The Black Bird was bad ass

[Jeremy2004GT]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird

http://www.wimp.com/lockheedblackbird/

[JimD]

C/P-->

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 twin 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 525 on the ground,' ATC responded. The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walter's mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter 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 1,742 knots on the ground.' We did not hear another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast.

[stevo]

There are a couple of multi-part documentaries on youtube of the SR-71. Some cool shit if you have a couple of hours to watch it.

Stevo

[CJ]

There are a couple of multi-part documentaries on youtube of the SR-71. Some cool shit if you have a couple of hours to watch it.

Stevo

Some people don't understand just how fast the SR-71 really was. It was literally faster than a rifle bullet, to put it in perspective.

[jakesford]

Awesome aircraft, the story on the one at the udvar hazy museum is really cool. Sets 4 speed record on it's final flight from California to DC to be retired to the smithsonian.

[JimD]

Some people don't understand just how fast the SR-71 really was. It was literally faster than a rifle bullet, to put it in perspective.

Heres a c/p that addresses the speed, both fast and slow, pretty cool read.

Old saying: "The 3 most useless things in flying are the altitude above you, the runway behind you and the airspeed you used to have." So... Just thought you might find this interesting.

As a former SR-71 pilot, and a professional keynote speaker, the question I'm most often asked is "How
fast would that SR-71 fly?" I can be assured of hearing that question several times at any event I
attend. It's an interesting question, given the aircraft's proclivity for speed, but there really isn't one number to give, as the jet would always give you a little more speed if you wanted it to. It was common to see 35 miles a minute. Because we flew a programmed Mach number on most missions, and never wanted to harm the plane in any way, we never let it run out to any limits of temperature or speed. Thus, each SR-71 pilot had his own individual high speed that he saw at some point on some mission. I saw mine over Libya when Khadafy fired two missiles my way, and max power was in order. Let's just say that the plane truly loved speed and effortlessly took us to Mach numbers we hadn't previously seen.So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, what was the slowest you ever flew the Blackbird. This was a first. After giving it some thought, I was reminded of a story that I had never shared before, and relayed the following.

I was flying the SR-71 out of RAF Mildenhall, England, with my back-seater, Walt Watson; we were returning from a mission over Europe and the Iron Curtain when we received a radio transmission from home base. As we scooted across Denmark in three minutes, we learned that a small RAF base in the English countryside had requested an SR-71 fly-past. The air cadet commander there was a former Blackbird pilot, and thought it would be a motivating moment for the young lads to see the mighty SR-71 perform a low approach. No problem, we were happy to do it. After a quick aerial refueling over the North Sea, we proceeded to find the small airfield.

Walter had a myriad of sophisticated navigation equipment in the back seat, and began to vector me toward the field. Descending to subsonic speeds, we found ourselves over a densely wooded area in a slight haze. Like most former WWII British airfields, the one we were looking for had a small tower and little surrounding infrastructure. Walter told me we were close and that I should be able to see the field, but I saw nothing. Nothing but trees as far as I could see in the haze. We got a little lower, and I pulled the throttles back from 325 knots we were at. With the gear up, anything under 275 was just uncomfortable. Walt said we were practically over the field yet; there was nothing in my windscreen. I banked the jet and started a gentle circling maneuver in hopes of picking
up anything that looked like a field. Meanwhile, below, the cadet commander had taken the cadets up on the catwalk of the tower in order to get a prime view of the fly-past. It was a quiet, still day with no wind and partial gray overcast. Walter continued to give me indications that the field should be below us but in the overcast and haze, I couldn't see it. The longer we continued to peer out the window and circle, the slower we got. With our power back, the awaiting cadets heard nothing. I must have had good instructors in my flying career, as something told me I better cross-check the gauges. As I noticed the airspeed indicator slide below 160 knots, my heart stopped and my adrenalin-filled left hand pushed two throttles full forward. At this point we weren't really flying, but were falling in a slight bank. Just at the moment that both afterburners lit with a thunderous roar of flame (and what a joyous feeling that was) the aircraft fell into full view of the shocked observers on the tower. Shattering the still quiet of that morning, they now had 107 feet of fire-breathing titanium in their face as the plane leveled and accelerated, in full burner, on the tower side of the infield, closer than expected, maintaining what could only be described as some sort of ultimate knife-edge pass.

Quickly reaching the field boundary, we proceeded back to Mildenhall without incident. We didn't say a
word for those next 14 minutes. After landing, our commander greeted us, and we were both certain he was reaching for our wings. Instead, he heartily shook our hands and said the commander had told him it was the greatest SR-71 fly-past he had ever seen, especially how we had surprised them with such a precise maneuver that could only be described as breathtaking. He said that some of the cadet's hats were blown off and the sight of the plan form of the plane in full afterburner dropping right in front of them was unbelievable. Walt and I both understood the concept of breathtaking very well that morning, and sheepishly replied that they were just excited to see our low approach.

As we retired to the equipment room to change from space suits to flight suits, we just sat there-we hadn't spoken a word since the pass. Finally, Walter looked at me and said, One hundred fifty-six knots. What did you see? Trying to find my voice, I stammered,
One hundred fifty-two. We sat in silence for a moment. Then Walt said, "Don't ever do that to me again! And I never did.

A year later, Walter and I were having lunch in the Mildenhall Officerï's club, and overheard an officer talking to some cadets about an SR-71 fly-past that he had seen one day. Of course, by now the story included kids falling off the tower and screaming as he heat of the jet singed their eyebrows. Noticing our HABU patches, as we stood there with lunch trays in our hands, he asked us to verify to the cadets that such a thing had occurred. Walt just shook his head and said, "It was probably just a routine low approach; they're pretty impressive in that plane. Impressive indeed."

Little did I realize after relaying this experience to my audience that day that it would become one of the most popular and most requested stories. It's ironic that people are interested in how slow the world's fastest jet can fly. Regardless of your speed, however, it's always a good idea to keep that cross-
check "up" and keep your Mach up, too.

[JimD]

Couple 35mm scans of the SR on the boom. Pics are dated 30 Aug 87.

[Wicked98Snake]

So why did they stop using them, do they have something beter now? I have always loved the look of them, they are awesome.

[Magnimike1]

So what was the reasoning of retirement at the time?

[BERNIE MOSFET]

So why did they stop using them, do they have something beter now? I have always loved the look of them, they are awesome.

Satellites.

[appelingogt]

The only jet that got better fuel mileage the faster it went...FTMFMFW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Justa4Banger]

Yea my father was a fire cheif stationed at hickam AFB in Hawaii.. his sole job was to ensure proper cooling of the SR71 after each flight... lots of water and many hours to cool the acft off properly..

outstanding peice of machinery. shame there isn't much use for it anymore..

[32vfromhell]

Likely it is replaced by something out of skunkworks, like the Aurora with its SCRAMJET engine. It hasnt ever been confirmed, but there are giant budget "holes" of money and unexplained sonic booms in testing grounds to give you an idea that something is up there.

[helosailor]

Some people don't understand just how fast the SR-71 really was. It was literally faster than a rifle bullet, to put it in perspective.

One of the main reasons it was unarmed. It would literally fly into anything it fired forward if it was at speed.

[loc712]

sr-71

I watched a doc. on it the other nite and they said flying at their cruising speed if they flew down the coast of Cali and did a u-turn they couldn't stay within the state boundaries.