[hinckley buzzard]

I dunno, but you can see the SR-71 close up at the Smithsonian's "America's Hangar," at Dulles Airport outside Washington DC.

The Shuttle Enterprise is there too, as well as a fabulous collection of aircraft. Any airplane nut needs to visit there before they die, its a wonderful collection.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

And the F - 35 JSF , yes, they have a plane there thats not even in the Air forces service yet, but in a museum.

[Man from Oz]

Hey Man,

There is a SR at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS. Truly beautiful!

MFO

[GunnyB]

The Shuttle Enterprise is there too, as well as a fabulous collection of aircraft. Any airplane nut needs to visit there before they die, its a wonderful collection.

I second that! My sons, when they saw the SR71 up close were simply awestruck. My middle son said "Dad, we've gotta get one of those!" He's 4...

[JohnBovenmyer]

I saw my first first Blackbird in a hanger at Edwards during an air show in the 80s. It had a drip pan beneath it and I recall someone behind me commenting that they should get the plane fixed! I knew better. It didn't fly at that show, but about everything else the Air Force was then officially flying did.

I saw the Blackbird at Dulles a year ago. One of my patients worked on it and saw that plane take off for its final flight to Dulles. He says they intended to get to Dulles 5 minutes faster than they achieved, but were slowed by a fuel pump problem that flight. It is already well worth a visit there already and the visit will improve with time as they plan to double or triple the number of planes displayed. There is a lot of vertical space left in the hanger and it is designed for three viewing levels. Sadly the Shuttle Enterprise had one leading wing edge removed - they used that to help sort out the Columbia disaster.

I saw the surviving XB-70 at its final resting place, Wright-Patterson in the 70s. Very impressive and the rest of the museum was awesome too. Depending on how you define "plane," I saw the other claimant for the title of fastest, highest flying and coolest "plane," the X15, back in the 60s. IIRC it was being trucked around on tour after its program had ended. But my favorite flying sighting has to be seeing Apollo 17 take off at night... from the beach in Miami. It was easy to see this red light curving upwards. We could even see when one of the stages separated. Dad has a long time lapse photo of it. Knowing there were people there and where they were headed was unforgettable.