enemy backyards, with great impunity. She defeated every missile, outran every MIG, and always brought us home.
In the first 100 years of manned flight, no aircraft was more remarkable. The Blackbird had outrun nearly 4,000 missiles, not once taking a scratch from enemy fire.
On her final flight, the Blackbird, destined for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, sped from Los Angeles to Washington in 64 Minutes, averaging 2,145 mph, and setting four speed records.
#2
02-11-2015, 10:27 PM
I've read about them for years -- it was quite a bird -- and quite a handful. Somewhat the aviation equivalent of a top fuel dragster.
As I understand it, when it was on the ground, it leaked like a sieve. Even with the high tech stuff, they had to allow for expansion when it was in flight at those ridiculous speeds.
Also, I guess that the pilot was a busy boy a lot of the time. Various speeds required various configurations -- I think that there might have even been an adjustment to the intake to keep the airflow right and to prevent some nasty stuff that can happen at speed.
I think that the CIA actually initiated the program. I know that they had a version of there own (YF12 I believe). It was all very hush hush, but then there was a crash, and word got out a bit.
Also, from what I read, the program was started while the U2 was still in development. The U2 was regarded as a stopgap because they thought that the soviets would eventually be able to handle it.
It was truly a special bird, but the operating cost was phenomenal and the satellite tech made it hard to justify -- too bad.
hj
As I understand it, when it was on the ground, it leaked like a sieve. Even with the high tech stuff, they had to allow for expansion when it was in flight at those ridiculous speeds.
Also, I guess that the pilot was a busy boy a lot of the time. Various speeds required various configurations -- I think that there might have even been an adjustment to the intake to keep the airflow right and to prevent some nasty stuff that can happen at speed.
I think that the CIA actually initiated the program. I know that they had a version of there own (YF12 I believe). It was all very hush hush, but then there was a crash, and word got out a bit.
Also, from what I read, the program was started while the U2 was still in development. The U2 was regarded as a stopgap because they thought that the soviets would eventually be able to handle it.
It was truly a special bird, but the operating cost was phenomenal and the satellite tech made it hard to justify -- too bad.
hj
#3
02-11-2015, 11:17 PM
#4
02-12-2015, 12:34 PM
When I was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson there were two occasions that we had the Blackbird sneak onto and off of our base. I was in missile security (Minuteman) at the time and had the security clearance necessary to have access to provide a watchful eye...up close.
She came in under the mask of night and left the same way. A stunning beauty, even though up close and personal she showed what the uninformed might think were flaws.
She would taxi directly to a secured hanger where special techs were on hand to do whatever it was they did to pamper her. Then the following night, she would be gone.
A lot of dope smoking must have been going on to dream this old girl up. A National Treasure.
...
She came in under the mask of night and left the same way. A stunning beauty, even though up close and personal she showed what the uninformed might think were flaws.
She would taxi directly to a secured hanger where special techs were on hand to do whatever it was they did to pamper her. Then the following night, she would be gone.
A lot of dope smoking must have been going on to dream this old girl up. A National Treasure.
...
#5
02-12-2015, 05:55 PM
When I graduated high school in '71, my intended career path was to join the Air Force and fly jets and later transition to commercial aviation. Had I made it as a pilot there's a good chance that I'd have wanted into a Blackbird, but that certainly wasn't a guarantee. Then something happened while a junior in high school. I grew from 5'9" to 6'3" in six months. I no longer fit in military cockpits, so my entire life and career changed.
But there's never been a doubt in my mind that the air is where I belong. At 61 years old, I still can't see a plane fly overhead without stopping to watch it....
~Bass
But there's never been a doubt in my mind that the air is where I belong. At 61 years old, I still can't see a plane fly overhead without stopping to watch it....
~Bass
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