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Paul McCartney is singing his praises for Beyoncé’s version of “Blackbird.” The music legend on Thursday wrote on his Instagram page that he’s “so happy” with the Grammy-winner’s cover of the 1968 Beatles track that is included on her newly released “Act II: Cowboy Carter” album, under the slightly revised title “Blackbiird.” “I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place,” he wrote. He went on to “urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out.”

SR 71 pilot Brian Shul suddenly died last night in Reno, Nevada, at age 75, of a cardiac arrest.

There are an unending number of interesting facts about the SR-71 Blackbird, probably the coolest aircraft ever produced by any Air Force, anywhere in the world. It’s the only airframe that’s made of 85% titanium, titanium that was purchased by the CIA from the Soviet Union – the country the aircraft was built to spy on. It’s capable of cruising at more than three times the speed of sound at 85,000 feet – and that speed and altitude are its only defenses. **SNIP** It’s also the only Air Force aircraft ever made with the “SR” designation. The reason for that...

Some personal history about the Prat & Whitney J58 Engine (SR-71 power plant) from one of the Engineers that helped develop it. All of you Gearheads pay attention at about the 14:45 Time Stamp. The Air Zoo is a world-class, Smithsonian-affiliated aerospace and science museum, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with over 100 air and space artifacts, inspiring interactive exhibits, full-motion flight simulators, indoor amusement park rides, a theater and over 100 education programs!.

Speed can do many things for an aircraft. It can allow an airplane to get to its target quickly and complete its bombing run. Speed can help outmaneuver enemy fighters and shoot them down. It enables survivability to outfox air defense systems. Spy planes such as the SR-71 Blackbird could really boogey. The Blackbird had MACH 3 speed that allowed the bird to outrun surface-to-air missiles. That’s 36.55 miles per minute or 3,216.4 feet per second. In fact, when the SR-71 streaked by, SAMs could barely lock on to target, and if they did the Blackbird was already out of...

A Swedish pilot named Per-Olof Eldh, using a Viggen fighter jet, lined up with the Blackbird’s flight path and even gained full missile lock. ___________________________________________________________ The SR-71 Blackbird is a legendary plane, which had a long life that began in the 1960s and ended in the 1990s. The plane, considered the fastest ever to fly, was famously never shot down, although it did once have a close call with a meteor while flying over North Korea in the early 1980s. A recent report looked at another close call the SR-71 had, with an unlikely source: the Swedish Air Force, from...

The Lockheed SR-71 spy plane was – and still is – the fastest plane on the planet. The Goal Known unofficially as the “Blackbird” for its black paint job, which was developed to dissipate heat, the jet featured sleek lines that certainly were “futuristic” when it was flying top secret missions years before American astronauts headed to the moon. It was developed in secret in the late 1950s to cruise to 80,000 feet above the earth, near the edge of space, and out fly any missile that was launched at it.

This may be the single greatest aviation story ever told, it’s about the iconic SR-71 Blackbird whose full operating specs are still classified to this day. The story, from the now out-of-print book Sled Driver by former SR-71 jockey Brian Shul (available used on Amazon for just $700). Here’s the ultimate aviation troll: There were a lot of things we couldn’t do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun...

Then disaster struck. On May 24, an A-12 stalled, went into an unrecoverable spin and crashed during a test flight in Utah. Fortunately, pilot Kenneth Collins ejected and survived. Even in remote Utah, it’s hard to hide a crash. A local deputy witnessed the incident and a vacationing family snapped away with a camera. The CIA promptly seized their photographs and paid $25,000 each to the deputy and the family to keep quiet, according to a 2010 story in the Seattle Times. The Blackbird wouldn’t stay officially secret for much longer. Pres. Lyndon Johnson would run for election in 1964,...

For 40 years it has been the fastest plane ever built, and now the crew who flew the record-breaking, speed-shattering mission have been reunited with the aircraft they once commanded, and climbed back into the cockpit. It was 1976 when U.S. Air Force pilot Maj. Gen. Eldon 'Al' Joersz and Lt. Col. George 'GT' Morgan flew a jet faster than a speeding bullet. They flew faster than anyone had done before, or since. On July 28, 1976, the two men flew a SR-71 Blackbird spy plane for more than a thousand kilometers at 2,193 miles per hour, covering one mile...

The Mill has created The Mill BLACKBIRD, the first fully adjustable car rig that creates photoreal CG cars – it’s a car rig that can be shot at any time, in any location, without the need to rely on a physical car. Created in collaboration with JemFX, Performance Filmworks and Keslow, Mill Blackbird inspires and expands creative opportunities, offering a truly flexible production tool without sacrificing any quality or direction. Learn more: themill.com/portfolio/3002/the-blackbird%C2%AE

Tired of politics? Set aside some time, get a glass of what you like and settle in. Brian Shul is the real McCoy. He crashed at the end of the Vietnam War in Cambodia, with very little chance of survival... and beat the odds. He is funny and informative; he did it and lived to tell the story. There are very few around like him. There are good public speakers, and then there's Brian Shul. He talks about life's choices and outcomes, but laced within his message are incredible stories of his years as an SR71 Blackbird pilot. The SR...

On December 22nd, 1964, the SR-71 Blackbird took to the air for the very first time, rising above Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale with F-104 chase planes in pursuit. The occasion would mark the birth of one of the most amazing and renowned aircraft of all time. Some numbers from the Blackbird family of planes: 35 miles per minute or 3,100 feet per second is how fast the SR-71 could fly 85,000 feet is the official Blackbird ceiling, although it supposedly could fly higher Snip Over 1,000 missiles were launched at the SR-71 without any losses Snip Zero was...

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the SR-71 Blackbird, the Air Force’s sleek, high-flying Cold War reconnaissance workhorse that still holds several world air-speed records. Here’s a look back at the amazing aircraft.

Until Lockheed Martin finally builds the SR-72 Mach-6 spy plane it announced in November, the iconic SR-71 Blackbird, capable of flying three times the speed of sound, remains the fastest warplane ever flown operationally. So fast that no missiles fired at it had a chance of hitting. When the U-2 spy plane was built in the 1950s, its designer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson already knew that it would be vulnerable to enemy defenses.

-excerpt- Lockheed Martin has unveiled plans for a hypersonic spy plane that could fly at Mach 6, twice as fast as its famed SR-71 Blackbird, and said a missile demonstrating the new technology could fly as early as 2018.

book Flying the Worlds Fastest Jet http://www.mainewomensrugby.com/cwaltham/143352475-Sled-Driver-v2.pdf This book is one man's view of what it was like to fly the world's fastest jet.

"It is a race this jet will not let us lose. The Mach eases to 3.5 as we crest 80,000 feet. We are a bullet now - except faster. We hit the turn, and I feel some relief as our nose swings away from a country we have seen quite enough of. Screaming past Tripoli , our phenomenal speed continues to rise, and the screaming Sled pummels the enemy one more time, laying down a parting sonic boom. In seconds, we can see nothing but the expansive blue of the Mediterranean . I realize that I still have my left...

The Photographer Ken Hackman, United States Air Force   Via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20060917.htm (medium, large) 

An SR-71 Blackbird Tail Fin Is For Sale On eBay For $1 Million A tail rudder from the fastest airplane in the world could be yours — for a cool $1 million. The seller didn't say if it was a spare part, or if it was once part of a functioning SR-71 Blackbird, which is an important distinction given the cost. When it debuted in 1964, the SR-71 Blackbird — the mean looking surveillance aircraft that cruised high above the Soviet Union at speeds of up to mach 3.5 — cost the U.S. Air Force $34 million per air frame....