SR-71 Blackbird Pilot Trolls Arrogant Fighter Pilot with Ground Speed Check.

Tribunist ^ | July 15, 2016 | Tribunist Staff

[Balding_Eagle]

There is only one trainer left that seats two.

The other one crashed.

[Texas Fossil]

Thanks, bookmarked for future study.

[steve86]

I remember the SR-71 being present at the 1986 Abbotsford International Air Show, but did not see it fly. Still have a videotape that does show flight but nothing to play it in. BTW, the Concorde did a slow fly by under the cloud deck which I did see. I also remember nearly breaking Mach 1 from Washington State to get to the airshow on time.

[lgjhn23]

"...The Pratt & Whitney J58 documentation for that application covered a range of figures up to Mach 4.2, coordinating altitude, range, fuel burn rate, power derating based on altitude above FL72, etc. The chart curves indicated Mach ~3.2 gave the best range....." Ah Yes! Here's my little souvenir from the early '60s that the engine development team had at the time. Even the coffee cups were classified back then.

[Rio]

My favorite ATC story:

I was a primary student... still needed solo hours to get my ticket. I had just departed PAO (Palo Alto, CA) and turned East to head off for my solo cross-country. At PAO, we were boxed in by the SFO airspace, but usually tried to get the max altitude without entering it. I was most of the way across the bay, on flight-following with “Bay approach” RADAR guys in Oakland.

“Tomahawk Six-Niner-Foxtrot, traffic ahead five miles, right-to-left, a Concord.

Sure enough there was a Concord headed for Oakland right in front of me. Very cool.