Major Brian Shul, USAF (Ret.) SR-71 Blackbird pilot ‘Speed Check’ story
https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Stories/sr-71-blackbird-speed-check-story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyHH9G9et0
His REO asked Los Angeles Center for a ground speed check after a Navy F-18 pilot asked for his ground speed. Time for the Air Force to smack the Navy. F-18 ground speed was 620 knots. Los Angeles Center response to the SR-71 speed check request: “Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground.”
I loved that aircraft.
Thanks for posting.
A better fate? At least they’re in museums, and not sitting in the boneyard at Davis-Monthan.
What does the author want? The cost of flying them would be astronomical and likely very dangerous. It wouldn’t be feasible to sell trips. They largely flew at an altitude that nobody on the ground could see. They are displayed and haven’t been sold for scrap.
Just remember, the CIA was heavily involved in their development. This is also about the time the CIA was involved in the single shooter conclusion of the JFK assassination.
From what I understand the Air Force tried to get rid of it for like 10 years before they decommissioned it, but some senator from the State that Lockheed was headquarter at fought to keep the program alive. I don’t know totally why but from what I’ve heard it was doing duplicate work that really didn’t need to be done and was really not needed. In the intel part of our government during the cold war it was about getting the money and keeping it flowing whether you need it or not. And if I told you more from what I’ve heard I would have to hunt you down and shoot you so you don’t tell anyone else ;-)
It’s still one of the most beautiful and distinctive planes ever built.
If you paint it red, you could claim Ferrari built it.
Fun fact: The fuel was used as the coolant throughout the plane.
1. A12/SR71 designed with slide rules. I keep a few on hand.
2. The F117 exterior shape was designed using equations developed by a Russian mathematician.
3. We snookered them twice (grin).
Yes they are in museums, but being preserved for history and as a testament to the brilliance of Kelly Johnson and his skunk works crew at Lockheed. Consider that this amazing aircraft was designed largely without computers and utilized brilliant human engineering and slide rule technology.
The public claim at the time was that the reactivation was justified for gaps in what satellites, U-2, and RC-135 aircraft could deliver. The speculation was that they used it as a test bed for a hypersonic combined ramjet-rocket engine. Apparently, instead of using the D-21 drone (see photo) for the testing, NASA used a test platform with a modified engine from the X-43A.
The deeper speculation was that the testing was for a hypersonic missile that could start in the atmosphere as an air-breather and then transverse space under pulsing-detonation rocket power.
You can go see three of them out in Palmdale California.
But really. It is old and obsolete. I would Imagine the cost to operate one is well over $100k per hour. We have satellites that are a lot cheaper than that. And how many pilots would qualify? How many mechanics? Spare parts? I’m sure every mold was scrapped years ago.
And just think of all those old horse buggies sitting in museums. They didn’t deserve that fate...
I got to see one fly overhead at the Randolph AFB in Texas way back in the early 1980’s. Magnificent plane.
We had two on rotation at RAF Mildenhall when I was a cop in the 80’s. One weekend I’m coming around the flightline perimeter road by KGB corner and a guy was waving me to stop from the exterior fence. “Excuse me mate…we’ve driven all night from Edinburgh…is the Blackbird flying today?” Didn’t have the heart to tell him they didn’t fly on Saturdays. Not long after, I was on an incentive flight on a KC-135R flying near Norway. The sight of the SR-71 slipping under the tanker was pretty awesome.