You've also got their interceptor cousin, the YF-12. I've walked under that little lady and stroked her belly. Long time ago though.
Here is the SR:
And here is the YF-12
Posted on 12/20/2009 3:47:34 PM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour
I saw the SR 71 a number of times at the Toronto Air Show. Easily the lowdest engines of any aircraft that participated.
I live about 6 miles west of the base, you could hear it out there when they were playing with the afterburners.
Now the B1s are moved out and I find that I miss that sound.
After I was discharged from the Marine Corp in ‘68 I got an opportunity to be an Air Traffic Controller with the Air National Guard as I was a private pilot....so I jumped at the chance.
One day, another controller in the squadron ID’d a “Sled” overhead and we all watched the scopes as the fastest thing we would ever see zoomed through our controlled sectors....I thought at the time that this was a big deal and that I was privileged to be where I was. (The Northern Oregon Coast)
BTW I really appreciate this thread.....thanks OP
Loudest f’n noise I’ve ever experienced, felt like my guts were going to turn to jelly.
I had the same glorious experience when a B-1B did a flyby at a local airshow. The first pass was at high subsonic, with the wings folded back. The second was low and slow, and it was really both.
The departure started out low and slow. Then the pilot lit the afterburners and swept the wings back. That's when the noise really hit, including a pressure wave you could feel but not hear. He didn't go vertical for long, but just became a tiny black dot that vanished on the horizon.
I jumped around like a maniac, yelling, screaming, and smiling. I knew nobody could hear me, but I figured they knew I must have been happy. The sound of freedom always does that to me.
Maybe not, if the aiframe is warm enough. The picture on I believe post 13 does have what appears to be fuel streaming off the upper wing surface. My guess is that was a photo run, not enough Mach (mumble) time to heat up the airframe to seal up the tanks.
I was at that show when that happened.
I was at that show when that happened.
I believe Maj. Shul made that landing as well. I recall his telling attendees of one of his talks in Carson City (during the Reno Air Races) of a forced stop-over in Colorado Springs as a result of a mid-flight equipment failure on their SR-71. They had come up out of Beale, fueled over Nevada and then discovered a problem. First runway where they could put down was Colo. Springs, as the SR-71 takes a whole lot of room to come down from altitude.
Maj. Shul said that the Colo. Springs AFB laid out the red carpet for them - so much so that they had to request on the ground frequency that folks stop offering any and all help and just tell them a) where to park and b) to get a security detail up around the bird.
They were so blown away by the reception they got from the USAF personnel and townspeople of Colorado Springs that they decided to give folks a nice fly-by on the way out... “just to make sure everything was working OK before going up to altitude...”
The only other SR-71 low speed story I know of is one I witnessed while setting on the taxi way at Kadena. We were holding for an SR-71 to land before we could take off (C-141) for an in country mission. As the SR-71 hit the runway and deployed it veared off the runway. They closed the airfield and sent us back to crew rest.
No. As the skin of the aircraft heats up, it expands, closing off those areas of fuel leakage.
Walt Watson. A SR-71 second seater was a guest at my sons wedding a few years back. He was introduced to me as Walt. But I’ve forgotten his last name. Guess I’ll have to check it out.
Thank you! What a story!! (Two of the great regrets of my life are that I never saw a SR-71 in fight, and that I have never seen a shuttle launch...)
I don't know if this is still the case, but years ago at the museum @ Wright Patterson AFB, the display had an SR-71 underneath the wing of a B-52. Sitting by itself, the SR-71 is a pretty big plane, but it just looks so small compared to the B-52! One other thing I noticed... I was amazed at just how little passenger space there is inside a B-52, given its size!
Mark
I know. 40 years ago they stuffed a crew of ten in there. Today, I think it's four.
With sliderules, T-Squares, and drafting machines!
Mark
So... how fast would it fly?
I used to shoot with a guy who was a member of a B-52 aircrew during Viet Nam. He told this story about how he was on the lower flight deck one morning as they were taxiing to the runway when the explosive bolts blew his ejection hatch off, and he was strapped into his ejection seat, just waiting to be launched right into the tarmac! He said that he had to change his flight suit.
Mark
You've also got their interceptor cousin, the YF-12. I've walked under that little lady and stroked her belly. Long time ago though.
Here is the SR:
And here is the YF-12
They could tell you, but then they'd have to shoot you. Almost literally true "back in the day". Back sometime in '73-'75, one landed at Tinker AFB, with some sort of hydraulics problem. They caught a brake on fire on the landing roll out. Put it in the hanger surrounded by sky cops, fire or no fire. (They had plenty of advanced notice.) Glad I was not Ops duty officer that day. OTOH, it would have been kinda cool. I did talk with the guy who was.
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