Posted on 12/23/2015 5:37:07 AM PST by PIF
A successful platform. Lots of fun to see one fly over.
A part of American history when the country’s hairy-chested power was on display.
Replaced by satellites.
If the SR-71 was “replaced by satellites” (and I’m not disputing that), explain why the U-2s are still flying, and why is there a Global Hawk program, etc?
Three years ago, at an air show in Mothan-Davis, both an SR-71 and a U-2 did fly overs. You could hear the SR-71 from about three time zones over and it was epic.
I did not even realize the U-2 was there till the shadow passed over the crowd and it whispered over, so quite you could hear the intake of breath from the whole airfield. I had never seen a U-2 and was totally agog by its performance.
Sound and fury have their place, but so does cunning and stealth.
Why no really important statistics such as the gender identity of the pilots?
I was stationed at Osan AB in Korea ('89-'91). The U-2 (then called a TR-1) was based there.
That thing could take off, be out of sight, and still be heard for over 5 minutes.
They were very quiet on landing. I've heard, but never confirmed, they could cut the engines at altitude and several hundred miles away, and still make it home because of the glide ratio (don't know if it's true).
One time, I was scheduled for document destruction training at a facility near the northern end of the runway. The planes normally took off from that end. I saw two Airmen run out, and grab ahold of the pogo wheels under each wing (the U-2 only has landing gear on the fuselage). The pilot did a quick run up on the engine, let go of the brakes, and the plane jerked forward with these Airmen still holding the pogos. After less than 30 feet, the wings lifted enough for the Airmen to pull the pogos out and roll away from the aircraft, and it kept going. I'd say it was in the air in less than 200 feet, but I can't confirm.
I'd witnessed several U-2 launches over my time there, but never saw one like that. So, I inquired to a few buddies who'd been there a while, and they asked folks they knew, and it came back that they'd been having pogo issues, and that sometimes one would stick in the wing without falling out on take-off, which is what they were supposed to do. The poor Airmen drew the short straw that day.
Because they were totally sexist in those bygone days - everyone knows that there were no female pilots and the only involvement girls had was making and serving the coffee. Other sexual types kept themselves firmly and securely locked in closets.
In 1970 I watched these F4 variants as they were officially termed there take off and land at Kadena AFB. They were so secret we were not allowed to mention them. Whenever one took off there were dozens of locals with cameras at the fence. Nothing is as impressive in takeoff or landing.
It’s even more awesome .. up close and personal.
My nephew was in the AF, the whole family went to visit him on his base, and he took us all on a tour. The highlight of the trip was seeing this aircraft up close - close enough to touch (the SR-71).
I’ll never forget that .. I was awestruck.
PIF - Thank you so much for your service to America; and for these pictures which bring back such great memories.
Why don’t they publish the previously acknowledged performance of 2400 mph and 100,000 ft.?
Designed and built with slide rules.
Said it before on SR threads but my kid was a Jet mechanic on the 117, 22 and 35. A few years back she took me to one of the museums with a 71. She never saw one in person. They had an engine on a display stand.
Blew her mind. The whole plane did.
Here you go:
The SR-71 Blackbird's Air Show Demo Was Both Sinister And Awkward
If you saw am SR-71 fly over it was a lot longer than 3 years ago because the last flight was in the 90s.
I have no idea why Tyler chose the stats he did - go post a comment on his site and ask ...
Yeah I remember things so secret that one could not mention them but the whole of it was public knowledge like your picture takers (not all of which may have been local) ...
In his book, Sled Driver, SR-71 Blackbird pilot Brian Shul writes:
“I’ll always remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day
as Walt (my backseater) and I were screaming across Southern California 13 miles high.
We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft as
we entered Los Angeles airspace. Though they didn’t really control us, they did monitor our movement across their scope”.
“I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its groundspeed.”
“90 knots,” Center replied.
“Moments later, a Twin Beech required the same.”
“120 knots,” Center answered.
“We obviously weren’t the only ones proud of our groundspeed that day
as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted, ‘Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests groundspeed readout.’ There was a slight pause, then the response, ‘525 knots on the ground, Dusty.’ “
“Another silent pause. As I was thinking to myself how ripe a
situation this was, I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my backseater. It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison.”
“Center, Aspen 20, you got a groundspeed readout for us?”
There was a longer than normal pause . . .
“Aspen, I show 1,742 knots.”
No further inquiries were heard on that frequency.
In another famous SR-71 story, Los Angeles Center reported receiving a
request for clearance to FL 600 (60,000 ft).
The incredulous controller, with some disdain in his voice, asked,
“How do you plan to get up to 60,000 feet?
The pilot (obviously a sled driver), responded,
“We don’t plan to go up to it, we plan to go down to it.”
He was cleared.
Yeah I remember both of those amazing and wonderful stories - sad that there is nothing even close to that these days ...
What I found interesting was the 1000 missiles launched at it stat. I knew about the SA-2 Libya launch story, but the others?
I was in California in the 90’s, maybe I am conflating two air shows in my mind.
That plane was ahead of its time, and interesting it was built without any computers just old fashioned engineering, just amazing.
Kadena vet, 84-88. Saw the habu many times. Incredible.
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