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The Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird Deserves A Better Fate Than This
National Security Journal ^ | 11/8/2025 | Steve Balestrieri

Posted on 11/08/2025 7:59:44 AM PST by whyilovetexas111

The SR-71 Blackbird was a “fantastic” aircraft, but its origins lie in the even faster, single-seat CIA A-12 “Oxcart.” Developed by Lockheed’s Skunk Works to fly at Mach 3.2+ and 90,000 feet, the A-12 required a 90% titanium airframe to survive the 800°F heat. In a “stunning” Cold War irony, the CIA had to secretly buy the titanium from its main adversary, the Soviet Union, using “shell companies” and a “pizza oven” cover story.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalsecurityjournal.org ...


TOPICS: Government; History; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: aviation; history; military; russia; sr71
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To: Getready

The guy testifying to congress that the Kennedy family hired two doctors to do autopsies on JFK the day after and both concluded JFK was shot 3 times, two from the front, one from behind. Media barely reported it first day, then buried it.


21 posted on 11/08/2025 10:18:19 AM PST by alternatives?
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To: The Great RJ

All computers do is speed up the “grind it out” physics. The mathematical ideas give the answer...
Kinda’ makes one wonder how Napier published the logarithmic tables back in 1612 before slide rules and computers.


22 posted on 11/08/2025 10:19:56 AM PST by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)
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To: alternatives?

Theres an angle that nobody has written a book about yet!

An SR-71, likey flown by George Bush himself, flew past and shot JFK through the rolled down window on the aircraft.

Its at least as believable as the Oswald story.


23 posted on 11/08/2025 10:22:07 AM PST by gnarledmaw (Hivemind liberals worship leaders, sovereign conservatives select servants.)
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To: larrytown

Wow both of you are wrong. The reason for the program being dropped was the advent of surveillance satellites, they could be tasked to cover what the SR-71 could do. How ever if we lose surveillance satellite coverage what will we do?

Ever heard of the Aurora?

Tho that may not be it’s name now.


24 posted on 11/08/2025 10:26:36 AM PST by BFW
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To: alternatives?

The media buried it...well nowadays we know the media can be liars, so that information you referred to has to somewhere...the media is a second hand, corrupted organ.

I would guess that watching the unedited Zapruder film would show multiple impact events(recoils). I confess, I have seen video recreations of the film, but not the actual film, frame by frame.
Somebody needs to get to work.
Freegards


25 posted on 11/08/2025 10:26:52 AM PST by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)
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To: BFW

I defy you to connect your reply to my comment.


26 posted on 11/08/2025 10:31:59 AM PST by larrytown (A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Then they graduate...)
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To: whyilovetexas111
Beautiful aircraft. This is your greeting at the SAC Museum off I80 near Ashland, NE. Definitely worth a visit.

27 posted on 11/08/2025 10:36:38 AM PST by budj (Combat Vet, second of three generations.)
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To: Ditto

Shul’s “Speed Check” story is about ATC (Air Traffic Control). The Space Shuttle and the Apollo flights did not talk to ATC.


28 posted on 11/08/2025 10:44:17 AM PST by DFG
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To: whyilovetexas111
The article isn't completely accurate. While the Air Force SR-71 program was initially terminated in 1989, three aircraft were reactivated at Edwards Air Force Base from June 1995 into October 1999, adding to the two that NASA already had.

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.

29 posted on 11/08/2025 10:44:26 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: Ditto

I am from Texas and was in Dallas when Kennedy was shot and every single Texan I talked to in the 281 corridor past Johnson City, Texas swore that LBJ had it done to keep troops moving to Vietnam. Lady Bird was getting kickbacks from the transport of men and materials.


30 posted on 11/08/2025 10:47:55 AM PST by wbarmy (Trying to do better.)
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To: budj

My cousin was lead construction manager for the museum and has tons of pictures during construction and moving of the plane from Bellevue to Ashland which is 30-40 miles away. He said it took longer to move that distance then it did to fly across the US.


31 posted on 11/08/2025 10:51:32 AM PST by Mean Daddy
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To: whyilovetexas111

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...


32 posted on 11/08/2025 11:21:43 AM PST by Organic Panic ('Was I molested. I think so' - Ashley Biden in response to her father joining her in the shower.)
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To: TangoLimaSierra

And the thing leaked like a sieve on the ground because all the expansion joints wouldn’t seal until it got up to speed.


33 posted on 11/08/2025 11:23:42 AM PST by Organic Panic ('Was I molested. I think so' - Ashley Biden in response to her father joining her in the shower.)
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To: Flatus I. Maximus

There is one on static display in a weed choked little park at Barksdale AFB. It is full of bird nests and covered with white streaks of crap.

An ignominious end to a queen of the sky. It made me sickened and sad to see her that way.


34 posted on 11/08/2025 11:29:05 AM PST by Sequoyah101
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To: DFG

I actually have his book, “Sled Driver”, in PDF form.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ngoczvq7bk3dmbfua2f7o/Sled-Driver-Shul.pdf?rlkey=8nsd44c7hz57s6wxr6gwsuoz5&st=p1x31qli&dl=0


35 posted on 11/08/2025 11:31:27 AM PST by ro_dreaming (Who knew "Idiocracy", "1984", "Enemy of the State", and "Person of Interest" would be non-fiction?)
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To: Getready

Start at 4:00.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8NBSjRJpkk&t=306s

There always were questions about why the skull pieces landed on the trunk. The Warren commission tried to explain it away.


36 posted on 11/08/2025 11:52:39 AM PST by alternatives?
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To: wbarmy
I am from Texas and was in Dallas when Kennedy was shot and every single Texan I talked to in the 281 corridor past Johnson City, Texas swore that LBJ had it done to keep troops moving to Vietnam. Lady Bird was getting kickbacks from the transport of men and materials.

That’s your “expert” opinion? Lady Bird making money? Wow.

Do you know that in 1963 we had no combat troops in Vietnam, only military “advisors.” Did you know that only one month before Kennedy was shot, he OKed a coup against South Vietnamese president Diem which resulted in Diem’s death? Sure didn’t seem like Kennedy was ready to pull out of Vietnam and screw up Lady Birds business.

Did you know that earlier in 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald took a sniper shot at retired General Walker? Did you know that high school drop out Oswald was a Commie nut case who was convinced he was smarter than everyone else? Do you realize that he worked in the School Book Depository building and on the way to work that morning carried a long slender object with him that he said was curtain rods. Did you know that Oswald’s wife and brother were convinced that he did it.

I guess you didn’t know any of that but you know that Lady Bird had it done.

37 posted on 11/08/2025 11:58:07 AM PST by Ditto
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To: DFG
Shul’s “Speed Check” story is about ATC (Air Traffic Control). The Space Shuttle and the Apollo flights did not talk to ATC.

I understand that. I was just giving some perspective of how fast humans have traveled. The SR 71 was fast, but those NASA guys went a whole bunch faster.

38 posted on 11/08/2025 12:02:28 PM PST by Ditto
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To: larrytown
I defy you to connect your reply to my comment.

You're defiedddddddid id.

39 posted on 11/08/2025 12:05:25 PM PST by BFW
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To: alternatives?

Each SR-71 mission required 2-5 aerial refuelings. The tanker aircraft had to be 100% dedicated for the SR-71 fleet because the SR-71 used a special fuel. Maintenance costs were high for both the SR-71 and the tanker fleet.


40 posted on 11/08/2025 1:03:12 PM PST by DFG
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