[yarddog]

I remember seeing an interview of an SR-71 pilot who was flying over Libya on a reconnaissance flight.

He said his warning lights went on showing that missiles had been fired at him. He opened it up and he said the plane just kept going faster and faster. The way he explained it made you think the plane was a living thing and just wanted to go fast and was only happy when it was.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I had a teacher who was a retired air traffic controller. He got the heads up at the beginning of his shift that the SR-71 would be coming through their airspace. When it does the speed is always shown as ‘SC’ - speed classified. All he did was put a couple of tick marks indicating a specific distance on his radar screen and timed it. He said it was doing right at 3500 kts ground speed. That’s about Mach 5. Of course it’s official top speed is Mach 3.

Here’s an interesting part of a wiki entry about the SR-71.

“Around Mach 3, the increased heating from the shock cone compression, plus the heating from the compressor fans, was enough to get the core air to high temperatures, and little fuel could be added in the combustion chamber without melting the turbine blades. This meant the whole compressor-combustor-turbine set-up in the core of the engine provided less power, and the Blackbird flew predominantly on air bypassed straight to the afterburners, forming a large ramjet effect.[25][45][46] The maximum speed was limited by the specific maximum temperature for the compressor inlet of 800 °F (427 °C). 1990s studies of inlets of this type indicated that newer technology could allow for inlet speeds with a lower limit of Mach 6.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird

I’m sure this new bird can go a minimum of Mach 6.

[miliantnutcase]

I wonder how many passes over the Soviet Union they made. Of course it would never have been acknowledged.

[tanknetter]

I remember seeing an interview of an SR-71 pilot who was flying over Libya on a reconnaissance flight.

He said his warning lights went on showing that missiles had been fired at him. He opened it up and he said the plane just kept going faster and faster. The way he explained it made you think the plane was a living thing and just wanted to go fast and was only happy when it was.

This is the story you're thinking of

There are a lot of other cool SR-71 stories as well. Like the "booming" missions across Nicaragua to freak out the Sandinistas and let them know we could own them anytime we wanted. Or the one about the flight over the Western US where the RSO ends a radio p*ssing contest over speed by having LA ATC point out to a sh*t hot F/A-18 pilot that there was another aircraft out there going nearly four times as fast as he was.

THIS, tho, is my favorite. It's too good not to share here ...

So it was with great surprise, when at the end of one of my presentations, someone asked, “What was the slowest you ever flew in 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 flypast. 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 the 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 flypast. 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 flypast 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 planform 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.

[UCANSEE2]

He opened it up and he said the plane just kept going faster and faster.

Isn't that because the engine (due to those pointy nose cones and the design) becomes a RAMJET ?

[Texas Fossil]

“The SR-71 remains to this day the only aircraft rated to run in full continuous afterburner.”

http://www.habu.org/sr-71/17968.html

—

Barry Goldwater was the 1st non-rated pilot to fly the U-2, SR-71 and B-1.
http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special25/articles/0602GoldwaterFacts01-ON.html

Listing of all Personnel who Flew the Blackbirds

http://www.sr71.us/Supp_BBook.htm

221 VIP Senator MajGen Goldwater Barry 2-Apr-69

[LeoWindhorse]

my dad was part of the build out team on the 71/YF12A

[PastorBooks]

“I remember seeing an interview of an SR-71 pilot who was flying over Libya on a reconnaissance flight.

He said his warning lights went on showing that missiles had been fired at him. He opened it up and he said the plane just kept going faster and faster. The way he explained it made you think the plane was a living thing and just wanted to go fast and was only happy when it was.”

Is this it?

A pilots story about the SR-71 the Black Bird
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1981814/posts

Lots of SR-71 articles are at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/sr71/index