I don't know about the SR-71, but IIRC, its was McNamara that ordered the Tomcat tools & jigs destroyed.
I don't know about the SR-71, but IIRC, its was McNamara that ordered the Tomcat tools & jigs destroyed.
The bird wasn't even in service till 1972 thereabouts. I despise the man but it's another McNamara rumor that is simply urban legend like him ordering the KENNEDY & AMERICA to be conventional steamers instead of nuke power plants. I can prove he didn't do that as well by production dates. AMERICA was planned and keel laid as conventional under Ike's administration. At that point it was too far into production to order such a change of that magnitude.
It was Sec of Def Dick Cheney who ended production of the F-14 Tomcat and requested congress not fund further production. There's many sources to confirm it Cheney +F-14 in any search engine.
LOL never mind just saw the Tomcat patch in your post been a while since I've seen that. I remember we were doing some carrier quals in mid 79 I think maybe late 80 and I was watching a helo carrier off to our starboard about 5 miles or so. I kept seeing planes doing what I thought was fly-bys across the LPH flight deck and disappearing half way across. Then somebody said hey watch the Harriers.. Kinda like the flying fish you didn't want to admit you were seeing what you think you were LOL..